Living Your Dream [Paperback]

The Icelandic Horse Gletta (Author), Elisabeth Haug (Author), Lars Perner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Living Your Dream is both a spiritual journey and a joyous, simple adventure that allows you to walk a mile in a horse's shoe.

It is written by the real, live thirty year old Icelandic Horse Gletta. She is the spokesmare for a very unique herd of very friendly horses who freely roam a thousand acre California ranch adjacent to Interstate 101 about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara.

Gletta feels it is unfortunate she has not come across a hoofsized key board yet. As a result she has had to enlist her human friend and kindred spirit Elisabeth Haug as a ghostwriter. Elisabeth is an expert on horses and horse psychology. Over the last thirty years, she has continually surrounded herself with large herd of Icelandic Horses-breeding, raising, training, and selling. Her horses are kept under as natural conditions as possible.

"The only thing Elisabeth loves more passionately than horses is people," Gletta says. "She is always talking to them, reading books, listening to tapes and traipsing off to seminars."

Living Your Dream is an educational as well as entertaining saga. It is a very optimistic lighthearted book that is salve for stressed and disillusioned minds. The book serves very well as a guide to rewarding relationships, and there is a wealth of camouflaged self help advice in the narrative.

Gletta and Elisabeth share the theory is that if you improve one facet of your life, every other will be improved simultaneously. They agree that your horsemanship is a great mirror for where you are in your life. A horse serves as a great mirror. Whatever challenges you in general have in your communication will be brought to your attention straight away when you interact with horses. Horses give you instant feedback. They are very result oriented and would never dream of misrepresenting their feelings in order "to look good."

Gletta is a modern, female Mr. Ed. She is to the point, down to earth and witty. She is a wise old bird and an enthralling storyteller. In her book she has interwoven two stories that support each other brilliantly. One is the horses' creation myth--The Legend of God and Pegasus. The other is the adventure of her life promoting the Icelandic Horse on three separate landmasses-Iceland, Continental Europe, and North America.

The story starts with the tale of the haphazard trek across Iceland on which she met Elisabeth. Later it goes on to describe her journey on an airplane on fire, life in the herd, her experiences as a working mother promoting the Icelandic Horse. Her jaunts include team penning, endurance racing, and participating in the Rose Parade, and more.

There is something for everyone in the story of Living Your Dream and you don't have to be a horse buff to enjoy reading it. Nevertheless is a find for the many who are fascinated by horses and would like to know more about their psychology and how to communicate with them.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Living Your Dream is a delightful adventure that takes the reader halfway across the world and on a series of glorious heavenly, fantasy flights. The Icelandic Horse Gletta's unique. yet common sense, way of looking at life is a refreshing breath of fresh air in our stressed society.

There's nothing new about human fascination with the horse. It is evidenced by such classic novels as The Black Stallion and My Friend Flicka, not to mention the long running TV series Mr. Ed. Two recent best sellers have further helped spur on this interest in the horse. While Nicholas Evans' book The Horse Whisperer recently debuted in its film version, Monty Roberts' The Man Who Listens to Horse has stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for forty-three weeks.

What Gletta has done in her book Living Your Dream is to turn the table, offering a perspective on human life from the point of view of a horse. In her largely autobiographical work, Gletta recounts her life-experiences and draws parallels to human life. Gletta suggests that whereas horses live their dreams, humans often end up abandoning theirs in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Living Your Dream relates two interrelated stories. The first story recounts Gletta's own life, from her birth in Iceland, years spent in Denmark, and her trials as a "new" breed of horse when her human owners uproot her to California. The second epistle involves a creation myth that reportedly has been passed down from one generation of horses to another. We hear of God's conversations with his trusted steed Pegasus as they ponder the pros and cons of manifesting a universe. Gletta's stories make entertaining reading and at the same time provide surprising insight into the horse-human interaction. We hear, for example, about a racetrack that decided to celebrate its anniversary by inviting mayors of nearby villages to take the place of professional jockeys in a race. While humans predict a chaotic outcome, many of the horses, left to their own devices by their green-horn handlers, beat their previous records. A preface to the book recounts the story of Clever Hans, the horse that was believed to have learned advanced mathematics. Only extensive observation later revealed that the horse had, instead, learned to interpret miniscule movements unconsciously emitted by its human handlers as the correct number of taps had been reached.

