The Tölt Tales
Welcome to The Tölt Tales podcast.
This podcast is dedicated to our best friends, the Icelandic horses. The show features interviews with breeders, trainers, riders, and enthusiasts who share their knowledge, experiences, and love for these remarkable horses.
Music by Cob
The Tölt Tales
Episode 12 - Libea
In episode #12, we take our listeners to Brittany, France talking to Lisa and Tabea, the women behind Libea. Originally from Germany, they both fell in love with Brittany, France. Here, they are establishing their own breeding, training horses and riders, offer rides on the beach and bring the Icelandic community in France forward with their own association.
Join us in listening their interesting journey!
https://www.instagram.com/libea.hhd/reel/DAqxrhWo2Lm/
Music by Cob.
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Hello, and welcome to The Tölt Tales Podcast. Today, it's Ariane for a new episode. And we have our first online guest here, Libea. We have mentioned them before already in some of our stories, and maybe you can introduce yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing?
Tabea:Hello, everybody. And thank you for having us at your podcast. I'm Tabea. And besides me, it's Lisa.
Lisa:Hi.
Tabea:And maybe you will start to present us.
Lisa:Yeah, we are Libea. So it's the combination of our two names, Lisa and Tabea. We are German, and we are living in Brittany, in France. And we created an Icelandic Horse Association in 2022. And yeah, we want to promote the Icelandic Horse in France. And it's our favorite breed. Yeah, we want to share our passion about the Icelandic Horse with more people.
Ariane:Why France? How did you end up in France? What is the story behind that?
Tabea:That's a really good question. I can answer for myself. Normally, I was not so much a fan of France. I was never in Brittany. And then we were on vacation together in Brittany. And I fell in love with Brittany, as Lisa fell in love a lot of time before already with Brittany. And so I think we are a little adventurous. And we were thinking about the nature here. It's always a little bit windy. And, how did you say, wild.
Ariane:I would describe it as wild. Every time I come to Brittany, since Lionel's family is from there, I feel like it's so wild and so raw. And I really enjoy the coastline and everything.
Tabea:Yeah, exactly. So it's really windy and wild. So we were thinking about the Icelandic horse has to be here. And we had to be with the Icelandic horses here.
Ariane:Yeah, I absolutely understand that.
Lisa:And when we were visiting here, the Presqu'il of Crozon, where we do live now, it was really like everywhere we went, we could see our horses here. So it was like, yeah, it was really a coincidence of life that brought us here. And then it was kind of obvious that we're going to stay. So in the beginning, after the first vacation of one week, I was like, okay, so I needed to time off and I needed to breathe a little bit. And so I came here for three months with my three horses, with my three Icelandic horses at the time. And yeah, in the beginning, it was not, I was not going to stay, but it was the way of life that now we are here, and our horses are here and we are very happy about all the coincidences that brought us here.
Ariane:Yeah.
Tabea:Wow.
Ariane:But that is also super interesting to just pack your horses and go to another country.
Lisa:It was like, it was a real adventure.
Tabea:Yeah.
Ariane:Logistically, I just did it with one horse and I had a company bringing my big guy to Sweden. That's, it's quite impressive. So since when are you then in France, actually?
Lisa:We came here five years ago. Now it will be five years in summer. And you, Tabea?
Tabea:Yeah, four years. I was a little, I had to prepare a little more in Germany. So I came a little bit later to Brittany. But it was, I was so sure that I want to move, I also wanted to move to Brittany. That was, it's also the ocean beside. That's just amazing.
Ariane:Yes, it is.
Lisa:We have forests, we have the beach. It's really amazing. And horses are very fine here. And we have green grass the whole year. So, and the climate is, the climate is pretty soft, I would say. We have storms in the autumn, but we have, most of the time, weather can change in five minutes. But temperatures are always between 12, 15, some things like that. It's not very cold, it's not very hot. So, I always really enjoy. Yeah.
Ariane:Maybe we start with, like, also with some questions that we ask, actually, every guest. Since when do you ride? And why Icelandic horses?
Lisa:I ride Icelandic horses since forever, since I was born almost, because I really had the chance to grow up on an Icelandic horse farm, because it was not the farm of my parents. My parents, they always had Icelandic horses. So they infected me with the virus very quickly. So I grew up on a big Icelandic horse farm in Saarland, in the southwest of Germany. It's one of the families that brought first the Icelandic horses to Germany, and who developed their success in Germany. And yeah, so since forever I've been on the back of the Icelandic horses, I grew up with them.
