It´s always exciting when young horses show their potential at early age and by doing that making owners and fans around happy. One of those youngsters who proved to everybody close by what she was made of from day one is Hnota frá Stóra-Vatnsskarði a 2-year old mare out of Vídalín frá Hamrahóli and Víðja frá Stóra-Vatnsskarði. Hnota is very beautiful with elegant confirmation. She shows all gaits in great tempi and with lots of suspension and it will be quite interesting to keep an eye on her in the near future. A video of her can be seen here.

After the decision of our Icelandic member associations LH and BÍ to cancel Landsmót 2010 due to an infectious horse disease, FEIF has been involved in the discussion about an extra Landsmót in 2011. Landsmót and World Championships are the two biggest events in the Icelandic horse world. They are organized every two years, the first in the even years, the other in the uneven years. They are both part of the yearly rhythm and holiday plans of many Icelandic horse friends. The decision in Iceland to organise an extra Landsmót in 2011 doesn''t fit to this.

Þora frá Prestbae with her rider Þorarinn Eymundsson made a sensational appearance at the late summer show in Vindheimamelar. In the first round she scored 8.99 for gaits with as many as 3 times 9.5 ( trot, pace and willingness) The total score for Þora was 8.72. 
With this score she joins the exclusive group of super performing mares as Raudhetta frá Kirkjubaer and Lukka frá Stora-Vatnskardi. 

An epidemic of upper respiratory tract infection has now been affecting the Icelandic Horse population in Iceland for three months. It is characterized by nasal discharge, dry coughing and laryngitis (swollen throat). The first cases were reported in early April 2010. In the following days it became apparent that the disease was already wide spread and that an epidemic could not be avoided.
     

There will be breeding show at Vindheimamelar during  the week 28. Jun – 4. July. The show will probably starts on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on participation.  

The postponement of the Landsmót that was to be held from 27th June to the 5th of July at Vindheimamelum in Skagafjordur was a big blow for the equine industry as well as tourism operators and the community as a whole, particularly in Skagafjordur where preparations were underway to greet thousands of guests.  

Today, a horse breeding show at Winterhorse Park in Wisconsin, USA was held at the farm of Barbara and Daniel Riva. Judges are: Barbara Frische and Johannes Hoyos. A total of twenty eight horses where registered for the show, most of them presented by Guðmar Þór Pétursson and Halldór Gunnar Victorsson, each of them presenting eight horses. Here are the results

Proposition for a research program was agreed upon this morning at a government meeting. The University’s Institute for experimental pathology at Keldur and the Food Industry proposed a research plan because of the contagious cough in horses. The total expense for this research is about 19 million ísl.kr  

Due to the ongoing infectious upper respiratory disease in the horses in Iceland for the last few weeks, Landsmót has been postponed.  At a meeting today with all major stakeholders, the Ministry of Fisheries and the Vetinary authorities of Iceland the wish to held Landsmót in year 2011 was expressed by all attendees. Therefore, Landsmot and LH have requested further discussions with the representatives of FEIF to discuss a suitable solution for having Landsmót in year 2011.

Breeding show was held at Mill Farm in New York in the U.S. 22nd May. 15 horses were entered in the show, but only 8 were performed in total. Conformation was highest for the fourth year old son of Stáli frá Kjarri Krói frá Kjarri,

WorldFengur has the honour of being the first database recognised by the EU as holding digital passports. The EU requires that passports are issued for all horses in countries that export horse meat to EU countries. All medication the horse has ever received is to be documented in the passport, thereby indicating whether the horse is suitable to be slaughtered for human consumption or not.

In june, july and august we here in Arabær witch is just 1 hours drive from Reykjavík, are going to offer courses and riding tours for people that want to buy horses or just want to have a nice exciting day horse riding. Teaching will be in hands of Hallgrímur and Sævar. It is a great opportuninty to get to know the horses that you are mabye thinking of buying or are interested in.

We have been very busy lately training young horses in the age of one to three years old.  This training is very important, especially here in Iceland where horses generally grow up in huge pasture mostly without interaction with humans.  Those horses are taught to respect the human being, basic manners such as carrying a halter, stand tied and lead.  If they are old enough we stick a bridle in their mouth and a saddle on the back of big three year olds.  

