Leisure Riding III
Leisure Riding and FEIF
Sharing your time with an Icelandic horse means to share your time with a friend and get closer to nature – explore new areas – meeting old and new friends – learning together with your horse – sharing good and bad times – growing together – enjoy life – participate in events – going on competitions – riding at shows – there are a lot of things to do together. Get inspired by us, the worldwide Iceland horse community.
To be interested in the Icelandic Horse means you will get friends wherever you go. Visit other countries got to Iceland Horse Events or just stay a while in the country where the horse comes from, Iceland. You will gain for life time just because of a very special, wild and friendly horse form the north.
News from the Leisure Riding department
Bring on Birmenstorf – FEIF virtual ride 2025
The 13th FEIF Virtual Ride - from your home to the next World Championships in Birmenstorf - is now on the road … but there is plenty of space for more riders! Don't forget to join - find new friends and lots of fun: the friends you meet on Facebook, the fun you find...
FEIF Virtual Ride: To Fákur and Fast
With the beginning of Landsmót, the FEIF Virtual Ride "To Fákur and Fast" has come to an end. Last August, ca 80 riders from all over the world started to add up all kms spent in the saddle in an attempt to - virtually - reach Iceland, either as an individual or in...
May 1 – the international Day of the Icelandic Horse
As you know, May 1st is the international day of the Icelandic Horse. For this occasion, FEIF and Horses of Iceland have joined forces in order to reach a maximum of people and flood the internet with content of people doing all kinds of activities with Icelandic...
Me&My Horse
This is the centre of it all. The joyful hours of freedom with your horse. The happiness of developing together with your horse. The little breaks during the week, where you can focus on your horse and yourself. The Horse Profile comes into the picture here: to secure, that the rider from the very beginning gets the horse, that is most suitable for his/her skills.
Horse Profile Forms
Meet&Contribute
the joy of being part of something big as for example assisting as a voluntary helper at WC. It could also include being a spectator at WC having paid for the ticket! Any contribution belongs here.
Meet&Compete
Participation in any competition reaching from T8, to TREC, Tölt in Harmony, Hestadagar etc.
Meet&Learn
Any educational activity for horse and rider, ranging from horse-yoga, to cliniques and ordinary lessons. It may also be TREC or similar for beginners
Meet&Achieve
Sharing information, experience and solving difficulties, securing access, legislative achievements securing rider’s rights, safety etc
Meet&Tölt
this includes meeting for a joyful ride whether it is long distance Riding, Relay Rides, shorter tours etc.
What has happended in the Leisure Committee so far?
Over recent years more and more member countries of FEIF are beginning to look into Leisure riding. Surveys conducted within FEIF reveal that outside Iceland (more than 3000 respndents on a survey) the majority of riders are female and that almost all riders enjoy riding in nature either alone or in groups. The surveys also reveal that the character of the Icelandic horse is conceived as being of utmost importance: a controllable and cooperative spirit as well as being safe in interaction with children, mountain bikers, hikers and traffic in general are very important factors when choosing the right horse.
In 2017 the Leisure Committee has launched the Riding Horse Profile, which is a description of the character of any horse on any given day. The Horse Profile has been developed on the basis of material from a large group of member countries and together with educational institutions in Iceland. The Breeding Committee of FEIF has contributed to the work and the Education Committee and the FEIF trainers were involved.
In parallel herewith the members countries have increased focus on securing access to riding in nature. Rules and regulations are extremely different. The information collected on this homepage shall serve as inspiration between countries and people on how things may be done. Each country is encouraged to place information of relevant nature for leisure riders on the FEIF website under Leisure Riding.
Youth Award
See the countries who were “FEIF Youth Country of the Year”.
Get in touch
Contact the Youth Committee or find the youth leader of your country.
Regulations
Get the latest documents from the Youth Work department.