What qualities should one look for in a quality Icelandic Horse?
Robyn: Our interest is in providing safe, reliable horses with great characters and comfortable natural gaits. Our main market has always been the pleasure rider, so our breeding program has always defaulted to producing easy gaited, level headed Icelandics. Phil: There are well defined, comprehensive breeding standards for Icelandics. The evaluation system looks at conformation, gaits, temperament, and bloodlines. If a person is interested in breeding this is something that should be studied. As with any breed the average person wants a good safe riding horse. The individual horse is more important than the breeding in most cases. Does the horse have the natural aptitude to accomplish what you plan to ask of him? Is he trained or can he be trained to suit your needs? Specifically for Icelandics most people are looking for a horse that has smooth, easy gaits that come naturally to the horse. They want a sensible horse that does not get overly emotional when in an unusual situation. It
