The Tölt Tales

Episode 15 - Jeff Rose

• The Tölt Tales • Season 2 • Episode 5

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In our latest episode we chat with Jeff Rose, vice president of the USHIC, residing in Colorado, US. We met Jeff during our stay at Hestaland in the spring of 2025, where we had a super nice conversation. We stayed in contact with Jeff and decided to invite him to our podcast.

You can listen to what it means to have an Icelandic horse in the US, the USIHC,  what it means for the US team to travel to competitions and what the future holds.

Join us


Music by Cob.
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Lionel:

Hello everybody, and welcome to The Tölt Tales Podcast. Hello, Jeff, how are you?

Jeff:

I'm great, thanks for having me.

Lionel:

Thanks for allowing us to record you today. The last time we met was in Iceland.

Jeff:

Yeah, at Hestaland, back in March.

Lionel:

And since then, so many things happened, even the world championship, where I think, can I say your team, or the US team was represented?

Jeff:

Yeah, the US team, I think they did great. We were excited to see them, we were really proud of the performances, the rides were beautiful, harmonious.

Lionel:

Were you on site?

Jeff:

I was, I was. It was the first time that I've ever been to a competition even in Europe, let alone the world championships. And it was amazing, it was beautiful.

Lionel:

Yes, we will ask a question around that a bit later, but I guess the logistic was quite heavy.

Jeff:

Oh, yeah, for the US team to get there, it's a huge effort and a huge expense, but it was great to see the horses all travel so well, great to see the performances.

Lionel:

Yeah. When we start an episode, we usually ask for the guest to present himself by a simple question. Who are you, Jeff?

Jeff:

Well, my name is Jeff Rose. I live just outside of Denver, Colorado, and obviously an Icelandic horse enthusiast. In my real life, for the real job, I work as an attorney. Like I imagine you and everybody else listen to this. My passion is getting to work with and ride Icelandic horses.

Lionel:

Are you born and raised in Colorado?

Jeff:

I'm actually from a state called Wisconsin, sort of up in the midwest towards the north. I grew up there and came to Colorado about 20 years ago.

Lionel:

Right, okay. Maybe it's a bit cliche, but the US have another kind of riding, right? Like you could expect from an American to ride maybe a western or maybe classical, but how come you ride Icelandic horse?

Jeff:

Well, my wife and I actually got into Icelandic horses through my parents. My mother stumbled on horses. She wasn't a rider. She was always afraid of horses, and we were on a trip together probably 20 years ago, and all of a sudden she sees an article in a horse magazine that says, if you're afraid of horses, try the Icelandic horse. And I remember my father looking at me because my mother is a very eccentric person naturally, and my father just turned and looked at me and said, Icelandic horses, thank God, this is the one thing that you could not find in rural Wisconsin. And at the end of the article, the author wrote special thanks to Dan and Barb Riva of Winter Horse Park in Eagle, Wisconsin, which was about three miles from where my parents lived and where I grew up. So my mother immediately goes home, contacts the Rivas at Winter Horse Park, and I think within two months, she owned an Icelandic horse, and that got the entire family into Icelandic horses.

Lionel:

So I mean, I mean, your father jinxed it, right? Let's be honest.

Jeff:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And it couldn't have been more perfect. I just, I still remember the look on his face thinking, thank God, we're not doing this. And even he had an Icelandic horse within about six months of that.

Lionel:

Oh, wow. Okay, it's a full... Okay, okay. But you own, your family owned horses before?

Jeff:

No, never. No, never.

Lionel:

All right.

Jeff:

It was just a fresh start into a totally new world and a life that I think none of us could possibly have imagined at the time. My parents were riding, and they, of course, loved it from the beginning. And whenever my wife and I would go visit my parents, we would go on trail rides with them. And I remember commenting once to my wife, Abby, after a ride, it's the only thing I've done in the past 10 years where I didn't think about work. And at that point, even she knew, this is clearly what we're doing. So it's funny how things start.

