This is Dinni. DInni isn't an Exmoor pony, as you can see from the absence of any mealy nose and his long face. The colour is wrong too. Despite the dorsal stripe and one of the typical colours (mouse dun) he isn't a Highland either. Dinni is an Icelandic horse*.
I met some people a few weeks ago who have Icelandics and they live only about 2 hours away, so off I went on Tuesday for a ride. Smaori (who is an Icelandic gentleman) and I loaded two into a trailer and went into a big area of forest and had a 2 hour ride.
The very interesting thing about Icelandics is that they naturally do a pace which not many horses/ponies do, without being specially trained. It's called the tolt, with two dots above that 'o', which I can't do. I thought it would be two right feet together then two left feet together and it would be very bumpy with a violent side to side movement, but that is pacing, which they use in trotting races. The tolt is actually otherwise known as the 'running walk' and it's the same as walk except a lot faster. So it's right fore, left hind, left fore, right hind, right fore, left hind, left fore, right hind and so on.... It is so smooth! You don't rise, you just sit up quite straight, with long stirrups. Mine were so long my feet didn't reach them but I was fine. In Iceland they have beer races at the tolt, to see who can get to the finish withou spilling any beer from a glass held in one hand. That's how smooth it is. The Tennessee Walking Horse is another that naturally does the tolt.
Here is a picture of some of Dinni's Icelandic friends in his little herd. That's a fly fringe that the one at the back is wearing.
Before I went, Smaori, who is plain-speaking and also uses a lot of swear words, said he hoped I wouldn't be scared. 'People come here and they are scared and that is no good to me!' Well, I was obviously going to be a bit apprehensive - new pony, new gait - and when the day came I really was quite scared about getting on because I thought I wold be bouncing around, unable to sit properly or to control the animal, but I just pretended I was really confident. As soon as I was on I was fine. It was such great fun. Smaori and his wife sometimes organise long group rides and he took my details for future rides so I must have passed the confidence test.
I don't want to keep 3 ponies, but I would love to have one of these. They would be very hardy in winter too.
*Smaori told me off for calling them 'ponies'. He says they are horses. It's because although most of them are under 14.2, they do also have some that grow bigger and therefore they are all 'horses'. I would beg to differ but it wasn't my place to put forward my view on that.
I guess he's talking about them as a breed and they are horses as opposed to cattle ? I was wondering if this gait is something like what we here call "amble", a smooth gliding type of gait that very few horses do ? Sounds very interesting. I once rode a horse that would "amble" . It was great!
ReplyDeleteHelsie: His wife said it was because a lot of them exceed 14.2 hands. Hmmm I think if our larger native breeds such as Dales and Highland exceeded 14.2 they would still be called ponies, just over-sized ones. I wonder if I am right on this. I'll see what comments I get.
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