Ariane:So you didn't really have a chance to go to another breed. You were like stuck on them.
Lisa:Yeah, at the beginning, no, because there were only Icelandic horses on the farm. But I spent my holidays at my aunt's place, and she always had dressage horses. And so very quickly, I felt that, yeah, in dressage, there are lots of things that I would love to learn about more. Because I don't, at that time, we didn't do dressage with Icelandic horses at all. So it was not part of even the basic dressage of them. So, yeah, at my aunt's place, I wrote my first flying change in Canter. I was like, wow. And afterwards, I tried to do it with my mare at that time. And it wasn't working.
Tabea:Because she was like...
Lisa:And I was a little bit upset. But that's because, yeah. So then later on, after finishing school, I went to Iceland to... Because I always wanted to visit the land of their origins and to see really where they come from. So I worked six months on an Icelandic horse farm there. And that's where I decided that I want to become a professional rider and trainer and to try to do my way in... Yeah, my way of living in the horse world. And then when I came back to Germany, I had the... I was looking for formations, and then I had the opportunity to go for two years to Belgium, to a very good trainer in classical dressage. And yeah, that's where I started to learn about more of dressage. I always had Icelandic horses, but I've been... Yeah, for I think five or six years, I have been only in the dressage world, where I did my professional formation later on in Germany, at the place of Guttegreif, and then I came afterwards to the Icelandic horse. And that's a little bit my niche. I want to combine the dressage work and the good work of Icelandic horses together.
Ariane:Yeah, that's super interesting. And you, Tabea?
Tabea:To start from the beginning, my family is not a horse family at all. But I don't know what it was, but since I was a child, I loved horses. I only wanted to go riding. And it was a little hard because I had an older sister, two years older than me, well, I have an older sister, and she was allowed to start riding at the age of eight. And then I also wanted to start riding, but in the stables where we were allowed to go riding, there you were only allowed to start riding at the age of eight years old. So I was looking every week of my sister riding, and I wasn't allowed yet. So I had to wait, then I was riding there too, finally. And that was big, also Tresage horses. And we rode there for one year, or I rode there for one year. And then we were on horse vocations for one week with Icelandic horses. And then I fell in love with the street. And so we were asking our parents again and again and again, if we can't start riding every week with Icelandic horses, because it's a lot more fun. We are going on haks and trail rides, and not only in the arena.
Ariane:And so they have a nicer size also for younger riders.
Tabea:But the stable with the big horses was just in the same village where we lived. And the Icelandic horses were like 30 minutes from our place, so our parents had to drive a longer way. But then they decided, okay, they annoy us.
Ariane:We have to do this.
Tabea:So I started riding Icelandic horses also very young. And then I bought my first horse when I was 18 years old. But I was a little afraid, because there where I learned to ride Icelandic horses, there we learned not a lot about the technique or something. And I was a little afraid that when I buy an Icelandic horse, I can't really find a tölt or something like that. So I bought a horse when I was 18 years old. I bought a horse that was nearly an Icelandic horse, like same size and also from the character, a little like, it's a Dölminna Wildpferd. So it's a white horse, German white horse. Yeah. But I was in the pension of the Icelandic horse stable, and then so I went back again in the Icelandic horse world. I rode my horse, but I also helped a lot at this stable. It was also a breeding farm, Icelandic horse breeding farm, and I helped a lot there, and I rode also a lot of their horses, because I helped a lot to be able to ride also their horses. And yeah, since then, I was always in the Icelandic horse world. I learned a lot more about the gates of the Icelandic horse. And then, as I had the horse also with only three gates, I was also a little bit in the other world. And I was thinking also about, okay, I have to, to my three gated horse, I have to really balance him and do a lot of dressage work. So it has to be also the same for Icelandic horses. But in this, it was like a little, maybe a little later than Lisa, but I had the same thinking about, okay, at this time, there weren't really trainers that could help with dressage for Icelandic horses. So I was also thinking about, okay, I have to go in this part of the question world, too, to learn more about dressage. So I went to Spain to work with Lusitanian horses and to learn a lot more about classical dressage. And not about really the dressage you use for competition. It's more like really to help the horse to be really, to feel good in their body and to have good, to build good muscles and all this stuff.
Ariane:But how did you meet? Did you already know each other when you were kids? Or where did your passes cross?