Lionel:

Can I ask how many horses you and your parents had the morning? Because as a good horse man or as a horse family, you collect them at some point, and you will get this question for yourself later. But how many horses your family had?

Jeff:

So it's a little embarrassing at this point. My parents right now have three.

Lionel:

Okay, they still have.

Jeff:

And they've actually moved to Colorado, and they're at the same farm that we're at. And I joke with my wife about, you know, just depends on how you count the number of horses that you have. But I'm afraid that depending on how we count, the number is either seven or eight, depending if you count one or don't count one. But so together, we're over ten. And it's an amazing thing. One thing I love about this is the horses don't care if you're 80 or eight. It's an even playing field for everybody.

Lionel:

You have ten horses. Are you breeding yourself?

Jeff:

No, not right now. Every year, we think about it a little bit more, but maybe...

Lionel:

Because the right now is very ominous. It's like right now like that.

Jeff:

We're thinking that maybe next year we'd like to breed one of the mares.

Lionel:

Do you have stallions with your stallions or no with the...

Jeff:

We don't have any stallions. And we're at an Icelandic horse barn that typically has about 40 horses. No stallions there, but there is an excellent... There's a lot of excellent stallions in the US., but there's one that is close by, Thruster for Kvamvi, who I mean, you frequently will see that name pop up in a lot of breeding. And of course, Virginia Lauridsen, who's at Harmony Icelandics in Iowa, just brought over Drengar for Kettlestotham, who of course had a really wonderful performance on the breeding track in Switzerland at the World Championships. And I mean, there are a lot of good stallions in the US that's just mentioning one that's close and one that's new.

Lionel:

Yes, yes. Do you compete?

Jeff:

I do. I love to be on the oval track. I think it's really fun. The hard part for us in the US is that there are so few competitions and they're so far apart that it's a challenge to get to compete as much as we'd want. When I look at the ice test ticker or the competitions on horse day and you see in Europe, there's 10 competitions on a weekend.

Lionel:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeff:

Or Iceland, it just depends on where you are. For us, just getting to go to a couple competitions a year is a lot of trailering, but I love it. It's one of my favorite things to do.

Lionel:

Is it the infrastructure, the problem, or is it just like, no, it's gathering the amount of rider that you need to have for a competition that is just the struggle because the US is so vast?

Jeff:

To me, it's the distance. That's really the biggest part. Okay. Where we're located, our barn will host one competition per year, and the next closest oval track that hosts competitions is a 13-hour drive away. So it's quite a haul. It's pretty normal for people in the US to be hauling horses for several days just to get to a competition. So that's really our biggest challenge.

Lionel:

I mean, 13 hours ride, drive, you cross Europe at that point, you know?

Jeff:

And we think that one's close.

Lionel:

Go figure.

Jeff:

Right.

Lionel:

So, but you do compete. Do you have a favorite type of competition or do you compete sport or getting a...

Jeff:

In the US, it's mostly sport.

Lionel:

Sport, okay.

Jeff:

I have a four-gated horse, so I just love riding V2 and T3. Those are my favorite events. Maybe there's a five-gator in my future and can try to do that, but it's just always fun. It's fun to get together with the Icelandic horse community and one thing I love about riding on the track, at least I always feel like I come away from it with a much better connection with the horse.

Lionel:

Yes, I mean, we ask always a cheeky question as a good horse owner. When is the last time you bought a horse? Should I not ask that question, maybe? I see your face.

Jeff:

It depends who's listening. No, the last time I bought a horse, would have been about, I think it was actually a year and a half ago. So I think I'm overdue. It's been a long time for me.

Lionel:

Yes. Jeff, you're sleeping. Yeah. We had one guest who told us, if you don't buy a horse, you produce horse. So maybe next year, you will start that second part of your life. We touched upon about what is the environment in the US on Icelandic horse to understand what is your reality in the US.

