Iceland Horse

Origin: Iceland.

Height: 12-13hh; occasionally bigger.

Color: Usually gray or dun. Also dark brown, chestnut, cream, palomino,and occasionally black, piebald, skewbald.

Character: Docile, friendly; though, like all small pony breeds, it is veryindependent. It has a remarkable homing instinct, and can be ridden forgreat distances by a borrower in the sure knowledge that when it is turnedloose it will directly find its way home. It responds better to the voice thanto the usual aids of horsemanship, and is mostly controlled by the voicealone.

Physique: One of the toughest of all breeds, extremely hardy and rugged.Large head, intelligent eye. Short, thick neck on a short, stocky body;strong, clean legs, hard feet. Abundant mane and tail. It possesses exception-ally good eyesight. Riding ponies are taught an ambling gait, popular inmedieval times but now a rarity except in the Americas.

Iceland was first settled in 871 AD by Norwegians who were at odds withHarold Fairhair, who had proclaimed himself king of all Norway the yearbefore and was not unanimously popular. Until that time no larger animalthan the Arctic Fox was to be found in Iceland, but the Norwegian immi.grants brought ponies and other domestic livestock with them, and subse-quently ponies from Norse colonies in Scotland, its islands, Ireland and theIsle of Man were introduced with new settlers. These hardy, homogenousNorthern pony types interbred to become the Iceland pony, though fourseparate types are still just about recognizable to the connoisseur. One ofthese, the Faxafloi, bred in the south-west of Iceland, looks quite like theExmoor pony.

An Icelandic speciality, possibly connected with the Norwegian cult ofFrey but much more probably arising out of a need for excitement and thelack of game animals to satisfy a basic bloodthirstiness, was horsefighting.The sagas are full of it; "Starkad had a good horse of chestnut hue and it wasthought that no horse was his match in fight" starts off the story of the battleof that horse and Gunnar's brown described in the Saga of Burnt Aljal, which began as a blood feud and ended in a massacre. Owners were expected togo into the ring to assist their stallions during these fights, and were notallowed to touch their opponent's horse (though they were just as likely tobe savaged as their horse was).

Since Iceland until recently had no roads and very few tracks smoothenough for the passage of wheels, the value of the Iceland pony for packand communications purposes was inestimable. This was heightened onone-way journeys by the pony's ability to go home by itself. Up until thiscentury the ponies were also exported to the British Isles to work in thecoalmines and as pack and Draft animals, and, in the teeth of strongcompetition from the good native British breeds, were much in demand fortheir strength, endurance, and good nature.

Modern attempts to refine the Iceland pony with Thoroughbred bloodhave failed, since the offspring appear to inherit the good qualities of neitherparent. Today's Iceland pony divides loosely into pack, riding, and Drafttypes, with an emphasis on the first two, though all are fit to ride if theoccasion warrants it. Since beef cattle cannot endure the hard Icelandicwinters ponies are also used for food, separate herds being kept for meatand for work.