“Enjoy riding Icelandic horses in the mountains”
7 Days Ratekjokk Trail Horse Riding Holiday in Kiruna, Sweden
Ofelas Islandshästar, Puoltsa 1057, 981 99 Kiruna, Sweden
Sweden Family Horse Riding Holiday
This tour is for you if you want to ride up in the mountains with great views, near nature in an area where very few people are. This is also for if you do not mind helping out with camping chores and if you don't mind being without luxury to experience the natural way of being out in nature! To choose a longer tour with Icelandic horses is a perfect way to see the mountains! You'll 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)! The main things will be the horse, riding, nature, weather, and food, a long way away from stress.
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 , & Sara
Read more
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Highlights
- Horse riding for 5 days
- Ride up in the mountains with great views
- Approximate daily riding time: 5 to 6 hours
- Experience sleeping in lávvu, a Sami tent
- Daily full board meals will be served
- 6 nights accommodation
Skill level
- Advanced
Styles
5 days with instruction in English
The organizer also speaks: Swedish
Group size: 3-10 participants
Airport transfer included:
Kiruna Airport
Accommodation
Check-in Time:
15:00
During the tour, you will stay overnight in a Sami teepee (lávvu) and in a cabin. The places where you will stay overnight are quite simple but nice. When you stay overnight in the house on Ofelas Islandshästar's farm, there are double rooms with a shared kitchen and bathroom. The food will be cooked together over a fire when you are outdoors (or in the tepee in bad weather).
The food is exclusive specialties from the area, for example, reindeer meat and fish. On the tour, you'll help with the horses and with camp chores. Sometimes, you'll need to lead the horses when the terrain demands it. Because you are riding in a mountain area, you sometimes have to change the route because of the weather. This tour is quality-labeled with Nature's Best by the Swedish Ecotourism Society.
Program
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.
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.
Sara Hansson
Sara grew up on a farm in the south of Sweden and have always been close to animals and nature. She studied a program called “nature guide” at Umeå university 2012-2014. The autumn after that she started working there. Her dog is the black and white Border Collie Loka.
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.
Distances
- Kiruna, 25 kilometers
Food
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.
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Dinner
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
What's included
- 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
What's not included
- 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.)
How to get there
Recommended Airports
KRN
Kiruna Airport
19 km
Transfer included
Arrival by airplane
Please arrange your flight to arrive at Kiruna Airport (KRN). From Stockholm, there are direct flights to Kiruna, they take approximately 90 minutes and are run by SAS and Norwegian.
Arrival by train
At SJ’s website, you can book train tickets to Kiruna. Between Stockholm and Kiruna, there is a night train without change.
Airport: Kiruna Airport
Airport transfer included: Kiruna Airport
No additional charges. You can request this in the next step.
Cancellation Policy
- 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.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through BookHorseRidingHolidays.com. All major credit cards supported.
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