We’ve traveled to Iceland twice and my favorite thing both times have been the adorably sweet and fluffy horses! If you see horses in a field along side the road, you can almost always get them to come right up to you.
It is said that there are four horses in Iceland for every person. The Icelandic horse is a unique breed of smallish horses that came to Iceland with the first settlers from Norway 1100 years ago.
An amazing thing I admire about many horse farms is for a short summer season, typically from July to September or October, the Icelandic landscape is overtaken by horses that play in the wilderness, uninhibited and unrestrained. Every year the young ones, wild until they’re trained for riding between ages five and seven, are allowed to spend each summer running free. But once the weather turns, the farmers must ride out on working horses to herd the young ones back home so they can be kept safe and fed on the farm during brutal winters. Several farms in the community come together to accomplish this task, and it’s a highly anticipated holiday.
