The book Horseplay, Training and Riding the Young Icelandic Horse was published in spring 2016. 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.
The book is about Icelandic horses, Icelandic nature and last but not least the riders and trainers of Icelandic horses. The main focus of the book is to present a way to work with and train young Icelandic horses using nature and natural circumstances as a source of inspiration. However it is our hope that the information given and methods shown can be beneficial and relevant to all interested in Icelandic horses or any other horse breed for that matter. It is also our hope that owners and readers of the book will see horsemanship in a fresh light, although just a little, and be inspired to play with their horses building a relationship founded on trust and positive cooperation between human and horse. Making this book was an extremely rewarding experience and hopefully the pages show how much fun we had making it and how fond we are of our horses and grateful for the unsurpassed Icelandic nature we have access to when training and riding.
The people behind the book are all highly experienced professionals, each within their own field of horses and horsemanship as well as other diverse fields. These experts are; Helga Thoroddsen; Riding instructor and a long time horse breeder and trainer, Gígja Dögg Einarsdóttir; an exceptional and well known photographer of Icelandic horses, Helgi G Thoroddsen; a graphic designer, Susan A Harris; Centered Riding instructor, artist and expert at drawing horses, Christína A Mai; Riding Instructor and trainer of Icelandic horses as well as working on marketing for the saddle and tack company Hrímnir and Gunnar Ríkharđsson farmer and our multitask guy.
