Education
Nothing replaces time spent with your horse in various activities, and especially just riding. The addition of consistent riding lessons with a variety of instructors and attending varied clinics will be a great way to meet people, build skills and knowledge. The following magazines, books and educational programs are a great foundation.
Icelandic Horse Quarterly
The Icelandic Horse Quarterly is published in March, June, September, and December by the US Icelandic Horse Congress as a benefit of membership.
Issue Four 2017 of The Icelandic Horse Quarterly features articles on the American Youth Cup, the Icelandic Horse World Championships, seat schooling exercises, positive reinforcement training, and more, as well as news from USIHC Affiliated Clubs, the USIHC Board of Directors, and our parent organization, FEIF.
Read issues here: https://www.icelandics.org/quarterly/equarterly
Zoe Johnson’s Basics on Horse Care - a Girl Scout Gold Award Project
Today there is a considerable choice of publication on various subjects regarding the Icelandic horse. Next to Icelandic most of those books have been written in German or one of the Scandinavian languages.
However, there is still surprisingly little to find in English, even though English is the official language of the international Icelandic horse community. This book is an ambitious and brave attempt to put that right. It covers all major topics of breeding, keeping, training and riding Icelandic horses – making it the most comprehensive publication on the breed available in the English language.
The book focuses on work with young Icelandic horses and shows a common sense training approach with a special emphasis on using nature and the outdoors to train and enjoy horses. The goal of the book is to inspire trainers and horse owners to enjoy their horses and hopefully to help horses enjoy training and their trainers. It contains wonderful posters of gaits and training stages as illustrative aids.
Knapamerki
Five books (1-3 in English 4 & 5 will be available in English soon) form the basis of the program in Knapamerkjum. These books are some of the most extensive publications about the Icelandic horse's riding skills. The content of the books is based on a broad scientific basis, as well as classical riding. In a theoretical and practical teaching in Knapamerkjar, you can systematically review each book individually. Thus, the teaching will be extremely targeted and concise. (see image attached)
Books are available at cost from our sponsor, tolttack.com.
USIHC Riding Badge Program Books
The Riding Badge Program is an educational tool developed by the Education Committee of the USIHC. It has relied heavily upon the German Riding Program, with additional information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture 4-H program. The program consists of seven achievement levels. The subject areas have been selected to provide an overall background on the equestrian sport, with a special emphasis on riding Icelandic horses. Students go through several units of riding instruction or theory classes, followed by an exam.
Important LinkS:
USIHC
FEIF
WorldFengur
What to do when you really need helP:
It's possible to become overwhelmed and not know where to turn for help. Please contact us, should this ever be the case, we want to help you and your horse! Contact Kristina Behringer-KIHC President, gyetorp2@gmail.com