At the Annual FEIF Conference 2008 in Reykjavík the Board of FEIF awarded five persons – Friðþjófur Þorkelsson, Göran Häggberg, Hannes Kirchmayr, Sigurður Sæmundsson and Tone Kolnes. They are awarded for their outstanding contribution to the work of FEIF – and the Icelandic Horse community in general:
Friðþjófur Þorkelsson (IS) for his enthousiasm in introducing the Icelandic horse in Europe from the beginning of FEIF and his work on the color of the Icelandic horse and the large collection of pictures he took and used in various publications;
Göran Häggberg (S) for his continous commitment to the Icelandic horse ever since FEIF was founded;
Hannes Kirchmayr (A) for his great efforts and succes in the Education department, being a member of the Board of FEIF for 10 years;
Sigurður Sæmundsson (IS) for his contribution to sport, also being a member of the FEIF Sport Committee for more then 25 years;
Tone Kolnes (N), for over 25 years activities in the FEIF Sport Committee, as Director of Sport and as FEIF President (until 2006).
Hannes did receive the award at the very succesful trainers seminar at Lipperthof, Wurz (D).
Unfortunately Friðþjófur was not able to receive the award personally as he was very ill at that moment. Earlier this week FEIF did receive the message that he passed away Wednesday, February 20.