Jeff:

I think for us, there's probably Icelandic horses in most states across the US. So we've got a good number of horses. The US Icelandic Horse Congress has just under 1,000 household members. So we've got a good membership base, and it is really spread across the country. But the biggest part, as you mentioned, really pertains to where the training centers and the larger barns are located. And we have those barns in Southern California, in Oregon, in the Portland area, in the Eugene, Oregon area, in Washington state, on the west coast. There's barns in the mountain region, in Colorado and Wyoming. We've got another barn that is in Iowa, that is owned by Virginia Lourdeson. That's just in the western half of the US. Those training centers really are an important part. We've got Winterhorse Park in Wisconsin. It's been always a wonderful place. A number of farms in Minnesota. Kentucky has a couple of big hubs there, and then we go on to the east coast, and we'll find other training centers in the Boston area and in Vermont and in upstate New York. So there really are just these islands pocketed all over, and you can draw the lines between them, but unfortunately those lines sometimes are quite a drive between them. But the training centers where our trainers are, I think that's really the heart of the US community. That's where we see the most growth in the breed. That's where we see people much, more easily being introduced into the breed. It's also where the sport events typically are held. So those islands are an important part. But the US in general has a really good and historic horse culture. So, I've heard people in Iceland referring to the US as the holy grail of Icelandic horses. We just have to figure out how to open up the popularity and the interest there. And there's a lot of potential, and it certainly is potential that we see. But the environment, I think it's really good. The climate across the US changes greatly. I mean, Colorado's weather compared to the East Coast's weather, really different, but the Icelandic horses do really well here. I think it's just a matter of time before the distance between these training center islands starts to feel a little smaller.

Lionel:

I'm curious to know how do you stable them? For instance, in your farm, are they more in box or they are more outside? Or is there a typical way you will keep your Icelandic horses?

Jeff:

I would say for the most part, most of the places that I'm aware of keep the horses, for the most part, in groups. Usually it's a gelding's paddock or a mare's paddock. And together where they can be with each other, be social and be outside and moving around, which is what they love.

Lionel:

Yes, they do.

Jeff:

I know people that are keeping their Icelandic horses in box stalls. And there's such a versatile horse and such a good-natured horse that that's successful too. But I think for the most part, in the US, we see the group paddock and the group stabling more than we see the box stalls.

Lionel:

Right. Yeah, okay. Okay, okay. In Sweden, you will have a Lusdrift, which is open stable or open paddock. They will, our horses, they are like, they're gonna be soon 10 in the pack, but it's 10 Icelandic horses all together doing what horse do best, playing, pulling shoes.

Jeff:

Breaking fences and enjoying life in a herd.

Lionel:

Yes, yeah. How is the, just maybe from, I mean, I think I know, but what is the weather like in Colorado during the summer, but also during the winter?

Jeff:

We tend to get, our summers are pretty warm, but they're very dry. We're at a high elevation, so there aren't a lot of bugs, relatively low flies, and we'll see the temperature get into, it'll be into the mid-80s Fahrenheit, so that would probably be like, I don't know, 33, 34, something like that.

Lionel:

Maybe I'm trusting you here.

Jeff:

Yeah. So it definitely gets warm in the summer, but it never gets terribly warm. You hear stories about some places where it's so hot that people will only train horses in the very early morning or very light. I mean, we have to pay attention to it, but for the most part other than just paying attention to it and making sure you're not doing something where everybody's miserable. It's a very manageable summer. We get a lot of days where the temperature in the summer is below 30 Celsius, and it's just nice and the horses are really happy. Our winters get quite cold. We tend to get a lot of snow, but it'll come in fits. So we'll have a couple of feet of snow that will last for a week or so, and then it'll melt. And the temperature can get quite cold in the wintertime, but for the most part, it's pretty temperate. We might wear a winter suit, but we still get to go out and ride without too many issues with the cold. So it's a really good climate, and it's also, I mean, the insect life is so small, and the climate is so dry that we're really lucky to not see any summer eczema or any sweet itch.

