Come end of September, the days grow noticeably shorter, the grass turns yellow, and it’s time to bring the sheep in for the winter. This is a two-part affair beginning with the act of rounding them up in the mountains—‘að smala’—and ending with the act of driving them into a fold, where owners pick theirs out from the mix—‘réttir.’
On Sunday The Grapevine had the fortune of being invited to take part in the Þórkötlustaðaréttir roundup, which was scheduled to start at 7 AM, in the Reykjanes area. After getting up at the ungodly hour of 4 AM, we met up with horse trainer Katrine Bruhn Jensen to pick up her horses in Álftanes—one of the few places in Reykjavík where you’ll see horses basically grazing in people’s front yards.