The Icelandic Horse

The horse of the Vikings

The Icelandic Horse is in fact a tough pony breed that can be traced back to the Viking settlers, who arrived in Iceland in the 9th Century. Although the breed is small in stature, it is always referred to as a horse rather than a pony. Icelandic Horses commonly live in semi-wild herds, and while farmers rarely use them for work these days, they are very popular for leisure riding. Over time, the breed has developed into a seriously sturdy group that is well suited to the harsh Icelandic winter conditions, where the nights are very long and very cold, and their habitat consist of fjords, volcanoes, giant lava fields, rugged cliffs and black, sandy beaches.

HISTORY

Settlers from the Scandinavian mainland brought animals to the volcanic island of Iceland in boats. Since this point in the 9th Century, the little horses have played a major role in the lives of Icelanders. Horses were revered in Norse mythology, and this tradition has certainly been passed on to the Icelanders today.

A lot of the breed were devastatingly wiped out in the 1780s due to the volcanic eruption of Laki, but today there are a whopping 80,000 Icelandic Horses in a country that has a human population of just 350,000.

A TRULY PURE BREED