Icelandic Horse Roundup

What Gait / Icelandic Horse

What gait is the Icelandic Horse doing in the above image?

My guess is:

It's a "they-are-trying-to-make-me-gait-with-everything-possible-(and-painful)-but-i'm-not-gaited" gait.

Or the "why-does-it-have-to-hurt-to-try-to-get-gait" gait.

Or "i'm-a-trotting-horse,-you-moron!" gait.

Icelandic Horse Holiday Attire

If you'd like to dress up your Icelandic Horse for the holidays, it looks like it would be easy to make a costume like this one, shown by Alice and her horse, Gunni.

The bridle has some colorful red material, edged with white trim and some bangles (maybe buttons, jewels, or bells). This could be sewn, but also can be glued, which makes it a simple project.

The holiday hat, especially fitted for a horse, is very cute! The horse also wears a red blanket under the saddle which makes him look very holiday-ish!

Icelandic Horse Book

Back by popular demand

MORE JOY WITH ICELANDICS by Christine Schwartz

A training guide by Christine Schwartz and Rikke Schultz, DVM- republished Nov 2008

Many pictures and detailed how-to descriptions 125 pages dedicated to educate the Icelandic horse owner- subjects include Educating your horse, Riding Icelandics, Problem Corner, Vet Corner with Rikke Schultz.

This book was originally published in 1998 and the first 1000 copies sold out 4 years ago. It just went into it's 2nd printing and is available again due to popular demand.

SPECIAL OFFER First 20 orders pay NO POSTAGE

$22.00 per copy plus s/h $8.95

Order through icefarm.com icefarm store or via paypal Valur70@hotmail.com

Or mail check to:

Christine Schwartz
5435 Rochdell Rd
Vernon BC V1B 3E8
Canada

Chapters include:

[] Educating your horse
[] Welcome to More Joy With Icelandics
[] Icelandics are different
[] The reality of easy family horses
[] Reading horses
[] Herd behaviour
[] Tying and retaining safely
[] Picking up baby's feet
[] The first bath
[] Ponying
[] Installing brakes
[] Finding the right trainer


Riding

[] The right frame for tolting
[] Collection for the tolt
[] Soft, subtle and alert
[] The promise rope and balance rein
[] Back up
[] A Playground for higher learning
[] The oval track
[] Riding bareback
[] Icelandic cowboys
[] Jumping
[] Swimming with horses
[] Alternatives to showing
[] Helpful hints


Problem corner

[] Going out alone
[] Tripping
[] Running away
[] Shod the tolt right out of the horse
[] Taking the "yuck" out of deworming
[] Trailering safely and stress free
[] Getting lazy bones going


Vet Corner with Rikke Schultz

[] Meet Doctor Rikke
[] Icelandics are different
[] Health problems in Icelandics
[] Vet call
[] Worm patrol
[] Vaccinations are important prevention
[] Do look that horse in the mouth
[] Minerals
[] Sheath cleaning
[] Giving injections without the "ouch"
[] A question of maturity
[] Gelding
[] Red stains in the snow
[] Oh boy, she's pregnant
[] Weaning foals without trauma
[] Summer eczema
[] Spavin
[] Stag or scirrhous cord problems
[] Back problems in Icelandics
[] Strangles
[] Founder
[] Homeopathics

Icelandic Horse Foal and Dam

When an Icelandic Horse (or any horse for that matter) foal is born, his legs (the distal limb) are almost as long as his mother's legs! At six months of age, his cannon will be about as long as it ever will be. From this point on, his body grows which gives him his height.

Click onto the image below to see larger versions of the photo.


The Icelandic horse
Originally uploaded by Fjola Dogg

Icelandic Horse Lift and Animation

Here's an image with several pictures of Icelandic Horse legs showing lift and animation.

The center picture shows sections of the leg with numbers so that we can use these for reference (click onto the image to see a larger version).

Look at section #1. It is about horizontal, 90 degrees, right?

How high are the section #1's in the other pictures?

Is this normal? Is this type of lift and animation made from mechanical means (weights, concussive practices, etc.)?

Is this functional? What affect does it have on the gait of tolt? Does it make the gait smoother or bumpier?

We have heard that according to FEIF, competitions call for high, but "not hackney-like" action in the tolt.

This looks like they have met the Hackney animation, and gone well past it!!

Beautiful Icelandic Cross Filly

Beautiful Icelandic cross Filly, very sweet and first one at the gate to great everyone. More information at http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-126398