Lisa:Yeah, that's quite funny, because we grew up in the same area of Germany, in the southwest of Germany. But we never met before our holidays that we, yeah, by coincidence, we did together in Brittany, because I, at the time, I was working for a horse farm, for a horse breeding farm in Germany, in Saarland again, and I was training and selling Icelandic horses. And so I had a client that came to me to buy a horse, and Tabea, she was training the horses of this, of that woman. And so that's how we met, because the woman invited us together to come to Brittany, because she, at the time, she was looking for a house with land or a small horse farm, because her dream was to come to Brittany. So that's how we made this trip together, to Brittany, where we met. And that's where we were like, yeah, wow, that could really work together, because we were sharing quite of the same vision. But we had a lot of, in the beginning, I have to admit also, that we had a lot of, we did not share all of our opinions. It was, we really had a lot of discussions as well, because at the time, I have to tell that Tabea, at the time, she was really like an old, only a positive reinforcement of horses. And I was like, I was coming more out of the, yeah, competition world, let's say. And in the beginning, it was like, we also had our difficulties to find a way together for the horse training. But it just was really, really, it was really rich, because we were really discussing the things. And if I could not find a way, or she could not find a way to train a horse, to find a solution for a horse, we were like, but how would you do? Or do you have another idea? And that's where we really, really found our strength together. It's because we had a different way of doing things. And the combination of the two was really working very good for the horses. And that, yeah. And as for us, it's always the horse that has to say, yeah, that's good for me. I know that's not good for me. So we always think that if the communication with your horse is getting lighter and softer and more and more easy, you are on the good way. It's the horse that is going to tell you that if you have to use more and more strength or force or everything, you're not on the good way. And that's also the horse that is going to tell you. And that's where we really found our, yeah, the combination of our strength.
Ariane:I think this is, we see this now talking to different people also in the podcast, people coming from classical education. But now recently we had Camilla talking about equanimity. And this opened really another mindset for us to see how you can approach horses in a different way. And you can still achieve kind of the same things just with a slightly different mindset. So I can understand that you have to find a way, but it's really nice when you come together and you find a way together then. So you both worked with horses, but did you have some like your own horse business already in Germany before you came?
Tabea:So yes, in Germany, I trained horses. Sometimes I work beside in other jobs, but I always was also a horse trainer. So I came to clients to help them with their horses at their home, because I had not really... I had a little farm, but it was really... There was not a huge riding arena or something. So I didn't felt like giving lessons at my horse farm. So I was helping people with their horses at their place. But I also had some training horses at my farm.
Ariane:Okay. Yeah.
Lisa:Me, I was working on four different horse farms that were well known as well. So I was in big stables of selling and training Icelandic horses. And then I came back to Saarland to rebuild an Icelandic horse breeding farm. And I started to think about having my own place and my own farm. That always was kind of my dream. And so we were looking, together with my family, we started looking out for a horse farm that could suit our, yeah, what we were looking for. And we could not find what we are looking for in Germany.
Tabea:Yeah, it was also where the tiny farm that I had in Germany, it was just, it was not my own horse farm. I didn't bought it. I just rented this place. So it was also my dream to have my own horse farm. And I always was thinking about, I don't want to do this alone. I want to do this in community with other people, so we can help each other. You can take a day off and things like that.
Lisa:Very important point.
Ariane:The next question is, how does a day or a week in your life look now? Because now you're two, but do you have a day off?
Lisa:So at the moment, we have like eight hectares of land at Roscanvel, at the Presquilles of Croissant. It's a protected natural space, so we are not allowed to build anything. So that's why at the moment it's really... Yeah, the horses are out on the fields. We have a small natural arena. And so at the moment, we don't really have a very big routine, besides that in the morning we go out, we check about the horses, we feed them, then we start training them. And yeah, if not, we have to do a lot of... organization for our project, that we are preparing. And a lot of phone calls. And so we try to go outside and to build the fences and everything, when the weather is nice. And we try to do the work inside, when the weather is not so nice. So that's a little bit how we work at the moment.
Tabea:So we don't have a routine at all, I think.
Ariane:Is it something that you want to do then, at your own farm, to have some kind of inside riding possibilities?
Lisa:Yes, that's the dream. At the horse farm, we will have a small riding hall, a small indoor arena, maybe not from the beginning on, but it's kind of the... Yeah, so we're organizing trail rides. We are already organizing trail rides in spring and in autumn. So that's when we are allowed to go on the beaches as well. And in summer, we offer for tourists, we offer small three-hour courses, where they can learn more about the Icelandic horse and of horse language as well, and how they can communicate with horses. And then we can go on a small hike outside as well. We really try to find a program that fits what tourists want and what is good for our horses as well. That's not always easy.
