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Optical Illusion...
There is illusion and there is delusion.
There is a lot of illusion and some delusion in the American
landscape about horse size. Yet, there is a noticeable change
going on. There is something to watch going on now with people’s
perception . There is a sensibility in people’s minds about
horse size that is perceptively changing here in America. I think
it is changing with these mountain horses from Iceland.
We have been going to horse expositions and fairs for years and
we are witnessing a change in the illusion of size as people want
it now. I suspect that the introduction of the Icelandic horse
has had a lot to do with this change.
Horse breeding for show horses in America has taken most breeds
up and away in size for the last 50 years. Where many breeds were
previously around 14 hands, it is now difficult to find riding
horses under 15 or now 16 or 17 hands in many traditional breeds
any more.
Where in earlier times people’s sensibility had to do with
horses for real work and real riding, in modern times horses have
become more about looks and much less about utility. Horse size
in modern terms now seems to have gotten away from us. Things
have grown in horses now to the extent that there is an apparent
interest in these Icelandic sized horses precisely because they
are human-scaled riding horses. There is a growing response of
people at shows who can see themselves riding these horses precisely
because their own horses have become so large that they are no
longer easy or useful as riding horses.
Breaking expectations with these horses. We have been involved
with riding the Icelandic breed demonstrations at horse fairs
for years now. Something that I like about performing the demonstrations
from the inside of the presentations is watching as we break people’s
expectations about what is expected from what they see as small
horses. Of course, people come to horse fairs with a strong prejudice
that says to them that small horses are for children. We of course
ride as full-sized adults on small horses by contrast. They have
a delusion and we provide an optical illusion which in form breaks
their sensibility. We ride the demonstrations riding as adults,
riding, riding in control, riding with rated speed, riding having
fun in all of the gaits performing in presentation. In form it
blows people’s minds open as it breaks their expectation.
The response is often electric and large. Frankly, it is easy
to do and it is fun to do, showing -off these little horses.
Times obviously are changing. The thing here now is that we are
seeing real horsepeople coming forward wanting Icelandic horses.
From what they are seeing, they see a whole versatility of the
horse and they can see themselves riding these horses. Compared
even to 5 or 8 years ago there is something going on here in America.
There is a graduation going on.
I am amused to even see horsemen now asking after the horses.
For so long it has been riding women. With the prejudice of size,
if men would ask after these mountain horses, it was usually for
their wives or kids. More frequently it is becoming the other
way around. Men now are asking after these horses for themselves.
The standard seems to be breaking and these mountain horses are
doing it here. It is gratifying to see it happen for this horse.
Reality is dawning! More than just being entertained by these
horses, frequently at shows now we hear people remark and say
that their next horse is going to be an Icelandic. Times are changing!
We know this by experience that as much as we can say about it,
it is really not until we put someone on one of these horses that
either the illusion or the delusion is truly cut through. Like
any other prejudice that gets broken it happens at the point when
we move from the general to the individual.
As good as the videos or the breed demonstrations are of this
breed now, there is becoming a growing regard for these mountain
horses here in North America. Underneath, it is happening one
horse and one person at a time with the prejudice in people’s
sense of what is right and possible with size.
-Doug Hamilton
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