Lionel:

Right. You don't have that so much now?

Jeff:

Almost never where we are.

Lionel:

Oh, wow.

Jeff:

And we'll even see a lot of horses come to our area because they were struggling in other climates, and they come to a place like Colorado where it's not an issue. And we've been really lucky in the time that I've been in Icelandic horses in Colorado. I have not seen any significant summer eczema or sweet itch issues. It's pretty safe. And there might be one or two horses. I think in the time that I've known Icelandic horses, I've only known two horses that even need the blankets in the summer for it. So it's really quite rare out here.

Lionel:

We invited you not because you are a resident of Colorado, though it's part of who you are. But it's also maybe if you can describe your role in the Icelandic community in the US.

Jeff:

Sure, so I'm on the board of the US Icelandic Horse Congress. I'm the vice president of the Congress. And that's our governing organization that participates with FIFE. We've got a board with members from Alaska to Colorado to Iowa to Vermont and the East Coast. So it's a pretty diverse board. And we're always just trying to find ways to expand awareness about the breed, to promote all things Icelandic, ranging from these wonderful trail horses that can go out and climb mountains and have the temperament and demeanor that anyone can work with, to the sport horses who can go straight from T1 on the noble track at a very high level to taking somebody on an enjoyable trail ride the next day. So we try to use our organization across the country to promote the breed and grow the breed in every aspect.

Lionel:

Do you present Icelandic horses in trade show or all over the US?

Jeff:

We do. Different groups of people and different major equestrian performances happen all the time. Sometimes we have what we call affiliated clubs, which are just local clubs on the Icelandic model of, we do it by region. And so we'll see a lot of the regional clubs going to their major horse events. And some of them are actually quite big. We'll see individual barns also going to the major equestrian expos. And then in the US, we also have the Knights of Iceland, which was founded by Gudmar Pedersen. And now it's being run between Gudmar and Laura Benson and Kerry Brandt. And that group will often go and do their demo performances at some of the major horse events. So...

Lionel:

And do they have ties with then the Icelandic Horse Association?

Jeff:

We're a small enough community that there's always ties, whether informal or formal. But a group like the Knights of Iceland, for example, that's a separate deal that's not necessarily connected at all to the US. Icelandic Horse Congress. But then the US. Icelandic Horse Congress will also try to help with funding so that when regional organizations are buying booths or getting time to present the breed, that we try to support them as best we can.

Lionel:

Right, right, yeah, everything that promote the breed, you will be there and see if you can help send people or help with the funding, I assume.

Jeff:

Yeah, I mean, we don't always get it right, but we are always trying to do everything we can to promote the breed and promote and support the people who are themselves promoting the breed in the US.

Lionel:

Since when, yeah, since when you started paying to it, I guess?

Jeff:

I've been on the board for three years, and so it's relatively a short period of time for me. I know that the first Icelandic horse stud book in the US goes back to the 1960s, and we've had organizations that have been working on trying to create national databases for, you know, at this point, you know, 60 plus years. So there's quite a bit of history, but I just can't remember the exact date that the Ushc was formed.

Lionel:

So if we talk to you, because you're part of the Icelandic Horse Congress, obviously, but you mentioned it at the beginning. This year, you were able to go to the World Championship in Switzerland.

Jeff:

Oh, it was amazing. It was bigger than I expected. The stadium is huge. It seems like you could seat, I don't know, eight to 10,000 people. It was a beautiful venue. The organization of the event was, let's just say, two Swiss standards. It ran like a well-oiled machine. It was clean. It was beautiful. The horses looked fantastic. But just getting to see that many exceptional horses and exceptional riders at that level and on that stage, I mean, it was incredibly inspiring. I remember watching the first horses come on to the track in T1, and it gave me goose bumps. It was chilling. It was incredible just to see those horses and those performances. And amazing for me to just imagine, especially the horses from Iceland or from other places, you know, two weeks earlier, they were on the pasture at their home farm back in Iceland, and they fly across an ocean. They drive from Belgium into Switzerland, and they hit the track, and they do their job in a totally new climate with new hay and new stadiums, and they just performed exceptionally. It was really impressive. I highly recommend going.