So I saw all of these mediocre pictures of that volcano in Iceland nobody can pronounce the name of, so I figured I should go and do better. But the flights to get over took forever as expected (somewhat). 4 days after leaving I finally made it, but the weather was terrible for another 4. Just befor...

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of Landsmót held in Skagafjörður on May 7th with the veterinarian of horse welfare, the decision was made to keep the preparation of Landsmót fully ongoing, despite the infectious cough that has been spreading out among the horses in the country.  

„We are hoping to show about 15  - 20 horses in the qualifications for Landsmót. All of them are very strong candidates and hopefully they will go all the way. The next few weeks will however tell if the training has worked out and how these horses will perform in the upcoming breeding shows and competitions,“ says Hinrik Bragason, known horse breeder and trainer at Árbakki horse farm, nearby Hella in the South of Iceland.  

In recent months employees of “Hestapressan” have been working on establishing a community for horsemen on the Internet. By using the “Hestapressan” users get the opportunity to get to know/contact people in Europe with the same hobby. The website has already been set up in English, German and Swedish, but the Icelandic site will be ready before the end of this year.
Someone might be wondering; what is it for? Well, you can, for an example, download photos of your horses, create groups, publish events

The annual Ís-landsmót competition is held on the icy lake of Svínavatn, which is around 25 km from the town of Blönduós.  Many of Iceland’s top riders compete on their best horses in classes A and B, as well as in Tölt. The event lasts a whole day – in 2009 there were around 110 riders competing, on a total of around 170 horses.

General information The 2010 Landsmót will be held at the showgrounds at Vindheimamelar, Skagafjörður in North Iceland. Horsemanship is born into the people of Skagafjörður region and many of Iceland’s most famous horsebreeding farms are located there.  

This is a about Icelandic horses that went in the lake in Iceland. Show Uncut and untamed program on Animal Planet. 

In 2010 the FEIF Delegates' Assembly and the FEIF Conference will take place February 19-21 in Odense, Denmark. It will be held at the same time as the WorldCup 2010 . The meetings will therefore take place at Odense Congress Center (http://www.occ.dk/). For more information about the WorldCup 2010 visit the following website: http://www.worldtoelt.dk/2010/index.php?lang=en

Now it‘s possible to see the sale show in whole that was held in Hestheimar last weekend. The sale show was broadcasted live on www.hestafrettir.is and about 40 good horses were registered for sale, a lot of 1st prize mares and stallions, competition horses and good riding horses.

Once more, sport with Icelandic horses has shown to be a clean horse sport. All 20 doping tests taken at the World Championships 2009 in Brunnadern (CH) proved to be negative, which means: no doping. In total around 160 horses participated.

Highlights of the year 2009 will take place in Broadway on Saturday 7th November. The festival is held by LH and association of horsebreeders. Will be offered in the elegant three proper meal, entertainment and dancing. Tthe rider and the breeding farm of the year will be awarded prizes.

Now it‘s possible to see the sales show in whole that was held in Rangarholl last weekend. The sales show was broadcasted live on www.hestafrettir.is and about 40 good horses were registered for sale, a lot of 1st prize mares and stallions, competition horses and riding horses.

Registration has now started for the sales show that will be held in Rangarholl, Friday the 28th of August. Sudurland competition in horse sports will be held at the same time in Gaddstadaflatir where the sales show will be held in the end of the competition on Friday or at 19:00. The show will be broadcasted on www.hestafrettir.is and is also accessible on www.hest.is shortly after the show is over.

In Gaddstadaflatir on Saturday morning the 15th of August between 9:00 and 12:00, a trial breeding show will be held where the round course will be used partially. Breeding shows of Icelandic horses have until now only been on straight tracks, limited tracks, 230-260m long.

This is the first time that a so called beer ride is held here in Iceland. This competition is based on riding a time track with all kinds of obsticles in the way like riding around a barrell and riding through fences. Last but not least, the rider has to hold a full can of beer (light beer) without spilling.

A special gender toelt was in the end of the program at the Summer festival in Hella last weekend. The winner in men‘s toelt was Jon Pall Sveinsson and Losti with and the winner in women‘s toelt was Birna Karadottir and Blaeja.