Icelandic Horses

REALLY WILD LITTLE HORSES!

All of today's Icelandic horses are descended from animals taken to Iceland by the Vikings. Iceland has no other breed, and has allowed no importation for more than 1000 years, making Icelandics one of the most purebred and natural horse breeds in the world.

The first thing you'll notice is that they are quite small, between about 12.2 and 14.2hh, but they are incredibly strong and have always been bred to carry adult riders. There's no word in Icelandic for pony (though technically they are ponies!) so they're always called horses!

In addition to the usual gaits of walk, trot, canter and gallop, Icelandics have two extra gears. The tölt is a 4-beat running walk that can be done at any speed from a fast walk to a canter, and it´s amazingly comfortable for the rider. Flying pace is a 2-beat gait used for racing in which these little horses can reach up to 30mph!

They have wonderful temperaments (in Iceland, any which bite or kick are eaten!), and come in all colours except spotted, including piebald and skewbald. Icelandics are very hardy and robust (as you would expect) and they grow huge winter coats, but in the summer they´re slick and shiny. They´re great fun to ride, forward going, comfortable, and generally not afraid of things. Icelandics generally go forward, not up, down and sideways like some horses!

There are around 1000 Icelandics in the UK, but Pembrokeshire has one of the largest herds, http://www.solva-icelandics.co.uk/, based only a few miles from the site of the Really Wild Festival. The youngsters grow up naturally in the herd (they learn to be horses!) and you may spot them on some of the heathland around St Davids, where they carry out conservation grazing.

There´s an active breed society, the Icelandic Horse Society of Great Britain, which holds lots of competitions, courses and social events. The Icelandic is the Border Collie of the equine world, bred for use, not show, so you won´t usually see them plaited and clipped and messed around with. Icelandics are as natural as they come!