Hurting the Icelandic Horses

Why do the riders hurt the Icelandic Horses like this? The Icelandic Horse is supposed to be a "natural" horse. But the riders force them into unnatural positions and frames and use severe equipment to try to "control" them. Why isn't there any *horsemanship*, particularly natural horsemanship, used by the icelandic-style riders?

See the Gerd Heuschmann article:

http://iceryder.blogspot.com/2008/10/gerd-heuschmann.html

See the Cavallo article:

http://iceryder.net/cavalloarticle.html

There are many ways to ride a horse. With Icelandic Horses, we see a lot of riding by way of equipment. How did such unnatural methods come to be mainstream with such a natural horse?

Let's see if we can get our Icelandic Horses back to natural riding such as shown in this video:

http://icehorses.blogspot.com/2009/02/riding-with-mind-connection.html

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• icelandic horse
• cheval islandais
• island hast
• islandske hest
• island pferde
• islenskir hestar
• ijslands paard
• islanninhevonen
• islenskihesturinn
• islandisches pferd
• hestur
• islandpony
• icelandic pony

[birnaluna]

we need the noseband other wise out rein will fall off it can atleast we use it to save,once i put only the rein on my horse and guess what he just moved his head and it fell of with me -.-

[icehorses]

There must be a reason for the horse not accepting the bit without a noseband. Many horses, many breeds, are ridden without nosebands.

[icehorses]

Looks like a lot of the top horsemen in the world agree with the video!

[bjarma123]

this video is so dumb. these pics are just at bad moments. the horse can move his mouth. the band on the horse's nose is thigten really lightly. STUPID......

[icehorses]

So many bad moments in time! Why use a noseband? If the bits fit, the horses wouldn't have a problem with it; if the riders didn't use such force, the horses wouldn't show any problem behavior.

[ss00944life]

my friend has an icelandic-we use nosebands, and when she takes him to a dressage compotition she uses a more stronger bit. i ride him alot and the tolt is a natral gait of icelandics. these icelandice are at the worst, but this isn't the olny breed that is being abused,many horses around the world are being abused right now (i wish this didn't happen), but not all of them are icelandics. point is,icelandics aren't the only breed in the world that need help.but the riders are the ones to blame.

[katrin0210]

im from iceland you sound like you dont now nothing about icelandic horses , these pictures are taken when the horse is just moving his mouth or his head its not hurting him ! some horses do not like going on speed racking so they move their head up and down to release the contact , and you can see it in the horses eyes that most of the pictures that they are afraid , you would now this if you new anything about icelandics horses!

[xxAlchemistressxx]

hm. I find it offending that you seem to say that ALL icelandic horse riders do this. I certainly do not, and i do agree with your point. But not all of us have heavy contact or tight nosebands. the noseband my horse has is as loose as it should be (2 fingers on top of each other between), and because i've ridden Western for 5 years, i hold the reins incredibly loosely. And i'm sure there's more proud owners of icelandics out there who dont use the "old" methods. cheers.

[nakedgallop]

Thanks for posting...I noticed how uncomfortable the mouths looked on many of the icy videos- all those straps are, well, rather an advertisement for "Sadist on Board", there are plenty of loving owners who DON'T do this. What great little ponies!!

[Annathesurfer]

its never the horses fault, the horse is just doing what it thinks it supposed to, the rider is the one to blame

[makeup4everable]

@1010nicole1010 you should know that some horses just really want to tölt all the time and there is nothing wrong with that, he was probobly not forced to harden his muscles and rase his neck high because thats what icelandic horses do when they tölt. And horses don't open their mouths just when theres something wrong, my best friend has a horse that doesthis sometimes and she doesn't have any rein contact we only use sounds to controle our horses so that couldn't be it.

[korlopp]

I am SHOCKED by all the negative comments. If you need to zip a horse's mouth closed with a figure eight noseband to keep him from evading the bit, YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR HANDS.

[TheFosfora]

it's so true!! I live in Iceland but I'm from Poland and here is really heavy contact!! It's really sad I think but these horses can't ride with soft contact. I want buy young icelandic horse and show icelandics that they can ride ,,normal"... and this noseband is horrible!

[tabbypony]

most ponys open there mouth when they are relaxed! myn sertainly does and the tack they are using is different to the standard english tack, plus if the ponie resists and the rider blocks with the hand then the contact is going to get shorter but that is the ponies fault not the riders! but i do agree that some bits are too big although they are usually used on the stallions

[Synna89]

Nobody wants their horse to keep the head up, it is actually given extra points in contests if the horse har a bent neck and nose down, thereby bearing his back better and the rider, being relaxed, flexible and comfortable.. I don't know where you've ridden, but they clearly knew little.