Driving up the metal road to Skógarrönd, one of just a few Icelandic horse studs in New Zealand, I was greeted by a high-stepping ball of fluff. Somewhere behind a pair of black ears and a wild untameable black mane sat studmaster, Jennie Boerema.
And by her side on a lead was a blue dun gelding with an incredible, multi-coloured hair-do.
This was my first encounter with the Icelandic horse, and I could not ignore the tresses. One just does not pull or cut the mane, forelock or tail of an Icelandic horse. Their manes lie in perfect thick layers that frame the neck and wee face.
While Icelandics stand between 13 and 14hh, do NOT call them ponies! In fact the word ‘pony’ does not even exist the Icelandic language.
A bit of history
In order to appreciate the incredible Icelandic horse you must understand a little of their history and environment.
Iceland is a volcanic island nation that lies in between Greenland, the UK and Norway. The entire country is slightly smaller than our North Island. Its 300,000 inhabitants and 80,000 horses populate the coastal areas, as the interior is uninhabitable. Iceland is predominantly treeless. Winter days are very short, with temperatures averaging minus five degrees.
In summer, the average temperature is just 14 degrees with a period of never-ending daylight!
The country was settled by Celtic monks and Vikings who brought small horses from their homelands, and the Icelandic horse evolved over the next 1000 years, shaped by its natural world. A 1000-year ban on horse imports into the country still exists, and this isolation enabled bloodlines to remain pure and disease-free.
Much of the infrastructure in the country was built using the might of the Icelandic horses, as the cost of importing cars and machinery was too great for the small economy.
There is no surprise, therefore, that Icelandic horses had to be strong, powerful, hardy and versatile, and they are famous for their special gaits – particularly the tölt.
Tölting for dummies
Jennie is Dutch, and her love affair with Icelandic horses began back in Holland.
After moving to New Zealand, she imported Icelandic horses to start the Skógarrönd stud in Mauku, south of Auckland.
At Skógarrönd, each horse has an Icelandic name. For our story, Jennie rode the blue dun gelding with the multi-coloured mane, Biskup frá Wetsinghe (the bishop) while I rode 10-year-old imported black stallion, Þótti frá Wetsinghe or Thótti, which translates to pride.
This is my first time on a ‘gaited’ horse and what surprised me is I didn’t feel like I was riding a 13hh pony. The body size and movement should belong to larger animal yet I was only half a metre from the ground.
Jennie and Thótti were going to give me a ‘tölt for dummies’ lesson before we drove to Neðri Bakki stud nearby to test-drive Icelandic horsepower on trails.
Thótti has two more gears than the average horse. There are the basic natural gaits (walk, trot, canter and gallop) plus the tölt, and some also do what’s called the ‘flying pace.’
To start my first tölt, I was instructed to travel at a fast pace – either trot or canter – up a slope. Turning downward was the time to have a crack at the tölt. Jennie told me to sit back and drive with my legs and seat into the contact – as if I was riding to the moon. This allowed Thótti to raise his head and push his hindquarters right under his body to lift his forelegs high in front.
The footfalls in tölt are nearly the same as walk, with a rapid four-beat rhythm. There are varying tölt tempos and the only description I can come up with is it’s like you’re travelling at a really fast trot, almost out of control – yet in tölt I had complete control.
The gait is super-smooth due to no moments of suspension; one hoof is always on the ground, and this is what makes it comfortable. A fun competition in Iceland is the beer tölt, where competitors race around an oval track with a stein of beer – they’re not allowed to spill a drop!
We didn’t try the flying pace; this is a two-beat lateral gait where the horses can reach great speeds – think harness racing pace but under saddle!
Once I obtained my licence to tölt, we visited Kenneth Husted’s Neðri Bakki stud in nearby Pukekohe to discover why Icelandics have become so popular in parts of Europe, especially Scandinavia. We were going for a trail ride.
Kenneth, who is from Denmark, funded his university study by training Danish warmbloods for dressage and eventing; I was curious why he had ‘downscaled’.
But it turns out he was asked to give riding lessons to a Danish family on their Icelandics, his introduction to the breed.
And 30 years later, after immigrating to New Zealand, he wanted an easy and hassle-free relationship with horses – so imported Icelandics.
Kenneth rode Ásti from Lukka, a seven-year-old palomino pinto gelding and I rode nine-year-old black gelding, Glæsir from Lukka.
First rule of the trail – we go – fast! I couldn’t catch my breath as we ducked under low branches at speed; I was certain Glæsir would loose his footing in the forest over the twisty roots – but no. Surefooted is an understatement; we glided over the ground. At no point did I feel unsafe or that he’d become uncontrollable.
Icelandic tack
The saddle: There is difficulty fitting an English saddle to an Icelandic horse, due to their short back and roundness, with virtually no withers. The Icelandic saddle looks like a dressage saddle, designed to sit back off the wither, with flat panels to free the elbows to allow shoulder movement. The seat is flatter, padded and large enough for an adult.
The bridle: There are varieties of Icelandic bridles. The most obvious difference is the steel ‘karabiner’ hooks that connect the reins to the bit and the absence of the throat lash. The bridle only has two leather straps, one that runs from each side of the bit behind the ears and the second for the noseband. In some bridles both straps are held together by the browband; some bridles do not have a browband.
Icelandic Horse Association of New Zealand: The first registered breeding Icelandic horses arrived in New Zealand in the 1990s, and now there are around 170 purebreds. The association aims to promote the breed here, as well as educate and train both horses and riders. For more information, visit www.icehnz.org.nz
– This article was first published in the April 2013 issue of NZ Horse & Pony
