>From "A Good Horse Hath No Color, The Search for the Perfect Horse" by Nancy Marie Brown:
In America there are few half-wild herds of Icelandic foals with fire under their feet. "We have predators," points out Elwell. Coyotes roam the wooded edges of her Hudson Valley farm; California and Canada, home to other breeding herds, have mountain lions; in Iceland, the only wild carnivores are minks and foxes, much too small to tackle a healthy foal. But with that caveat, Elwell and some others still manage to "keep the culture in" their horses by leaving them loose in well-fenced ten-to-twenty-acre pastures and resisting the urge to play with the adorable, cuddly foals. Other American breeders are not so careful. "I saw one foal, two months old, that was so boring it was unbelievable," Elwell told me. It was kept alone with its mother in a small paddock beside the house, where it had frequent visitors. "I said to the owners, 'This foal is going to grow up to be a turnip.' " It had no spirit and, worse, no respect for humans. Elwell offered to set it straight. Approaching the "turnip foal," she told me, "I walked out quietly into the field, and, when I was within five feet of the foal, I jumped into the air and screamed. He jumped four feet in the air and took off. I chased after him and, when he stopped, I jumped again. Within two days he was starting to act like a horse again. "Icelandics are so inherently bonding," Elwell warned. "One of these foals will get up a few minutes after it's born and crawl into your lap. And the mare will say, 'Go ahead, take it.' You need to make them always alert to people, not quite sure what a person will do." Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
