About 35 committed national and international breeders and persons interested in breeding of Icelandic horses met beginning of December at the international Open Breeders’ Meeting at the IPZV office in Laatzen, Germany. The aim of the meeting was to strengthen the international cooperation in the FEIF breeding sector, to spread information on breeding and to promote the common objectives through an open exchange of experience. I lively discussion in working groups aimed at improving the flow of information between the FEIF Breeding department and breeders, riders and owners of Icelandic horses.
The Icelandic breeding leader and member of the FEIF Breeding Committee Þorvaldur Kristjánsson gave a detailed illustrated lecture about the planned innovations in the field of breeding-assessments. Video sequences on the individual test requirements with different horses underlined this presentation.
On the 2nd day the German veterinarian Mathias Rettig gave a lecture about the leg health of Icelandic horses with background information from international top-class studies to point out the problems and the use of training tracks with different structures. Possibilities of training improvement and the constructions of our oval tracks followed with the intention to prevent eventual health problems.
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