Lionel:

Yes, yes. I think we went in Germany. I can't remember how old is it, like six years maybe, or it was great to see. And you know a bit what you mentioned about, I mean, the sense of you go there, but it's also for the community. It's so cool to see horse enthusiasts, but it's even better to have Icelandic horse enthusiasts at each corner of the venue.

Jeff:

It was amazing. Even from a people perspective, I went not expecting to know anybody there, and you find people that you've met in Iceland or in the US or like this remotely over the internet for all of these community building reasons, and it was really fun to be a part of that community and to feel as a part of that community.

Lionel:

Yes, yes, it's a bit... I mean, we're lucky, I guess, in Europe, it's closer. Those little islands, we have trainer, we are fortunate to have smaller distances between us. So I guess it feels less alone, but I guess when you get there, you feel like part of that community, and I think it's really cool. Any particular memories that you will cherish for the time being from the World Championship?

Jeff:

Oh, that's a hard one. The F1 final was just spectacular. Pretty hard to forget those horses. But really just being there, being part of the community, being awake too late with friends that you didn't expect to see there, listening to a band from Iceland, even those most informal parts, that's something that will stick.

Lionel:

And can we talk about the US team? Did you expect the results? Or did you put a bar on the result? Is it something that you do? Or you were already grateful to have horses there and competitors?

Jeff:

You know, I can't speak on behalf of the individual riders, but I think that everybody's goal, looking at the World Championships, is that the horses travel there safely, that the horses can go onto the track with their riders and show harmonious performances that represent that horse and rider combination. And I thought that each of the four US riders and their horses achieved that and then some. The rides, I thought the rides were beautiful, the rides were competitive, the horses absolutely belonged there, the riders belonged there, and everybody had a good, harmonious, beautiful performance. The horses were happy, were healthy, were eager to be on the track. And to me, that's everything. That's why we do this. I think each one of the horses, whether they were a horse that is in Germany and had a relatively short trip to Austa's horse that came from Los Angeles, I think they just did a beautiful job of representing the breed, representing the US. Icelandic horse community as a whole, and of course, their own training and riding and development of their horses and horsemanship.

Lionel:

Did you manage to have a glimpse on how they did look to move horses, like you said, from California or other place from the US to Switzerland?

Jeff:

Yeah, it's a huge effort to do it. There were two of the riders, Alex Denimann and Jennifer Melville. They were both riding horses that live in Germany. And so they're both Americans. I know Alex Denimann splits her time between the US and between Germany. So those horses had a relatively short trip to the World Championships. Kayleigh Kavanagh's horse, Dimmah, came over from Iceland for the trip, but then from Iceland goes back to the US after the World Championships. And that's a huge flight going home. It's also a big trip for the horses that came from Iceland because the first day flew from Keflavik to, I think they were at Liege, and that's a pretty long drive from Liege into Switzerland. And then Austa's horse came from Los Angeles and flew from Los Angeles to, I think it was Luxembourg, and then drove from Luxembourg to Switzerland, and then back from Germany to Los Angeles. And that horse arrived safely, so it's a really big effort. It's extremely expensive, especially if you're taking a horse across the ocean like that. Part of the reason that the Ushic tried to start a national team is to provide more opportunities for support than we have in the past, because it's just such a monumental effort and expense to get horses to the World Championships. We're trying. I think there's a lot of room for growth in how the Ushic can try to support its national riders competing abroad. It's always tough to get there from a financial perspective, and it's tough as an organization that has under a thousand household memberships that are active on any year. When you look at the expense of flying horses across oceans just to compete in Europe at the World Championships, there's an imbalance there that's going to be very hard for us to get over. But I hope that we can continue to grow, and I hope that we can continue to improve the ways that we support those riders who are so passionate that they're representing the US and flying horses to Europe every two years. So we've got a ways to go, and I hope we just keep trying to get there.

