See the text in the original language
On the video, Geirmund Vik tells his story of how he educated himself in southern Norway and took the position of district veterinarian in Nordreisa in 1969. At the time, he was the youngest district veterinarian in the whole country. Geirmund had an interest towards the northern part of Norway even though he had not even looked at the map before applying for the veterinarian job. He had read about a small horse breed called Lyngshest (Northlands horse), which had become almost extinct after farmers had started using tractors in farming and stopped breeding the horses.
The local authorities had almost given up with the horse but Geirmund felt that he needed to do more. They took blood samples of the horses and could define that the horses have a lot of Finnish blood. In attempt to take in more different kinds of horses for breeding, they ended up in a struggle of which kind of horse would be the most suitable. Islandic horse, Russian horse or horse from Gottland were the ones that were considered. The attitude towards Finland in southern Norway was at the time very negative but Geirmund succeeded in the end to convince people that a Finnish horse would be a good choice. Finally, he won the struggle and did take Finnish horses for breeding. Today there are about 2500 Northlands horse and the breed is doing well.
The story is in Norwegian.
Gjermund Vik har bodd i Nord-Troms i lang tid, og forteller her regionens historie og ikke minst – Lyngshestens – historie og tilknytning til området.
Country of origin: Norway