Ariane:Yes. Would you say this is something people should come to you, stay for a week or like just a couple of days and try to go into this short program, get a bit more feeling and see what the fascination about it is. And then additionally have, of course, France as a surrounding. Is this something that you want to promote?
Tabea:Yeah, of course. So at the, in our project where we want to buy the farm, there's also a house that we will use for a vacation house. So you can come as a whole family and either everybody is, can come to have lessons, hack out, get to know the Icelandic horses. Or if they are, for example, only the kids, they can also just come and do the courses. And the parents, they can do other things. Because as you said, we have France and also in Britain, it's really, really beautiful. The nature is amazing. And we had, we already had some couples, they came and it was, the woman came to ride and the man was going surfing because you can also come here to do surfing. So it was also perfect for them. They were like, oh, it's so amazing. I can go to ride. I don't have to wait while the waves are good. So he can go surfing and I can ride. It's perfect.
Ariane:It's really good.
Lisa:You can really do a lot of things here. You can go hiking, surfing, sailing, do all of the water sports.
Ariane:Perfect.
Lisa:Climbing.
Tabea:So a lot of sports, outdoor sports and everything like this. And so it's also amazing with the horses because we have really good, nice forests and good nature to to hack out.
Ariane:The question is also, when is the last time you bought a horse? Because I know that you just recently acquired kind of a lot of new horses. Can you tell me about it?
Tabea:Yeah. So Lisa, as Lisa said at the beginning, she was coming to to Brittany with three horses. I came to Brittany with two horses. And now we have.
Ariane:It's not five anymore, obviously.
Tabea:We have a lot of horses together now. So we have around like twenty or twenty four horses. There's always a little movement because there are some they were sold. Then we have two breeding mares. They are still pregnant, but it's soon that they will have their foals. So it's always between twenty, twenty five horses.
Ariane:And that's a good number.
Tabea:A lot.
Ariane:Yeah, but it's, I mean, we heard already from Sabina, like ten horses is a good number. And twenty, I feel like for two people, it's a good number.
Tabea:Yeah, we always say Icelandic horses come in her herds. So, yes, perfect.
Ariane:Yes. We heard that a lot from people, that you start with one and somehow, I mean, we have now four and I think we say we're good, but then when we visited you and I I still dream of this mare that you have, Magni.
Tabea:She was the best at the breeding assessment of young mares, so we don't sell her anymore. We don't want to sell her anymore.
Lisa:At the moment, we would like to let her stay to become another breeding mare.
Ariane:Yes.
Lisa:Because she was really 10 out of 10, most of all for her character. She was going into the trailer, going off to the trailer, saying, Oh, hi, that's a nice big arena. Okay, I will just show my 5Ks, and then we can go home. Very nice.
Ariane:Yes.
Lisa:That's really what we want to breed here. It's not like in Germany, where you can breed more for competition. Here in France, we really are on the beginning of the journey of the Icelandic horse. And it's not so well known yet. We really have to show, we want to start to show that the Icelandic horse is really a nice horse for the whole family to ride, to go on hax, to do a little bit of dressage, a little bit of jumping, to do the nice gaits. And so that's what we try to show. So we also try to be present on some horse events with other breeds to show that our horses are doing... They are a little bit smaller, but they are doing very well, and they have very big hearts. And so they do everything for us, and that's really nice.
Ariane:So promoting this breed is, I think it's a great thing that you do. And it should come more in France, because I think it really... Those two together, Icelandic Horses and France or Brittany especially, I feel like this is really a perfect match, in my opinion. So we're really happy we found you.
Lisa:Yeah, we think so too.
Tabea:And that's why we're here.
Ariane:So about your farm, you're currently still waiting for the paperwork, but then you have the buildings, you could have like holiday let for people coming, having training, going on the ride. But could you also bring your own horse, actually? Is that possible?
Lisa:Yeah, that will be possible as well. We will offer holidays for formation. So with your own horse or with horses of us. So we will try to have to propose some horses that are well trained to in order to train the people. But it's also possible to come with your own horse to do holidays, to train with us. We propose as well the training of horses for sailing, to sell them or also just to get a nice leisure horse or competition horse, whatever you want.
