Endurance with a Young Rider on an Icelandic Horse

In this video by Dave Wisniewski, Marlaina age 11 rides, as she reminds us, an Icelandic "horse not a pony" in endurance.

Raven Flores and Rothadis in Placing in Endurance and Competitive Trail

Raven Flores and her Icelandic horse Rothadis from Tolt Haven Ranch are doing well in endurance and other events.  They compete in the Friends of Sound Horses (FOSH) Gaited Distance Program.  In 2014, they won a FOSH award in the the Heavy Weight Division of the Competitive Trail Category. The dynamic duo also compete in long distance endurance in the midwest and have placed in the top 11 in their state.. 

Raven is a member of the International Icelandic horse discussion Yahoo group and I love reading about her and Rothadis' accomplishments.  Prepare to move over John and Remington to make room for Raven and Rothadis in the future.

Here is video that Raven Flores posted of their first solo ride together.

Which Breeds compete in Endurance

In 2005, the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) published a table of which horses participating in their endurance rides by breed.  You can find the original report here.
http://www.aerc.org/Membership_Breeds.asp

1810 Painting of Arab horse by Antoine Jon Gros
Source: Wikipedia

Out of the 25716 horses registered, Arabs and Arab crosses (included Morabs etc in this group) dominate this sport representing, respectively, 55% and 14% of the total.  (There was one Fjord-Arab cross and since no other Fjords are represented I did not count this as an Arab cross figuring the Fjords needed the representation.)

Other groupings that were well represented were Appaloosas (700) and Appy Crosses (37), Mustangs including Keigers and Spanish, etc.  (293) and cross (31).

Certain breeds were not heavily represented despite the huge numbers in the US.  Quarter horses (189), Paints (160), Thoroughbreds (315) and crosses (16).

There were 162 mules, 5 Andalusians (no Lusitanos), 1 American Warmblood, 10 Trakenhners, 3 Belgians.

Surprisingly there were many more gaited horses, more than would be expected based on their proportion within overall breed numbers in the US.   Peruvian Paso (48), Kentucky Mountain Horses (8), Missouri Fox Trotters (93), Rocky Mountain (24), Saddlebred (72), Tennessee Walkers (236).

In 2005, there were....drum roll please...16 Icelandics on the AERC roll.  Considering there were probably around 3200 registered Icelandics in the US  at the time, this is a pretty good representation of the breed.

Icelandic Horse Remington Inducted Into Endurance Hall of Fame

In 2013, Remington (Spæjari), a 26-year old Icelandic horse owned by John Parke, was inducted into the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) Hall of Fame.  Remington and John have accumulated over 11,000 miles and have competed every year for the past 20 years and never been pulled.  John is still riding Remington in endurance races.  Last year, John and Remington did two 50 mile races, one of which was in the Arizona dessert.

Per John Parker, "Some of the horses in the Hall of Fame have won ride after ride. Others have rolled up mile after mile. Some have done both.

With Remington it is all about longevity. With two 50-mile rides so far this season, we have now completed endurance rides together for the last 20 years in a row. He has accumulated 11,300 career endurance miles so far. He is a gold level horse in the AERC’s 100-mile program for having completed ten 100-mile rides. He has also completed more than ten multiday Pioneer rides. 

Even among all the incredible horses in the Hall of Fame, Remington is unique for the combination of these achievements."

To read more about John and Remington's accomplishments, follow the link below:

Endurance Tracks: 2013 AERC Hall of Fame Equine Remington

				Endurance Tracks: 2013 AERC Hall of Fame Equine Re... By John Parke The latest equine inductee into the AERC Hall of Fame is my 26-year-old, 13.3-hand Icelandic horse, Remington.
				View on tracks.endurance.net	Preview by Yahoo

 The US Icelandic Horse Congress gives out the Spaejari award, sponsored by John and Marilyn Parke, to a child who submits the best essay about the Icelandic horse.  You can read about the requirements for the award here:

http://www.icelandics.org/youth.php

Icelandics in The Great American Horse Race

In 1976, 91 riders (there is some disagreement as to exact number of riders) and
a 450 support team participated in the Great American Horse Race. The race was
for 3,000 miles from Frankfort, NY, to Sacramento, CA and was scheduled to last
over 100 days. Each rider had two mounts. Vet checks were done 4 times a day.  Icelandic horses had a spectacular showing in this extreme long distance race.

http://creativecats.sectorlink.org/gahr/gahr.html

Riders in the race originated from all over the US, Canada, Germany, Austria,
France, Switzerland, Iceland and Australia. Horsebreeds represented
were:"Spanish Mustang, Arabian, Morgan, Saddlebred, Standardbred, Pony of
America, Pinto, Icelandic pony, half Orlov trotter, Mule, Appaloosa, Palomino,
Thoroughbred, an Albino, Quarter Horse, Connemara pony, Paso Fino."

http://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2011/02/great-american-horse-race.html

The winner of the race was Virl Norton, riding the mules Lord Fauntlerroy and
Lady Eloise. At the beginning of the race, Virl cautioned, "Watch the mules.
They're tougher and can take the tough terrain better than a horse," he said. He
felt his mules could match the Arabian horses at endurance because this was
going to be a long race, not a fast one.

http://virlnorton.madmoosestudio.com/articles_read.php?id=4


Here's a link to an interview with Norton's son Pierce who served as general assistant during the race.

"Because about a quarter of the way into the race, in Kankakee, Illinois, Virl Norton and Leroy went out ahead of all the Arabians.  
 

"He’d always said that he hadn’t planned on taking the lead that early. Everyone ran their horses down a little bit sooner than he thought, I guess," Pierce says. "You know, soon as we got into the lead, there was a long way to go. But we were going in the right direction. The lead was getting longer."

And so, days before the finish, it became clear that a mule was going to win the Great American Horse Race."

https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2016/09/09/virl-pierce-norton-horse-mule-race

A link to a 1976 Sports Illustrated article about the race.
https://www.si.com/vault/1976/07/12/615375/miffed-and-also-mulish

All of the remaining top 22 places went to Arabs or Arab crosses except for :

7th Appaloossa
9th Conamarra ponies
10th mules
13th Icelandics (Johannas Hoyos)
16th Pinto/Thoroughbred
21st Icelandic (Walter Feldman)
22nd Appaloosa
http://creativecats.sectorlink.org/gahr/gahr.html

Per Robyn Hood, TTouch trainer and a Canadian breeder and trainer of Icelandics http://www.icefarm.com/ ,participated as support crew during the race. As Robyn commented, "During the GAHR the organizers liked to put the Icelandics near the entry to our camping site because our horses looked so good. We fed them as much hay as they could eat and about 6 pounds of grain a day. They were very fit but not thin."

http://great-american-horse-race.iceryder.net/

There is a book available on Amazon about the Race:

The Great American Horse Race of 1976: A Photographic Documentary by Curtis Lewis

What an interesting bit of history!