Besides our splashed white horses it means a great deal to us to maintain the old bloodlines of Hornafjörður and Hindisvík.
We have a strong connection to those bloodlines.
Tobbi's ancestors are from Hindisvík and his grandfathers brother, séra Sigurður Norland, lived there from 1885 till 1971. Sigurður was breeding this special bloodline, who can be traced almost pure-bred straight to the year 1873.
It all started when Rauðskjóna frá Ánastöðum arrived in Hindisvík in 1900. She is the ancestor wich all Hindisvík horses since descend from. There was a lot of inbreeding and almost never mixed with other horse breeding lines for about 100 years.
After séra Sigurður's passing in 1971, Tobbi, Agnar Norland and Agnar's brother, Sverrir Norland, continued the breeding of the Hindisvík horses. Later it was only Tobbi and Agnar who kept the breeding going with about 40 breedingmares till 1995. After that the breeding decreased dramatically because of various reasons, but they always kept a few mares.
Many well known horses have ancestors from Hindisvík. One of them is the stallion Glóblesi 700 frá Hindisvík wich was used for breeding in many places including Kirkjubær where he had many good descendants, for example Seifur, Strákur, Sóti, Brana and her daughter Rauðhetta frá Kirkjubæ.
From Hindisvík are also many famous competition horses. For example; Huginn frá Hindisvík (Norwegian master in tölt and fourgait) and Muninn frá Hindisvík (Swedish master in fivegait and flying pace).
Many of the Hindisvík horses were sold to Germany, where interested breeders like Dieter Puetz, Andreas Trappe and others had good success with the Hindisvík breeding. Dieter Puetz was chosen ,,Breeder of the year" two times in Germany and the stallion Hlöðvir frá Hindisvík got the highest price for oppsprings in Germany for one year.
Húni frá Hindisvík and Hrafnfaxi frá Hindisvík, owned by Heinz Pinsdorf also prooved their selves as good breeding stallions in Germany.
In 1993 Agnar and Tobbi held an Breedingshow in cooperation with their friend Dieter Puetz. It was located in Roderath, where 80 horses from Hindisvík breeding were shown and got a lot of attention.
The main characteristics of the Hindisvík bloodline are very strong because of the decades of inbreeding. They are uniquely elegant and fine built with great legs and hooves. Fourgated and also fivegated horses with a famous trot with very high movements and extreme soar and glide.
They can be very independent and some difficult in beginning of training, though some of them are really easy. The willingness is usually strong forward and in some cases more than needed.
Usually when people have owned a good Hindisvík horse they come back for that bloodline.
Here you can read more about our current Hindisvík breeding.
Hlöðvir, Huginn, Hlöðvir, Hetja and Fjöður
Hanný is our Hornafjörður bloodline expert. She first got to know the Hornafjörður horses back in Germany, where she owned a Hornafjörður mare. When she was breaking in young horses in Árnanes (in Hornafjörður) in 1987 she got to know them better. There she got to know a lot of good pure bred Hornafjörður horses and has been a fan of them since.
Hanný worked as a trainer in Hornafjörður for 26 years (till 2013) and lived in Dynjandi from 1999 - 2013.
She is now holding on to a few breeding mares from this old bloodline. Some of them have the old Nökkvi 260 frá Hólmi about 40 times in their pedigree. Ófeigur 818 frá Hvanneyri and Flosi frá Brunnum are also important ancestors in her Hornafjörður breeding.
Well known characteristics of the Hornafjörður kin are for example that they are really tame to the humans but also big personalities and independent. If they are handled right and given time in the beginning of training they are easy to handle. Their forward willingness usually grows with their training and there is a quote that describes it pretty well. It was said about the stallion Blakkur frá Árnanesi “skap og fjör svo mikið, að ekki væri þörf á meiru fyrir kröfuharðan hestamann.”
Roughly translated: "so much willingness that even a demanding rider could not ask for more."
The tölt is usually the best gait. The stamina and speed range in the gaits can often be fantastic.
Þorkell Bjarnason, former "horse-breeding-minister" of iceland, describes it very well in his quote:
“Enginn maður heldur út að ferðast svo lengi, án hvíldar, að hann nálgist það að vera til frásagnar þegar viljinn fjarar út í hornfirskum viljahesti.” (Jódynur 1990)
Roughly translated:"no man has the endurance to travel (riding) for so long, without resting, that he will experience the willingness fade in a Hornafjörður powerhorse"
By clicking here you can read a short text about our Hornafjörður horses.
Hornafjörður representatives - Fimma, Gargandi-Snilld, Hæra and Muska
Our interest in the splashed white horses is Heiða's "fault". It was her biggest wish to own a splashed white horse. When she got one for her conformation there was no turning back.
Our goal with the splashed white horses is not only the colour, they have also to be good riding horses, and does our Stallion, Strákur frá Vatnsleysu, play a big role in our breeding.
You can read more about our splashed white breeding under this link.
Splashed white representatives - Strákur frá Vatnsleysu, Gríma frá Laugabóli and Skrámur frá Hurðarbaki