Gletta's life experiences take us on journeys across three landmasses. As one of her first experiences as a grown Horse, Gletta is assigned to help carry a group of Danish tourists across the Icelandic landscape to the National Championships for Icelandic Horses. The flabbergasted tourists, unaccustomed to riding in a terrain that U.S. astronauts had selected as the most suitable place to practice for their first moon run, cause the expedition to get farther and farther behind timetable. The Icelandic guides, many of whom are scheduled to participate in the notable event, grow increasingly exasperated and eventually decree that a raging, quicksand filled river must be forded for the first time in twenty years. A misstep of mere inches may result in death. Miraculously, everyone survives unscathed.

In the creation legend, God considers many issues prior to creating the Universe. A "technicolor Disneylandlike" alternative is dismissed, much in the manner of George Bernard Shaw, as "a stagnant masterpiece" lacking in spontaneity. Instead, God settles on a world where everyone will have free will.

Pegasus is understandably skeptical of the creation of predators. God explains, however, that these are necessary to serve as a "recycling bin" for spirits who though different life incarnations on their way to the next level. His other alternatives, such as "horrible diseases," are much worse for those whose fate it is to suffer them.

At times, Gletta's talks with her human companion and ghostwriter seem to parallel those between God and Pegasus. The owner of a herd of horses worries, for example, about letting the horses wander freely on a one thousand acre pasture that she has the opportunity to lease. Will the horses become wild, and can they ever be cornered for anti-worming efforts? In the end, the horse, Gletta, prevails, and the human fears prove unfounded.

From the Author

My name is Gletta from Holl and I'm a thirty year old Icelandic Horse. I was born in Iceland free as bird, and that is the way I still see myself. I'm the spokeswoman for a very unique herd of about 150 Icelandic horses who freely roam a thousand acres of rolling hills adjacent to Interstate 101 about 35 miles north of Santa Barbara. We are a beautiful sight to see and the traffic always slows down when our herd romp and play as we watch the people drive by.

My reason for writing my book Living Your Dream is that I find it a crying shame that so many people give up on living the dream they were born with. It does not have to be that way!

Horses never give up on their dreams. In my book I provide input in a simple, fun-loving, entertaining way on how you too can live your dreams. Sometimes all it takes is to see your present circumstances in a different light, and to remember that the most important relationship you have is the one you have with yourself.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 379 pages
• Publisher: Pathfinder Publishing (CA) (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966271548
• ISBN-13: 978-0966271546
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,262,032 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative and down-to-earth at the same time!, October 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Living Your Dream (Paperback)

Living Your Dream is a book with something most unusual: a combination of practical information about a delightful animal (the Icelandic horse)with storytelling sequences as inventive as any myth or legend. The reader who both practices animal husbandry and enjoys a touch of the magical (we are not all that rare, by the way) will enjoy double-dipping. The many illustrations make it clear how well-adapted these horses are biologically as well as how inspirational they must be upon acquaintance.

Living Your Dream is written in a consummately modern spirit. In the age of hypertext (the kind of point-and-click-on-what-you-want-to-see-now programming upon which the WWW is based), this book fits right in. The reader can segue between realistic stories of actual horse treks or ranching and story sequences highlighting the spiritual aspects of the Horse archetype in creation mythology. Or, the reader can sample a bit of each but mainly go crazy over all the photographs. Or read the creation story straight through, and then the narrative about the modern-day Icelandic Horse. Etc. In other words, this is a book laid out so you can custom read it, a book in which people/families with different or overlapping interests and reading styles can easily find something to share.

The attribution of authorship to one of these remarkable horses, Gletta, may be viewed in a number of ways. This reviewer is simply impressed by the nature of the bond that is possible between the Icelandic horse and the human, as experienced and chronicled by Gletta and Elisabeth Haug. Living Your Dream is truly an uplifting book. We need more uplifting books at this point in human history. Well done, Gletta and Elisabeth. -- Meredith J. Merritt, MLS

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A whimsical tale that drives you to explore your own life!, November 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Living Your Dream (Paperback)

This book is a breath of fresh air! It is a flowing tale of friends and soulmates. Living Your Dream makes you take a step back and look at your own situation through its kaleidoscope of knowledge. Your mind will wind through fact and fiction, finally weaving the two into a blanket of serenity. A must read!