Name: 7 Day Ratekjokk Trail Horse Riding Tour in Sweden
Brand: Ofelas Islandshästar
Price: 18200 SEK
Availability: InStock

Sweden Horse Riding Tour

To choose a tour with an Icelandic horse in the mountains is a perfect way to see the mountains. You get to know the Icelandic horse, have an adventure, be out in nature, sit around a campfire, learn about the Sami culture, and sleep in a Sami tent (lávvu).

Key Information

Rider Weight Limit: 198 pounds / 90 kilograms
Horse Height Range: 12.8 - 14.8 hands
Tack Type: Icelandic / English tack
Horse Breed: Icelandic Horses

Meet the instructors

Kerstin & Jenny
Read more

Highlights

5 days of horse riding
Ride up in the mountains with great views
Swedish and English-speaking guide
6 nights accommodation
Daily meals
Transfers to and from Kiruna

Skill level

Advanced

Styles

5 days with instruction in English

The organizer also speaks: Swedish

Group size: 3-10 participants

Program

The main things will be the horse, riding, nature, weather, and food, a long way away from stress. This tour is for you who want to ride up in the mountains with great views, near nature in an area where very few people are. Mostly, you ride in pathless terrain or on paths and adjust the tempo after the terrain. This is also for you who do not mind helping out with camping chores and do not mind being without the luxury of experiencing the natural way of being out in nature. For this tour, you need riding experience. When you arrive at Kiruna, Ofelas Islandshästar picks you up and then you go by car to the horse farm.

You eat dinner together and stay the night in a house at the farm in double rooms. The first day, you start in the morning from a place close to the farm where you go by car and ride through the forest up on the bare mountains with a fantastic view. You get a horse which suits you. You ride on the south side of the Kalix River. That night, you sleep in a Sami tepee (lávvu) where you sleep in sleeping bags around the fireplace. In the tepee, you can make a fire if you want to. The two following nights, you sleep in a cabin.

During the tour, you have an extra horse carrying the food and other things, but everyone carries her or his personal things in saddle bags on their own horses. The next morning, you pack your things and ride over the bare mountain and come then down to the small Sami settlement Ratekjokk where you stay for two nights. In Ratekjokk, you can have a sauna in the evening. On the fourth day, you ride a day tour and come back to Ratekjokk.

For the next two days, you ride over the mountain with a night in the tepee and come back to the place you started from and then to Puoltsa where you stay overnight on your horse farm the last night. Then it will be nice to get a shower and after that, you have your last dinner together. They bring you back to Kiruna on the seventh day after breakfast or later on. For this tour, that is good if you have riding experience, can control a horse in open terrain, and are in good physical health. It is also good if you have been camping before.

You will ride 15 to 25 kilometers each day. On the tour, you help each other with the horses and with camp chores. Sometimes, you need to lead the horses when the terrain demands it. Because you are riding in a mountain area, you have some time to change the route because of the weather. The Icelandic horse is strong but not very big so the rider's maximum weight is 90 kilograms. They lend you a riding helmet. The minimum age is 12 years. This tour is quality-labeled with Nature's Best by the Swedish Ecotourism Society.

Instructors

Kerstin Nilsson

Kerstin is an owner of Ofelas Islandshästar and comes from this area. She is a qualified handicraft teacher from the beginning and educated in the Sami language, has also the “riding teacher 1” education. She has the roots in Leaváš Sami community and also has reindeer there.

Jenny Jansson

Jenny is from Arboga and has been working here for quite many years, she also lives in Puoltsa. Has a tourism education and has been riding Icelandic horse for a long time. She has her own horse at the farm, Skriða, and a Finnish sami dog called Ira.

Location

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.

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Food

All meals from dinner on the first day to breakfast on the last day are included in the price. The food you cook together over a fire when you are outdoors (or in the tepee in bad weather). The food is exclusive specialties from this area, for example, reindeer meat and fish. Reindeer and moose meat is an important ingredient in Sami 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. They provide any special diet if you require that, like no lactose, gluten, or vegetarian (remember to tell 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 differently. 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 Sami cuisine. Coffee cheese was made from reindeer milk and, later, also from goat and cow milk. Lots of new exciting things are happening with the development of Sami cooking today. Sweden has strict rules for buying and serving alcohol so Ofelas Islandshästar cannot 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.

The following meals are included:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Drinks

The following drinks are included:

Water
Tea

The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:

Vegetarian
Gluten Free
Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
Lactose Free
Other dietary requirements on request

If you have special dietary requirements it's a good idea to communicate it to the organiser when making a reservation

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