Tinja Myllykangas and Alex Schwarz operate Wilderness Huskies, an off-grid Alaskan huskie mushing and horse-riding tourist destination in the Muotkatunturi wilderness area within the Inari municipality of northern Lapland, Finland. Inari is the traditional homeland of the Indigenous people called the Inari (Aanaar) Sámi, who still reside to this day near Lake Inari.

“This land is reindeer herding area, where the only native people in Europe, the Sámi people, keep reindeer,” said Myllykangas, who has a special connection with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Since late 2020, an SRPMIC wild horse named Nube (“cloud” in Spanish) has been thriving with Myllykangas, Schwarz and their family of more than 50 huskies in the wintry white wilderness. They also house a few mustangs from the wild.

If you might recall, Nube traveled from Arizona across the Atlantic Ocean to Finland while she was pregnant with Akimel, who was born on April 23, 2021, in Lapland. SRPMIC members voted in an O’odham Action News social media post to name the foal Akimel, which means “river” in O’odham.

Nube and Akimel are still together, but Myllykangas said there could be some changes this autumn, as several people are interested in providing a new home for Akimel.

“I would love to keep them together, they are a perfect match, so we will see how it goes,” she said.

Myllykangas and Schwarz offer huskie mushing adventures for tourists. Trips can last a few hours or several days. They also offer wilderness rides on their mustangs.

A description of the mustang rides on their website reads: “Our mustangs come from the wild and are trained with respect, patience, and deep connection—allowing you to experience the land as it was meant to be felt: close to the Earth, in rhythm with a true companion.”

Akimel has been getting in her first rides recently, while Nube has been enjoying long trail rides in the wilderness.

“Nube’s moving is truly beautiful. She’s absolutely got some [of the] most stunning moves, like dancing in trot, and her gallop is very soft. Actually, all her moving is so soft and balanced. She is [such a] good horse!”

Other mustangs available for their trail rides came from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Nube’s big eyes enticed Myllykangas’ friend Laura, who recently joined with other riders on BLM horses for a five-hour ride.

“Laura got to choose from the mustangs living with us which horse she would ride, and she immediately knew: Nube!” said Myllykangas. “The riders are all our friends, people who live and work in nature, and they come every year to ride with us.”

The group saw a lot of reindeer during the ride.

Myllykangas noted that reindeer come during the winter to eat her mustangs’ hay. She said that many reindeer were skinny out in the wild, but after spending several months eating at their residence, “they look good again, and that made those reindeer survive over the cold period of winter.”

“Many reindeer die in nature because of lack of food. Overpopulation of reindeer is huge here.”

Recently, Nube was able to train in the water with Myllykangas and a young woman named Elna, who is Sámi.

“Nube absolutely loves water,” she said. “That is amazing how she is so deeply connected to [the] water element as she lived in your area! I’ve never seen any other horse loving water and snow as much as she does.”