There are 170 Icelandic horses that connect Nicole Rubel and Ines Röseler, and one of them in particular.

The two women run the Hirtenhof in Wehrheim, with the vast area outside the small community in the Taunus, not far from the Lochmühle amusement park.

Rubel and Röseler, 49 and 47 years old, both with blond ponytails, both in jodhpurs, look at their oval track in a valley, the view over meadows and hills is far away.

A young woman is riding below.

Your Icelandic horse walks extremely upright and alternately pulls the front hooves up high, one foot is always on the ground.

It looks elegant and a bit whimsical at the same time.

Florentine Fritzen

Correspondent in the Hochtaunus district

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"That's tölt," says Nicole Rubel.

Icelandic horses master more gaits than just walk, trot and canter: apart from tölt, in the pace between walk and canter, some can still pace.

"Then they run like a camel," says Röseler: they put their legs parallel.

Some riders also practice pass late on Wednesday afternoon.

The pass track is next to the oval track, and campers and horse trailers are even further back.

Tournament with up to 300 starters

The people and horses have already arrived for Thursday, because that's when a big tournament with up to 300 starters starts at the Hirtenhof.

Preliminary decisions will also take place on Friday, followed by the races on Saturday and Sunday.

Visitors are welcome and it's free to stop by.

On Saturday evening, the farm operators and the Wehrheim Icelandic horse riders association are planning a fun competition called "Tölt and Drive" with an automobile partner: The participants must take turns driving one lap in one of the sponsor's cars and one lap on the Icelandic horse.

Only then there is a prize, the winners of the tournament do not receive any prize money.

Anyone who spends some time with Röseler and Rubel, watches the volunteers preparing around the lanes and in the big white tent and observes the guests, who really all greet happily, gets the impression that Icelandic horse sport is above all great fun for Icelandic horses .

Röseler speaks of a “different clientele” than with “normal” riders.

A lot of people want to be close to nature.

"I think it's my calling," says Nicole Rubel, who initially ran the farm with her husband at the time, first in Wehrheim itself and then on the vast grounds.

"I've been riding horses since I was six, my father was a shepherd and I've been around animals all my life," she says.

And on the farm in the neighboring town of Rosbach, where she rode as a child, there were Icelandic horses.

She stayed with them, and now there are 170. "Breeding horses, boarders, pensioners and young vegetables," Rubel lists.

There is plenty of space around the farm for extensive husbandry.

For a good 300 euros a month in the open stable

The 60 "guests" are Icelandic horses, often from Hirtenhof's own breed, which mostly women from Frankfurt, Bad Homburg or other nearby towns keep in open stables for a good 300 euros a month - food, water, manure and pasture included.

The owners only come to the farm to ride, and they often say: "For me it's like vacation here." Especially in the Corona period, many women got on the horse, reports Rubel.

"You often push your eternal dream like this: I would like to have a horse later." Some had realized this during the pandemic and are now talking about their "best decision".

Of the 60 boarders, only two have a male owner.

In Iceland, says Nicole Rubel, things are different.

"There are more men than women riding there." The Hirtenhof also sells horses - from its own breeding.

Rubel and Röseler mated the animals, which means that the parents were born on the farm and were trained by them.

About ten foals are born on the Hirtenhof every year.

The animals give birth all by themselves, unless there are complications, reports Ines Röseler, who works as a veterinarian and also provides medical care for the animals on the farm.

"Then you come there in the morning and are happy about a baby."

She, too, was introduced to Icelandic horses at an early age: on Spiekeroog, where she spent her school days.

The operator of the Icelandic horse farm on the North Sea island "simply put her on the beach," recalls Röseler.

"I then bought my first Icelandic horse from Nicole." She looks at her colleague and smiles.

"With quite a lot of negotiation talks and conditions." It was the first horse drawn on the shepherd's farm.

The two do not reveal in detail which conditions Ines had to meet, Nicole Rubel only says so much: "It should get a special, good owner."

“We have been a girls’ farm since 2017”

As it turned out, the animal got an owner who first came to visit constantly - and then took over the share of the farm from Nicole's ex-husband and moved to the farm with their three children.

"We've been a girls' farm since 2017," says Ines Röseler.

Both are looking forward to the competition.

Members of the Icelandic horse rider club, which was founded more than 20 years ago at the Wehrheimer Hof and now has 140 members, are already there and helping.

Chairwoman Margot Freimuth speaks of the Icelandic horse riders as a "small but growing scene".

The German and Central European Championships for Icelandic horse riders have already taken place at the Hirtenhof, which is geographically well located.

This time people are traveling with the campers to an open sports tournament, from all over Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Holland.

Rubel also starts himself, and Röseler is particularly looking forward to it.

"She rides so beautifully."