Living with reindeers - a way of life by the arctic circle

The reindeers in Scandinavia are semi domesticaded, every reindeer has an owner. For the most part its the indigenous people of Scandinavia - the sami - that owns them but there is one exeption. Landowners in Tornevalley are allowed to buy a reindeer mark and own up to 30 reindeers. Our culture and way of life is closley connected to the sami and similar to the sami reindeers have been a part of our life for generations.

In Tornevalley a lot of reindeer owners choose to have their reindeers in paddocks over winter, this way we can make sure they are feed and survive the winter. Its also convinient if you have your reindeer for sleigh tours to have them close by, if handled daily from they are young they get very tame and you need to train them to pull the sleigh. They are quite clever and can be taught tricks, they seem to enjoy that a fair bit. Here is a instagram account of a girl with 3 reindeers that she trains https://www.instagram.com/ullisrudolf/

This is me and Willi, I helped out taking care of him for a day when I was a guide at a old style farm outside the village I lived in. He was very curious and gentle.

My mentor who taught me to make antler knives and how to care for reindeers had 3 reindeers for sleigh tours. This is Oscar II, the other ones was named Villi (means wild ) and Kulnasatj (a Sami name that comes from Olaus (Mattsson) Sirma´s first poem Guldnasas; a Sami love story which he sang for the reindeers so they would run faster). The sleigh in the picture is more like a horse type sleigh.

This is an akja - a sami type sleigh meant for 1 person. This is a friend of mine and one of his reindeers (its a very handsome reindeer!) and this is how he travles through the forest a lot. Other animals are not disturbed by the reindeer so you end up seeing a lot of wildlife.

(picture from google) This is a sport in the north - reindeer race. Its more common in Finland, I havent tried but I know my moms cousins compete.

This is Mumin, my companion and best friend. He is a reindeer herder - the breed is Finnish Lapphund and its one of 3 old native breeds used for reindeer herding.

I usually say he is two parts fur and one part dog ;) He has a double coat and thrives in - 20C. The Finnish Lapphund (comes in a variety of colours) and the Swedish (only black) where used by the sami around their camps, they guarded the family, the reindeers and were used to herd shorter distances. The Lapponian Herder has shorter fur, slightly larger with longer legs and back and where used to herd from summer grazing to winter and back again.

Here you see Mumin to the right, then Kiltti (means nice - her colour is domino, you can tell a dog has a domino colour by their nose) Grus - black with tan markings and to the left Mannu - laponian herder - black with tan and white markings.

This is SEUCH FIUCH Gátchis Átjájuoksa Pirak - as puppy when I babysat him - and as an adult. He is also Laponian Herder, same colour as Kiltti.

In Finland during the winter they have ability test for the finnish & swedish lapphund and laponian herder. Stage 1 is approaching a tied up reindeer with your dog on leash - to see the initial response and behaivour (so that its safe for both dog and reindeer to have it off leash), stage 2 is taking the leash of and walking around the reindeer (like in the picture, Kiltti in action).

Stage 3 is to have the dog work with the reindeer and responding to your commands. The judges will ask you to call your dog to you, have it sit and then go out to herd again. Stage 4 is in a bigger paddock - there are 3 reindeers in there and you release your dog to go fetch them into the smaller paddock. The dog needs to stop at the entrance at your command and then at your command go in an herd again.

Some reindeers herds the dogs instead ;)

They quite like bread :) This is Inge, my mentor for learning how to make the traditional reindeer fur boots, and some of his reindeers. As you can see they come in a variety of colours as well.

There are even white reindeers with blue eyes - herasilmätvalkonen (blue eyes white reindeer)

This colour is called kirjakka (dapple) and if their face is dapple its kirjonokka.

Hm, I got a bunch more concerning summer and fall, I guess I will do this as a two part thing.
I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to life with reindeers. They are very close to my heart <3