Interesting tidbit

It is believed that the horse stock in Iceland counts about 80.000 horses which is considered quite a large number considering that the Icelandic population only counts about 320.000. Many large horse farms can be found in this country and many people are breeding horses for their enjoyment. It is estimated that close to 30.000 people practice horse riding in one or another manner in Iceland. More than 100.000 Icelandic horses in other countries, mainly in Germany and Scandinavia and the market in the USA is increasing.

The horse people’s community in Iceland differs from those abroad. In Iceland there are so called horse-stable-villages, where many stables have been built side by side and together they are called horse villages. Therefore, horse peoples social structure is quite powerful and a lot of interconnection between people in those horse villages. The reason for this possibility here in Iceland is the extremely low rate of diseases in horses here due to the many thousands of years of the horses’ isolation.  It is prohibited to import horses and the horses which have been exported abroad are not allowed back into the country due to danger of infection. There is no requirement or need to vaccinate horses here like there in other countries.