>>>Iceland "...a country where there is one Icelandic pony for every five Icelanders. The figures are about 50,000 ponies to 250,000 humans. Why?<<<<
I think it's more like 80,000 ponies to 250,000, isn't it? >>>meat in the Icelanders' diets-what there is of it- comes from sheep and Icelandic ponies. Icelandic ponies are an essential food source for Icelanders. But because they are also an essential work and riding horse, only the ponies which are unable to work are used for food.<<<< But there is the market of breeding for slaughter, isn't there? >>>>They can go two or three days between meals <<< I think any horse can go that long between meals, if necessitated. But does that mean they *should*? >>>>Like all equines, each Icelandic pony comes equipped with a walk, trot, and canter. Most of them, oddly, will also pace when they are trying to recuperate from a long gallop. <<<< Why do they pace after a long gallop? >>>>The tolt is the same four-beat gait that is known as the "Paso Llano" seen so far to the south in the Peruvian Paso. It's a left rear, left fore, right rear, right fore pattern in which the pony always has one foot on the ground so that the bounciness of the trot is eliminated. And the Icelandic ponies can do it double-time.<<<< Just about all gaits are LR, LF, RR, RF. Nothing different in the Icelandic, in that regard, versus other breeds. The Paso Llano is a saddle rack, not a tolt. Saddle rack is two foot / three foot support. Rack / Tolt is one foot / two foot support. >>>>Icelandic ponies, unlike other breeds, take between seven and eight years to reach their full growth, and are not ready to be ridden until they are at least four. All horse breeds mature at about the same rate. If anything, ponies raised out in "the wild", mature a little faster by six months. Malnutrition from not having enough food or the right food, is a different situation. >>>But they more than make up for their long childhood at the other end of their life spans. One Icelandic pony is said to have worked until the age of fifty, and was still going strong eight years later when its owner died!"<<<< Because one pony *maybe* lived to 50 (this is an unsubstantiated story), doesn't mean that the whole breed lives that long. In fact, a lot of websites say that the horses are ridden well into their 30's..... maybe a handful of horses? I think that gives people the wrong information and wrong idea about the breed. Judy http://icehorses.net http://clickryder.com