Tabea:And yeah, it's already possible now, actually. You can already come to us with your own horse now, but it's like really more for training, and you can go to the beach, for example, but only in off season. And it's more like camping. I would say, because we don't really have an installation, we don't have an indoor riding arena or something like that. But it's already possible to come with your horse for a week, to learn a lot and everything. While spring and summer and a little bit of autumn, it's already possible.
Ariane:Yeah. And you have also interns, right? Like some girls that are working for you or helping you with the horses. Are they local or do they come from Germany?
Lisa:Yes, we do propose internships. And most of the girls are coming from Germany, from Switzerland and Austria. And they stay, most of the time, they stay like two or three months. And for us, it's really nice to have some help, but we also really want them to profit and to be able to train a lot with us and to ride our horses and to learn a lot. So it's really to develop them.
Ariane:This is super interesting.
Tabea:Yeah, we want to really, really balance, that they can come and learn a lot, a lot. And it's also for us, it's really a lot of help, when they can come and help us. So as Lisa and I, we did also internships at the beginning, at the age of 18, I would say, when we were in Iceland, or I was in Spain and some things like that, we did a lot of internships. And so we know how at our place we were like, it was so great to have so good lessons and regularly. So we really try to do a lot for them when they are here. So it's really... Developing. Yeah, we don't want just to have people that help us without having something for them to offer. So we offer lessons.
Ariane:Yeah, not just cheap stable helpers, but you also want that they develop in their riding and horsemanship.
Tabea:Exactly.
Lisa:And most of them, they come back even.
Ariane:Okay, so you do a good job, clearly. Well, this is really nice. And so you have done the breeding, and you just bought some horses. Where did the horses come from?
Lisa:Well, at the beginning, we wanted, we were looking in Germany to, for nice horses for breeding. And so we were also in contact at the beginning. Yeah, with the breeders where we grew up as well. So we wanted to build up a breeding with horses that, where we know very well the origins, the plans and signs. And most of, for me, it's very important to know how they feel when you ride them. So, yes, really with the feeling. And that's for me, I think it's important as well that breeders, they also, yeah, for me personally, it's very important to have the feeling when I want to breed with a horse, I want to feel how it is to ride it. And yeah, so I can do the combination better as well. So then we can think, okay, this horse has this strength, but that's a little bit weak or maybe an issue with the contact or with the balance. And then we could, it's very important that the stallion, so you always start from the mare, and then you analyze the mare, and then you look with which stallion you can combine it. And then it's very important that the stallion, he is really correct in this point. I see, to, in order to have nice riding horses, and in order to have horses that are very well balanced and good in their body and with good health.
Tabea:At the beginning, when we were starting like, okay, we have to build up a little bit of our herd for the breeding, we were looking for five horses.
Lisa:Yeah. Yeah.
Ariane:Okay. That escalated a bit.
Lisa:In the beginning, we wanted to buy five horses. And then we had a contact from a friend that says, well, I know that there's a breeder in the south of France. And she has, because of personal reason, she wants to stop breeding. But she has very nice horses. And yes, that's why we get in contact with just a cat at that moment. And she had a change of her lifestyle. So she really loved her horses. And she had built up a nice breeding herd. And she was saying to us, well, now I'm at the point where I always wanted to be. And now I have to sell them. So it was, I think, a hard decision for her. But we found out that from the origins, from the plat lines, from what she was looking for, we had really, we had a lot of points in common. And so she already did a nice selection of horses. Most of them came from a Belgian breed, breed that is well known. And we had a lot of offsprings of Herrsie, Frau Lambanese, which I met in personally at the time when I worked at Falkenegg, because he was there for the breeding. And every day, I was putting him out on the field with his mares, and he was just, he was a stallion. Even when he had competed at Landsmot in Iceland very nicely, he was such a gentleman. He was such so nice. And he was like, okay, nice, you can bring me out to my mares, I can wait for you. And he was just what we are looking for in Icelandic horses. You want to have them to be to, you want to have the fire to work, but you also want to have the nice character to adapt to all the circumstances and to be easy and everything and everything. And so that's what he really was, he really was a like, and he had the price for his offsprings as well. Yeah, so she has offsprings of Herse von Lampenese, and...
Tabea:Yeah, like everybody.
Lisa:And Nes from Ausse von London, who is very known for his good bloodline as well, and to have nice and good voices.
Tabea:Also super simple to ride and to train and to start riding. Really just so gentle and amazing.
