Colours of Iceland 

Icelandic horse is a true part of Icelandic culture and history.
Brought on the island with the first settlers, it’s a pillar of the colonization process despite long distances and hard environment.

More than 80 000 horses live in Iceland today, all are descendants of the first Viking horses arrived with the first settlers.
It’s a tireless worker with a kind behaviour, and despite its small size it can carry heavy burden through lava fields and swamp.
Environment has selected the more robust and touch horses during centuries.

The import of other horse races is banned since 930 by a still effective law: today’s horses are pure descendants of 9th century Viking horses.

Hordes that you can see through the country have no shelter and live outside all the year.
Their beard becomes a true fur during winter, protecting them from wind and cold.

Besides the standard walks, Icelandic horses use the Tölt, an accelerated and very comfortable way of walking. Horses are selected very young to keep the ones doing the five walks.

Icelandic horse is a very liked race for abroad farms, especially for its simplicity, hardiness and the five different way of walking it can use.
An important part of the Icelandic horses are exported. But horses that leave Iceland once will never come back again: apart from the rest of the world for centuries, horses are not protected against standard horse deceases and to avoid contamination, a horse that leaves Iceland cannot come back.

A lot of people owns horses or just enjoy horseback riding: it’s one of the most favourite sports in Iceland.
Stables are often near cities and villages.

This loyal companion is used for several days horseback rides through desert landscapes because it’s light-footed and doesn’t fear lava fields, fjords, and swamp areas. During these journeys, two or three horses are available for each rider: one is used by the rider and the other ones follow freely and are used successively.

It’s frequent to see groups of twenty riders and sixty free horses travelling the centre region plains and meeting at sunset at a watering place.