Monday, July 11, 2011

Helsinki, Finland

The Stallion
The Mare and her three week old foal
When we left St. Petersburg, Russia, we traveled to Helsinki, Finland for our next to last country of this trip. This was one of my favorite places of the entire trip. It is absolutely beautiful. It reminded me of New Hampshire or southern Vermont. It was quite rural, with large forests of Birch trees. Those beautiful white trunks certainly brightened up the scenery.
One of the activities John and I had signed up for was a trip to a Finnish Horse farm. We were told that a number of years ago the Finnish government discovered that the farmers were producing more milk than was needed by the citizens of Finland. so the government offered some incentive programs to get some of the farms to stop producing milk. The farm we visited went from producing milk to raising horses instead. The farmer sold(traded) his cows to Russia and received Arabs and Anglo Arabs in place of his milking cows. The farmer wasn't thrilled about the horses he got for the cows. He liked larger horses, so he bought a few Hanoverian horses as well and they crossed them with the Arabs and came out with what they called Finnish warm bloods. These horses are trained in Dressage. We were told that their market area is most of northern Europe.
We were introduced to one of their Mares and her three week old filly and the proud Dad.

1 comment:

  1. So odd to see a NH like setting in Russia. Horses! What a treat for you.

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