Lisa:Yeah, so we went there after we had a clinic, and it was not so nearby, but it was a little bit more in the south. So we had a horse riding clinic, and then we went to the breeders, and we have seen the horses, and we were like, okay, it's, yeah. Normally, we would have loved to have first the farm, and then the horses, but as it was an opportunity in life that you cannot have twice, we were like, oh, okay, we have to jump on this opportunity, because we were so in love, we felt immediately so in love with all of the words. So yeah, it just has, it just had to be like that. And we bought the horses that were 16 horses at the time.
Tabea:Well, a little more than five horses.
Lisa:Yeah.
Ariane:Five, 16, it's almost the same number.
Lisa:And we have to, yeah, we own them as two people, so it's the half.
Ariane:Yeah, exactly. I mean, this is, I don't see a problem there.
Lisa:Yeah, and then the big adventure started. All of the herd came here.
Tabea:They are really, really, really great horses. And it's really with our vision of having horses. They are really gentle. They are good for leisure, but still with good gaits. So, yeah, that's what we want to breed.
Lisa:Yeah, and it's really a lot of fun, because now we start to sell horses as well. But when you can find a good person for the horse, this fun for me, it's really a very fun part as well. It's making me happy to see that the horse can find a good place and a good person, and they will do their paths together. And so for us, it's really nice to see it as well. So we want to build up a name with a good ridden and good trained horses that are trained already with a nice variety, variability of things that they can learn. And because for us, we prepare them for their life. And so it's very important that we do a good job and that we prepare them very well and nicely for their path as a riding horse, as a leisure horse, as a member of this new family.
Ariane:Yeah. And then the breeding assessments might be coming in again for when you have now new foals. How often is there a possibility for breeding assessments at France? I know that we talked about in Sweden, there are some, but over the year, there are not as many as in Iceland. How is it in France, especially in Brittany?
Lisa:It's quite very rare. I think we have maybe one or two breeding assessments in France per year.
Tabea:Like the bigger breeding assessments. They also do some small breeding assessments where they come really only for the breeder. So I think maybe around five, but not more than this, I don't think so.
Lisa:I think five is a lot, no?
Tabea:You don't?
Ariane:Wow.
Tabea:Lisa has no Facebook, so she doesn't know.
Lisa:Yeah, but this year we organized, as we have more horses to show in breeding assessment, we organized the first big breeding assessment together with the FFCE and Tölt Dail West, another association for the Icelandic horse and Laura, here in Brittany. And it was the first time, we are really no specialists in breeding assessments, not at all. And it was the first event like that, that we organized together. And it was, yeah, we can say that it was a big success. So it was very nice. And it was a nice...
Ariane:Audience?
Lisa:Yeah, there were around 80 visitators who came just to visit. 26 Icelandic horses. For here, it's nice. A lot.
Ariane:Yeah, it's good.
Lisa:26 Icelandic horses at one place. Yeah, compared to Germany, it might, yeah, they might think what they are doing, but for here, we are just in the beginning, so it's already very nice.
Tabea:Yeah, I think it's super. For France, it was a really huge breeding assessment. There were not all 26 horses for the breeding assessment. There were also, we did a formation one day before, together with the Federation of Icelandic Horses here in France. And so there were some horses for the formation and the other ones for the assessment.
Lisa:Yeah, and it was really nice to organize with the FSE, so with the Federation of Icelandic Horses in France, this day of formation, because it was really to form people, how and why we show horses for the breeding assessment. And that it's not because you have a horse only for competition, that you are going to show it to the judges, but it's also to have some notes, to have some results, and to have the... to know the good or the weak points of your horse, in order to be able to train it well. Because if you always see your horse yourself, we tend to not be obvious anymore. And it's nice to have a judge to tell you... to have somebody who is obvious, but who has no opinion before you, to tell you what is his strength, what is the points where you have to pay attention. And yeah, I think that's a nice thing. And we, as reading of Icelandic horses here in France, there's more and more people who are going to ask for Icelandic horses. I think it starts to be a bit known, but we also have to form the breeders, because we don't want... We have to pay attention that it's not everybody who says, oh, at the moment Icelandic horses, it's nice to breed them, so I just do it without knowing about their gaits. And so they will just maybe choose for nice colors or nice whatsoever, and not pay enough attention of the health of the horse, of the temperament, of the gaits. And very important that we try to... Yeah, we have this great responsibility. We have a very, very nice breeding, but it has to stay like this. So, we want to have horses that are fertile, that are with very good health, that can become very old, and you can still ride them. Yes. We have to pay attention of many things.
