I found pictures of my old horse

His name is/was Baldur (I sold him 6 years ago, he'd be 18 now, I don't know if he's still alive).

I really miss him though, he was a big character and a great horse. I got him when he was 6, back in 1996. Sold him in 2002 when I knew I'd be moving to Edinburgh in a year.









That's a very young me there riding, my sister is on the chestnut horse and she's 22 now. Time flies, huh?

The dun horse is called Aldinn, my uncle owns him and still rides him. Baldur is there behind.



These are all Icelandic horses/ponies (Icelandic horses are always called horses but genetically I think they count as ponies)

Beautiful!!

Awwww

I bet he is still alive....horses live to be in their 30's....

He is beautiful!!

He wasnt shy although he could be sweet.

He was easy to handle and i could always walk right up to him in a field and catch him no problem. Really clever as well and a bit lazy, as in he'd push a bit and try to get away with not working. Also he tended to figure out how to open gates etc and then let the other horses out.

He had a really nice range on trot, could go very fast on it and he got rather hot and competitive if there were a lot of riders on horses around.

Basically he was a fun, solid and dependable horse. Not the flashiest but quite handsome.

Man, i miss him typing this up. There was no way i could keep him and i know he ended up with nice people.

I can imagine how you miss him. He sounds like quite the horse

I'm glad you did right by him and knew what you had to do when you were moving.

He's gorgeous.

Aw he is so cute! I thought he looked Icelandic!

He's lovely. What a gorgeous horse.

How cute! Aldin is gorgeous too! I'm not sure I've ever met one of those ponies here in the states! I do know people around here would have a cow about adults riding ponies I once had some one tell me I was way too big more my 14.1 Bonnet who just BARELY breaks the horse mark, and I'm 5'6''. I was a bit insulted

They look like a lot of fun to ride!!! I love that second picture too!

Hehe, well people having a cow about adults riding ponies couldn't ride at all then if they were in Iceland.

Over here the Icelandic ponies is the only horse there is (which is why they tend to be called horses since they're the only thing there is here and there isn't a word for a pony in the Icelandic language). It's been illegal for almost 1000 years to import horses into the country. That means that first of all no one is particularily worried about registering the horses that are bred since it's impossible for them to be anything other than purebred Icelandic horses, but also that if you want to ride something else, say a quarter horse, arab or a warmblood. You're out of luck. The sturdy, gaited ponies is what you've got to work with.

I've been riding since I was small (photographic proof, I'm the one on the black horse)


I'm 28 now and the first time I rode a non-Icelandic horse was a few months ago when I started taking lessons in Edinburgh and took the plunge since I couldn't get at any Icelandic horses

My dad rode on Aldinn several times for example, Aldinn is very easy going and tölts easily with beginners. Baldur was a bit more trotty so you had to know what you were doing to get him to tölt for you. It was a natural gait for him, just complete beginners wouldn't manage.

Here's a youtube clip of a guy riding very nice tölt on an Icelandic mare:

Here's a world champion tölter doing the range from slow to very very fast tölt:

Baldur was not a competition horse, he could go very fast trotting (had to keep up in trail rides with the speed tölting competition quality horses some of the people I went riding with had, although none of them were quite as fast as the one in the youtube clip) but his range on tölt was more on the slow to medium speed of things. He also didn't have the high knee action. Which was just fine and I never put any weighted boots or anything like that on him either.

Anyway yeah, the Icelandic horses/ponies are really strong and built with thick bones and really powerful hindlegs etc. so if healthy and ridden correctly they don't have a problem carrying adults.

Adorable horses!

I can't believe they are the only breed!!! That would be so weird! They are adorable! And that second video, HOLY CRAP!!!! That's amazing! They can go soooooooo fast! They should in harness races!!!! They look like a blast to ride! I've always thought a small horse could carry quite a lot of weight, now I'm postive my Bonnet can handle me