Lionel:

It's an amazing feat to manage to pull that off. And also, it just shows how much passionate you, the organization, the riders are about passionate or serious. I don't know what is the best way to describe it.

Jeff:

I mean, I think it really is just passionate. That's really what drives it. When you think of the expense of flying a horse from the US to Europe and back, I mean, we're talking expenses that can far exceed the cost of the horse in the first place. And people do it because they love it, because they love the relationship with the horse, because they love to compete, and because it's fun to be part of this international community. And this year, in particular, it was just great to see that horses that made these huge trips got there, got there safe, and were able to show really who they are. And they do surprisingly well traveling these distances.

Lionel:

Yeah, and I didn't say it before, but in performing on top of it, like horse and riders, I mean, I was looking at the marks, and I'm looking at them on the... We were looking in the area, obviously, and like still performing to the... some of the highest level, you know, like it's impressive. It shows the temperament of horse and rider, both in that sense.

Jeff:

I mean, if I'm walking into the facility and those stadiums with the giant TV screen and the music playing with my eyes wide open, you can only imagine what a horse must think the first 20 times they see that. And to see, you know, 8,000 people watching the horse on the track, it's really impressive. The temperament of these horses and the training that goes into it, it's just beautiful. And I know that in the case of Alex, I know she knows those horses extremely well. I think she's been working with those horses in Germany for years. But, you know, anytime somebody is willing to go on to the oval track and be judged both by both by the judges themselves and then by whomever else might be watching the performance, to every rider that is willing to put themselves out there like that, I think that's it's courageous, it's beautiful, it's intimidating. I mean, you know, when you think about the audience at the World Championships, it's all Icelandic horse enthusiasts who are all watching every detail of your ride in an individual program. I mean, it really, I think it takes a lot for both the horse and rider to be willing to put themselves out there like that and really show the world the best ride they can do on that day together with their horse partner.

Lionel:

And to be frank, to blow our own trumpet, I think talking to you and hearing what it takes also to bring four riders from the US to Switzerland with their horses, it's also, I think it adds to the, I think you can only have an admiration for the dedication and the passion of the riders and also the, I think it just brings an extra flair to like, on top of it, they have to do, to go through all those hoops to get there.

Jeff:

Absolutely. I mean, each one of those riders, the work that they put in, the time, the money, the sense of self, the courage, it's just, it really, it's really inspiring to see. It really gave me something to come home and say, you know, those four riders, all those people who were participating, the team trainer, you know, the team leader, everybody that went to support it, that's a lot of passion, it's a lot of care, and I think it was a really impressive undertaking and a beautiful result for all of them.

Lionel:

Because that's true, that you brought, I mean, the US team had riders and horses, but it's all crew around them, I guess. You have maybe vets or groomers, et cetera, around them to make sure that they are performing as best as they can.

Jeff:

Yeah, it's just, it's amazing how much goes into it, and it's amazing the way that everybody approached it and tried to support each other and have the best performance as possible. They just did an awesome job.

Lionel:

Yep, yep. Two years is Germany? You already is the US rider or even the US organization already pinpoint that date, two years in advance to prepare to ensure that you're going to be ready?

