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Character in Icelandic horses does not simply occur, it comes
of the culture of horses there in Iceland.
by Doug Hamilton
Character in Iceland...
There is something different about these horses from Iceland.
There is something of the substance of character in these horses.
It is something in quality which, in character, sets them apart
from so many horses and breeds we often have here domestically.
We see it and we always remark on it. There is something substantially
different in these horses that do come from Iceland.
Inside so many of these horses coming from Iceland there is a
self-reliant quality of deep character. As they have been borne
and raised into adult horses this character comes in the nature
of so many horses that come from Iceland.. In aspect, it is something
in character and intelligence aside from the training in horses.
It is a nature of their character coming as they do from Iceland.
In the annual cycle of life there, Icelanders do things in culture
with their horses which begins to explain a lot of this difference
in character. Horses, both young horses and adult riding horses,
often get to do things as horses that is hardly done anywhere
in the world today. Possibly it is done in some of the last big
working ranches in the West of the United States or in Canada
or in remote ranching areas of South America, maybe in Australia,
or possibly Central Asia.
Horses in Iceland often get a chance every year to just be out
grazing in nature. On their own, they get to graze in the big
landscape of their country interior. In many places in Iceland
they still turn horses out into the expanse of their big landscape
to be free grazing on their own for periods of time.
This typically happens in late summer until winter’s start,
when their highland pastures are lush with summer’s growth.
Flocks of sheep with their lambs and also herds of mares with
their young horses, along with the extra saddle horses of all
ages are turned out the back gates of their home farms to go to
the mountains.
I have often heard this, that the sheep and the horses “go
to the mountains” in the summer.
In touring Iceland, you drive the valleys and fjords going by
their home farms in the valleys. The valleys are defined often
by glacial rivers draining from the interior and also by mountain
ridges of one, two or three thousand foot heights setting the
visual sides of the valleys behind the home farms.
That their horses and sheep are in the mountains, I have often
taken to mean up on the mountain ridges behind their farms. Well,
in management, those ridges are just the start of things for many
farm areas in Iceland. It is up and over those ridges where you
begin to see what they are talking about when they say the livestock
go to the mountains.
When they go to the mountains, it is to the highland mountain
pastures beyond those ridges and then on to mountains beyond those
towards the interior. The livestock go to communal pastures of
districts which can be enormous in expanse where the livestock
is able to move and graze about over it like herds and groups
of animals of the Pleistocene.
For horses this allows them the time to take care of themselves,
in themselves, in a rugged landscape. It is a landscape that is
not easy in the nature of its element. The footing is incredibly
treacherous and the weather regularly foul and rough. Natural
selection is very free to play its influence directly on the horses
there in the mountains. When horses do not come back in the late
fall before winter they can easily be lost in more ways than one.
Their fate sometimes is never known. They sometimes just never
come down and where they lay may never be found.
This annual cycle of time-off happens for many horses in Iceland.
It is built into the culture and handling of livestock and horses
there. Even today, as people more likely live in towns and cities
with their horses stabled and pastured near their modern lives,
the horsemen of Iceland will still send their horses to the mountains,
up to their families and friends who still are on the farms. It
is common still for saddle horses, family horses, competition
and sport horses, and also their breeding horses, to have their
months off in the mountains. There is a time in November and December
before Christmas when the horse stables of Iceland are pretty
empty of horses while they are out in the mountains.
It is in this annual cycle of things in Iceland yet today that
a lot of things about the eye of the character of these horses
is explained. It is always remarkable to step into a group of
Icelandic horses who were brought up and cultured with this in
Iceland. There is something that is substantially deeper and intelligent
in these mountain horses that we just do not commonly get with
our horses otherwise. A quality of eveness, a depth of character
and a quality of intelligence. It is a way of being that is there
which makes them so substantial to have to live with and work
with. It is real and it is remarkable when you are with them.
Through a thousand years of culture, there is something in these
horses from Iceland that is rich and different. These are mountain
horses and I find it part of the intrigue of this breed and it
is compelling. I really like it.
-Doug Hamilton
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