The Icelandic Horse

The Icelandic horse is a special breed of horse that has been exported worldwide and is bred in many countries. It is small but powerfully built with a long, thick tail. It can tolerate all kinds of weather. An Icelandic horse can stay outdoors even in severe winters. Hair growth varies with the season, the coat being long and shaggy in winter but short in summer. The Icelandic horse is tough, strong, and equipped with an instinctive ability to find its bearings and negotiate the often rugged terrain of Iceland. A distinctive feature of the Icelandic horse is that it has five different kinds of gaits, when most breeds of horses have just three. Depending on the nature of the terrain, it can walk, trot, canter, pace and tölt, a typically Icelandic gait which is extremely comfortable for the rider; the footfalls are those for walking, but the speed is roughly the same as trotting. Icelander consider tölt to be the major pride of the Icelandic horse. It is the only breed that can do all five gaits:

Walk: The horse moves without tension, but briskly, in an even four-beat sequence, each foot independently.
Trot: It is a two-beat gait in which front and rear legs on opposite sides move together.
Canter: It is a three tree-beat gait; an easy canter makes for comfortable riding.
Tölt: It is a smooth, four-beat gait in which the horse moves its feet in the same order as in the walk but much faster. It is a unique gait which no other breed has.
Pace: It is a two-beat movement in which both legs on each side move together.

Icelandic Horses in their Natural Enviroment
Source: Iceland Tourist Board

Archeological finds in Norway, where the Icelandic horse is decended from, in graves from the Viking Age, show that the Icelandic horse belongs to an ancient race. It died out in other parts in Europe but survived in Iceland for 1100 years without crossbreeding. It has gradually developed into several strains. The most important of these are the Svadastaðir strain and the Hornafjörður strain. Horses from Svadastaðir are considered to have a more attractive gait and to be more dainty and frisky; those from Hornafjörður are larger, and have greater endurance and courage.