The horses tend to be willing and enthusiastic, they are not easily spooked, probably because they don’t have any natural predators in Iceland.  There are no other breeds of horse in Iceland and there are laws preventing imports of any livestock. This is to keep the breed pure and as a result of their isolation from other horses, disease in the breed within Iceland is very rare. The native horses have no acquired immunity to disease and outbreak on the island would be devastating to the breed therefore apart from banning imports any horses which leave Iceland either for export or to compete may never return. A rider may have spent several years training an Icelandic horse to the level of international competition but once they compete outside of Iceland he/she will have to sell the horse at the competition and return without him. We term our horses as having 4 gaits – walk, trot, canter, and gallop. Icelanders would say 3 gaits as canter and gallop are the same pace therefore Icelandic Horses have the same  ’3′ paces as well as two extra paces called tolt and pace. The first additional gait is a four-beat lateral ambling gait known as the tölt. This is known for its explosive acceleration and speed it is also comfortable and ground-covering. The footfall pattern is the same as the walk (left hind, left front, right hind, right front), but differs from the walk in that it can be performed at a range of speeds, from the typical fast walk up to the speed of a normal canter. Some Icelandic horses prefer to tölt, while others prefer to trot, correct training can improve weak gaits, but the tölt is a natural gait present from birth. I was told the horse I was riding was good at it so I gave it a go after being instructed to sit deep on the back of the saddle, lean back and have very long stirrups, legs forward and keep his head up high – everything that goes against the grain. I think I might have got odd bits of it right as it did go smoothly occasionally but mostly spent a lot of time bouncing like a beginner as no one does rising trot and if you don’t get it the trot is very fast. Pace is a gait used in pacing races, and is fast and smooth, with some horses able to reach up to 30 miles per hour. Not all Icelandic horses can perform this gait. Animals that perform both the tölt and the flying pace in addition to the traditional gaits are considered the best of the breed. There are competitions in Iceland for showing the paces and the confirmation and for racing but show jumping is not popular. At the place where we rode there were 90 Icelandic horses with approx half of those being used for rides at during the winter. They all came in to an open plan stabling. I did notice that tack cleaning would be easier as all the horses had a bit, reins, and one strap which you could call cheek pieces and head piece combined which went from the bit over its head to the bit the other side, there was no noseband, browband, or throat lash. All horses were shod and had spikes in their shoes which enabled them to hack very sure footed over sheets of ice. (We wouldn’t bring ours out of the stable at a fraction of the ice we rode over). The owner did his own shoeing and proceeded to do a bit of nail tightening on my horse’s shoes, shoeing horses is illegal in our country unless of course he was a trained farrier. When we returned we dismounted in the yard, the two stable girls took the saddles off then instructed everyone to take off the bridles and just let the horses go, they all promptly trotted off to the field. One guy, a non rider didn’t get his bridle off fast enough which resulted in one of the stable girls legging it down the drive into the field after the whole herd, she did come back with the bridle though. None of the horses were clipped or had rugs. In fact I saw many horses in the fields and not one had a rug I suppose that’s where the double coat comes in handy

October Half Term has been a hectic week. On the monday Steve, Jen and I travelled to Northampton to continue our training to coach vaulting. We were both assessed and passed and are now Level one coaches for vaulting. We took the trailor with us to pick up a barrel for vaulting practice. It was a long day and we didn’t get back till late. Tuesday we had Pony Day and lessons in the evening and I had all the preparation to sort out for the team jumping. Wednesday morning was an early start and late finish for the team jumping. Thursday Client show jumping I thought would be quiet after the team jumping but it turned out to be quite busy in the tipping down rain. Thursday was also my birthday so Steve and I left for Bristol after the client show jumping. We had a nice meal in Bella Italia (curtesy of Tesco’s clubcard vouchers) then went to see We Will Rock You in the Theatre. We stayed over and came back the next day. Ready for the Halloween Party on Saturday. Another successful event organised by the Pony Club Centre committee made up of the older members. There was a good turn out and great to see so many adults supporting the event and even dressing up. The Halloween Party finished about 11.30 after a clean we had a few drinks in the house, five of us went to sleep in my lounge and I woke up on the floor in the early hours, so I assume it was a good night. See photos in the Gallery.

It doesn’t seem like five minutes since we finished the last dressage series and here we are again in October starting the next series. We had a very good turn out on Sunday with approx 46 entered over the 5 classes. Class 1 the walk trot is always popular, and so is class 2 the first prelim,  the next prelim class 3 is quieter and the Novice is always quiet. The Pony Club Dengie had a reasonable turn out with Carys Morgan from Talygarn winning the class on Buffy and qualifying for the area finals. Emily Curnock and Hannah Davies from the Llangeinor Pony Club and Ellie McVay from the Pentyrch also qualified. Thank you so much to the people that helped with the writing and the gate, we could not run theses competitions without your help.