Made untrained young horses lay down

Roughly 200 people attended the demonstration of Jóhann Skúlason and Iben Andersen hosted by FT-North in the Svaðastaðir riding arena in Sauðárkrókur, last Saturday night. They were greatly praised for this presentation.

Jóhann went through important issues and goals in tölt training and borrowed the gray gæðingur  Dalur frá Háleggsstöðum in the demonstration. He put emphasis on the horse being light in the reins, showed how it is possible to control head carriage as well as shaping the carriage he is so well known for. “says Þórarinn Eymundsson, master of horse training and riding instructor who amongst others was the organizers of the demonstration show.

 Iben Andersen has traveled to many places and looked into many different ways of in riding. Many of the things she introduced was akin to the approach which is thought or has been practiced at the horse science department at Hólar, which has the aim to familiarize the young horse, and make sure it is  fearless when it comes to all kinds of harassment and therefore get it accustomed to trust its trainer. There was one issue that few people had seen before.  „Iben made the young horses lay down by tying one leg, in a way that it was easy and quick to untie or loosen up. When the horse started to search downwards, the rope would be loosened and after a few repetitions the horse would lay down completely. Iben made sure the horse was comfortable, tapped on his hooves and stroked his whole body. “

 Iben worked on three young horses, two of them she had been prepared for a few days,  but she had only worked slightly on one of them. „To be honest, I started to have second thoughts for a while because the horses were struggling against this, they started panting and became tired and then finally they felt they did not have a another choice and they laid down, especially the one which was least prepared.  Frankly, it was like the horses had another attitude after Iben had handled them and there was more trust and respect for the human. She mentioned that she only uses this method when the horses are really difficult or tense and for horses with other issues.  It was obvious that Iben has trained many horses, there was great discipline in her ways of working and she was very direct,“ Þórarinn finally said.

Iben mounted all the young horses and rode inside the round track on the two horses she had worked on before. According to her, she is developing her own method and within one year she wants to be able to have a horse lay down in the same manner as she presented in the Svaðastaðir arena, but then without using a rope and have the training procedure take a longer time.