Every ride, every experience with a horse, is a training. Whether or not it is a positive training is the issue. But something is always learned or reinforced.
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Starting
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A young horse has been sent to Flugumýri for training. Elisa Klose is using techniques she learned at Hólar, from which she has recently graduated.
I put this video up so that experienced horse people can see how groundwork and suppling are used by one particular trainer. It is not a How To, but rather a How Done. But it does represent a progressive school of training that is being widely adopted in Iceland.
A foreign student at Hólar
Elisa Klose came from Germany to Iceland to learn about the Icelandic horses and had to take a crash course in Icelandic when she started Hólar College. She tells us about what it was like to be a foreign student during her job at the farm, Flugumýri.
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Training the Horse
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Knútur Berndsen at Mill Farm, USA, is taking a horse out for his second time in harness.
Knútur uses sulky training to provide some variety and exposure for the horse and so he can get a feel for him. He does it at walk and trot to develop the hind quarters and back muscles. It is also good checking out farrier issues because you can see the horse trot up close over a distance.
The horse is already trained for riding under saddle and the sulky is not a substitute for the saddle.
Icelandic horses were not used for pulling for a very simple reason: the climate and terrain were too harsh for wheeled vehicles. In fact, the Icelandic horses were often called the bridges of Iceland.
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