Ariane:Yeah.
Tabea:Yeah, we have a huge responsibility as breeders, I think, yeah.
Ariane:Yeah. This is really interesting. So, you want really a sustainable horse, rather than just something to show off. But then, when you talk about the breeders, and that they should be aware, how is the community and the scene for Icelandic horses currently? You still say it's small, and there are people coming more now that might just breed, but how many associations are there? Do you know this? And how many horses are like overall? Do you have an idea about this? And you said also you have an association. Do you have more members in your association already?
Tabea:Here in France, we have around like 4,000 Icelandic horses. That's, we always compare with Germany, where we have 73,000 Icelandic horses. So there's quite the potential of growing the number of Icelandic horses in France. So it's really still small. But as Lisa said, there's so much interest in this breed. So we really try to do a lot of work to be present, to show this breed, which is amazing. And yes, we have our association that's called Libea. And we have around 30 members in our association.
Ariane:But this is already quite big.
Tabea:Thank you.
Ariane:I think it's just the beginning.
Tabea:It's just the beginning. We really try to help people to understand more their islamic horses. We want really to show this breed also to other horse people that they get to know the islamic horses. And we try to help a lot. There are some, what we hear a lot here in France is, there are people that are interested in islamic horses, but they don't dare to get an islamic horse or something like that, because there are no trainers around them. There are no people that know islamic horses around them. So we started to do a lot online also. So Lisa is giving online lessons in France, and we started with our association members once a week. Once a month, we have a meeting together. No, it's not like a meeting, it's like a roundtable.
Lisa:Do you say it or not?
Ariane:Yeah, like a roundtable discussion.
Lisa:Yeah, it's like a discussion, and once per month, we choose a theme we want to discuss. So once it can be the nutrition, the last time it has been the breeding assessment, before we had training of horses. So everybody is just a get-together, and you can exchange about what is going on, or if you have questions or a problem with your horse. It's really to connect Icelandic horse people. Yeah, and because we have a lot of pupils that feel a little bit lonely, because they might be the only owner of an Icelandic horse in their stable, and so they are like... And sometimes I don't know if he's trotting or toting, and I feel a little bit lost. And so yeah, the online lessons are really... At the beginning, I was a little bit afraid of, but now I love it, because even if I haven't seen the copper before in life, that's what I prefer still, but it's already a big help to regularly have somebody who is looking at you and to tell you, yeah, now he's doing that, and can you feel it? And you could try this to help. And yeah, it has a lot of success, so that's great.
Ariane:And I just have to say that I really recommend everybody to try out your lesson. I enjoyed it so much that we train now on Saturday. I was impressed how much you saw on the video, and we have a paddock that is maybe not super for the Icelandics, but we talked about different grounds anyway. But I went off my horse and I was extremely happy with the progress we made and how much it also matched to my training that I'm doing at the moment with Louise. So I really felt like the dots connected. Really impressive how you did that. I really enjoyed it. And my horse was really like, yeah, let's do this. So we see that now we need to get our shit here together, but I would like to do it again. And yeah, definitely.
Lisa:Yeah, we'd love to. I really like it.
Ariane:I recommend everybody to do it.
Lisa:Thank you.
Tabea:Yeah, it's really, I also was surprised how much we can see on the screen and helping the people in online lessons. It's really impressive how it works.
Ariane:Yeah.
Tabea:So I think this is a great opportunity to have also around Europe, even, but also in France. So I think it's really a great opportunity and also to get together online, to give the people the strength to feel confident with their Icelandic courses at their place at home. So I think this is really, really important, a really important step now here in France to, yeah.
Lisa:Yeah. And it's not only for Icelandic courses. And I really, I really love also the, now I have an online course also, like other breeds and I had also the Rocky Mountain horse. And it was really interesting because I was doing it with the trainer and the owner of the horse. And it was really a lesson to train the trainer. That's really what I love also because we want to connect with other trainers. We want to form people and to help each other to give the best output in order to have the best output for the horse as well.
Ariane:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I really like then additionally that you have these discussions with your members and you build the community really nicely up. So this is really nice. How about competitions then? Is it something that is also coming more? Do you train for competitions? Do you have students that want to compete? How is it working?
Tabea:We would love to.
