Following a presentation to all participants on the “new” Leisure Riding department, with the vision of contributing to the global shift towards nature and well-being and embracing on the latest trends and aligning them with the Icelandic horse-riding ethos, the members of the Leisure Riding Department together with Atli Már Ingólfsson and Jean-Paul Balz discussed the key objectives of the department, which can be summarized as follows: 1) promoting the Icelandic horse for leisure riding, 2) bridging the gap between all committees by incorporating elements of breeding, education, sport and youth engagement in a non-competitive setting, 3) stress on welfare and happiness of the horse and 4) engaging new audiences, who are interested, but might be intimidated by the competitiveness of sports or the intricacies of breeding.
During the Committee Meeting weekend in Frankfurt, the committee members worked on the guiding policy of the Leisure Riding Committee and also met with the Youth and the Education committee where a variety of topics for co-operation were discussed.
The activities of the committee will start right after the elections of the committee members including the chairperson of the department at the FEIF Conference 2024 in February 2024.