7 Days Ratekjokk Trail Horse Riding Holiday in Kiruna, Sweden

When you arrive in Kiruna, Ofelas Islandshästar will pick you up and then you'll go by car to the horse farm. Eat dinner together and you'll spend the night in a house at the farm in double rooms. On the first day, you'll start in the morning from a place close to the farm where you'll go by car and ride through the forest up to the bare mountains with a fantastic view. You'll get a horse which suits you.

Ride on the south side of the Kalix river, this night, you'll sleep in a Sami tepee (lávvu) where you'll sleep in sleeping bags around the fireplace. In the tepee, you can make a fire if you want to. On the two following nights, you will sleep in a cabin. During the tour, there will be an extra horse carrying the food and other things but everyone carries her/his own personal things in saddlebags on their own horse.

The next morning, pack your things and ride over the bare mountain and then come down to the small Sami settlement, Ratekjokk, where you'll stay for two nights. In Ratekjokk, you can have a sauna in the evening. On the fourth day, ride for a day and come back to Ratekjokk. For the next two days, you'll ride over the mountain with a night in the tepee and come back to the place where you started from and then to Puoltsa, where you'll stay overnight in Ofelas Islandshästar's horse farm on your last night.

Then, it will be nice to get a shower and after that, the group will have the last dinner together. Ofelas Islandshästar will bring you back to Kiruna on the seventh day after breakfast or later on. Some of the departures can be a bit different, you can start or end the tour in Ratekjokk but you'll always have the same amount of nights in the teepee and house in Ratekjokk.

For this tour, it is good if you have riding experience, able to control a horse in open terrain and in good physical health. It is also good if you have been camping before. You'll ride 15 to 25 kilometers each day.

Riding experience

Multiple years of riding experience is required; you can control a horse in open terrain and have good physical health.

Ofelas Islandshästar is located 25 kilometers west of Kiruna in the direction of Nikkaluokta with a fantastic view of the mountains and Kalix river. In wintertime, they have the northern lights and during summer, the midnight sun.

Ratekjokk

Ratekjokk is a small Sami village located on the south side of Kalix river, a bit below the tree line. Both Matti and Kerstin have their roots in Ratekjokk so this place is really “home”. Ofelas Islandshästar has a few houses there, a sauna right by a small river, and the horses have lots of pasture there in the summertime.

Matti’s family has lived and worked here in the roadless land, with water from the river but with luxury like electricity. You will cross Kalix river to get there, by boat, snowmobile, skies or on horseback over the mountains.

Puoltsa

The farm is located in a small village called Puoltsa (Buolža in Sami). It is between Kiruna and Nikkaluokta, next to the riverbank of the Kalix river. Ofelas Islandshästar has had the business since 1997.

Distances

• Kiruna, 25 kilometers

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During this trip, daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included. Reindeer and moose meats are an important ingredient in Sámi cuisine, usually smoked to last longer when you are out in the mountains for many weeks. Other local specialties in this area are fish from the river or mountain lakes.

Berries and herbs are also important ingredients, like cloudberries, blueberries, lingonberries, Angelica, meadowsweet, etc. Ofelas Islandshästar provides any special diet if you require like no lactose, gluten-free, or vegetarian, just remember to inform them in advance. Traditional food in Sámi is meat and fish supplemented with herbs and berries. Salt and flour were bought so you could bake bread.

Fish and meat were eaten either fresh, salted, smoked, dried, or conserved in a different way. The Sami cuisine still looks the same but with new dishes and outside influences. Reindeer and moose meat, Arctic char, Whitefish, cloudberries, blueberries, lingonberries, Angelica, and Mountain Sorrel are common in the Sami cuisine. Coffee cheese was made from reindeer milk, later, also from goat and cow milk. Lots of new exciting things are happening with the development of Sami cooking today.

• 5 whole days of riding
• Use of a horse with equipment
• Engish and Swedish-speaking guide
• Daily full board meals (From dinner on Day 1 until breakfast on Day 7)
• Helmet use
• All transfers needed within Kiruna
• 6 nights accommodation

• Airfare
• Personal expenses
• Extra meals and drinks
• Alcohol (Sweden has strict rules for buying and serving alcohol so Ofelas Islandshästar can't serve alcohol. You can bring alcohol with you there. If you ask, Ofelas Islandshästar can help you buy alcohol in Kiruna but they will not offer to do it.)

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• A reservation requires a deposit of 16.94% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
• The rest of the payment should be paid 7 days before arrival.