HESTAR RANCH

The Icelandic Horse is very unique, especially because of their gentle temperaments and their incredible talent in their gaits. They are bred to be four or five gaited horses, and they are mainly between 13 and 14 hands. Their genetics give them the ability to go in four or five different gaits. They walk, trot and gallop like any horse, but in addition to that, the Icelandic Horses can be trained in tölt. This is an even four-beat gait that can have a great speed range depending on the horse and is very smooth to ride. In addition to tölt, the five gaited horses can also pace. This is a lateral two-beat gait, and is called flying pace in Iceland, when ridden at very high speed. In Iceland, it was important to breed a riding horse that can travel very sure-footed, smooth and fast, over long distance, because there were few roads for traveling with wagons. Icelandic horses have been bred for their ability to gait since the late 800s. It was the horse of the Vikings.