Lisa:Yeah, we have some pupils that want to train for competitions. Last year, I went to Corsica to train people in Corsica. And afterwards, he came to France to do a little bit of competition. So that's very nice as well, because he said, well, I have the only three Icelandic horses in Corsica, so I don't fight a trainer here. So I took the flight and I went to train him. It was very nice. But we don't have, yeah, we cannot say that we really train horses for competition yet in France, because we have like one competition that is world ranking, that is a world ranking competition in France. So it's at the place of Pyr Cheval, and we highly recommend to go there. It's always a nice event. It's such a nice get together. And it's really, it's not about concurrence. It's really about getting together with your Icelandic horse. And we always say that even if you have a horse with normal gaits, it's nice as well to go to a small competition, because in France, we only have small competitions. So even if it's road ranking, and you can go there with your normal horse, it's no problem. And you just train to be able to have the gaits on point when you do, when you ask your horse to do so, and you have the points from the judges. And so it can also help you to improve yourself. And it's always a nice get-together, because as here in France, we are very far one from another. And yeah, we Germans, we were used to have one Icelandic horse breeding on every hill in Germany, where we come from, and there are a lot of hills, so it's no problem. And I have to admit that, yes, there's a little bit, as always, you have a little bit of concurrency, but at the moment, I think it's really, there's no point in thinking that we are concurrency. It's just, we all want to promote the Icelandic horse and to share the passion about Icelandic horses. And if you have only 4,000 Icelandic horses in France, please don't think about concurrency. Think how to help each other, how to connect with each other, to help each other. Sometimes you can always learn from it. And yeah, we have the same goal. So I think we have to keep in mind that we want to share more things that, and yeah.
Ariane:It's an opportunity to actually come together with like-minded people, independent, if you compete with each other or against each other. But just, again, building community.
Tabea:Yes, exactly. So I think at the moment we don't have a lot of competitions, so we don't really train for competitions. Yet, we always go to pure cheval. And we, every year we say, next year we will come with our horses, and then there is something like this year. Reading, we have our first foals here. So I was thinking about maybe going with Frodo, but I don't really dare yet. We will see, because like Lisa and I, we are sometimes, we are like chaotic, and we are like spontaneous. We will see. It's not impossible yet, but we will see.
Lisa:And we are organizing now our spring camp at Mouillère, Clopipique, the Forêt de Mouillère. It's a big horse center at Poitiers, and we are working with them together in order to propose clinics, especially for Icelandic horses. And now we are organizing together our spring camp, our first spring camp. It will take place at Poitiers for four days. Now it will be the weekend and after.
Tabea:So maybe it will be, it was already when you hear it.
Lisa:But we will organize our first, we call it, fun competition. There won't be any judges yet, maybe next year, we will see. But it's really, it's just to open for everybody, so they can, I try sometimes also to do it, when I'm doing my clinics. The last day, we do like a little fun competition. So we train during the clinic, we train the horse to do like the five or something like that.
Ariane:Like a program.
Lisa:Yes, like a little bit of program. And then the last day, we have a fun competition. We put a little bit of music on everybody's together. We just try to write our little fun competition to have a little bit of more ambience, a little bit more vibe.
Ariane:Yeah, to get the whole atmosphere.
Lisa:To have a bit of the atmosphere and just to see how it's going to work out. And if it's not going to work out at all, it's no problem. It's just to learn and to have fun.
Tabea:We will do this again in summer in Brittany, so more in the west of France. We will do a summer camp where we will do exactly or nearly the same. So it's clinic, it's also a hack to hack out with the horse and a little fun competition to start thinking about Icelandic competitions around here. And in our project of buying the farm, our dream would be to have an oval track also at our place, so we can also offer competitions at our place. So the idea is to building really a universe around us here in Brittany to have more people interested in Icelandic horses and to have really like a huge community around us. They can come to have competition at our place. So I don't know when that would be, maybe in 10 years, in 20 years. But afterwards, it's like five or four years, we are here in Brittany, we came with five horses, now we have 25 horses. So maybe it will come sooner than we are thinking.
Ariane:You never know. Exactly.
Tabea:We will see.
Ariane:And we will follow your progress. Yeah, and we highly recommend everybody to check you out and follow you, actually. Thank you, Tabea and Lisa, Libea, for joining us today.
Lisa:Thank you, Ali.
Ariane:It was super cool. And then do not hesitate to share this episode, and you can follow Libea on Instagram. Thank you and goodbye.
Lisa:Bye.
Tabea:Thank you very much.