Jeff:

Yep. You know, from the organization itself, from the USihc, we're already looking towards it and trying to improve on what we did this year and the level of support that we can provide and the way that we can help our community and our riders. We're already talking about it, and I'm sure the riders themselves and their horses are already quietly looking at that calendar in 2027 and making their own plans. I mean, when you think about it, it takes a huge amount of planning just to be able to work on the horses and the finances and the timing of it. And for a lot of people, it's either taking time away from their riding training and instruction business or from their personal lives and their family. I mean, it's such a huge undertaking, all for at the end of the day to hope that your horses sound and healthy and stays that way in the lead up to it. So, there's so much that can go wrong, but I'm really looking forward to 2027 in the area. I think I can't wait to see who goes from the US and I can't wait to see how everybody works together and tries to improve on how we did this year.

Lionel:

Did you feel like from the Netherlands two years ago to Switzerland this year, did you feel that you step up or it's more professional or more organized? Did you feel like you already improved there from the organization standpoint, for instance?

Jeff:

I really hope so.

Lionel:

Yeah.

Jeff:

There have been a lot of changes. The biggest one is the US started a national team to try to provide a more systematic way to support both sport in the US and the US participation on the international level. It started just after the World Championships in the Netherlands. We started really trying in earnest to put it together. We've had a national team in existence for a little over a year now. And we're still trying to find out what works, what doesn't work, what needs improvement. It's definitely a work in progress. But I would like to believe that just by taking steps in that direction, we were able to at least have a small part in helping our riders to have a more positive experience and a better opportunity at the World Championships. And, you know, you sometimes don't get everything right and you need to learn by doing sometimes. But I hope that we can do an even better job in Germany in two years.

Lionel:

But what does it mean? It means that, for instance, in the Netherlands two years ago or before, it was not organized as a US team or it was just individual rider.

Jeff:

It was it was organized as a US team. So it wasn't just individual riders, but every year we're just trying to increase the level of support that we can provide. I mean, sometimes it's small details like just having a better organized team tent.

Lionel:

Right.

Jeff:

And other times it's really having an established team leader and an established team trainer that can help the riders. That was a big change for this year. And I hope that it was effective. And if it wasn't, I hope that we as an organization can really look at what wasn't effective and what needs to be improved and try to improve it for a better next time.

Lionel:

Did you look at other nations on how they organize and how they are working?

Jeff:

Yeah, I know that a lot of people took a look at other national teams, including Iceland and Germany and what other groups were doing, both from an organizational standpoint and from what we do when we go to big events like the World Championships perspective. And we tried to incorporate what we think fits the best from those other models and to use that as just a starting place in the US for a national team and hopefully more support for the long term.

Lionel:

And is the selection of the rider was also handled by the Icelandic Horse Congress? Like, it's pretty straightforward because you have the best rider and that's it?

Jeff:

It's pretty straightforward. The organization has had qualification rules for the World Championships for a long time. And those rules and procedures have evolved over time a bit, but there's some pretty clear guidelines of how you qualify for things like the World Championships, what kind of scores, what kind of base level expectations exist. What's new now is the national team layer on top of it, which is really to try to help encourage more participation throughout the US and build a stronger community. So that's now a part of it as well, but there's still a lot of flexibility built in. And really what we're trying to do is create opportunities. We're really excited that we've just launched a US development team as well.

Lionel:

Oh wow, so younger riders.

Jeff:

Younger riders, older riders, really any rider who is at all interested in sport, learning what sport is, whether it's somebody who is already riding in sport. And is looking to get more opportunities for feedback or coaching or experience. Or whether it's somebody who is looking at sport from the outside and thinking, how do I even get into this? So we're really, we're trying to break down that barrier that sometimes exists between what would be a leisure rider or what would be a sport rider. Somebody who's riding on the trails and in the forest versus somebody who's riding on the oval track. Because I think so many of us, for the most part, we're all leisure riders. We're all doing this because we're passionate about it. And we also see that the best competition horses are also our best trail horses. And that, you know, I mean, one of the things I loved at the World Championships is watching these incredible sport horses go to cool down after their competition with a light trail ride in the forest behind the facility. And you see these fantastic horses just relaxed, cooling down. And you realize that there isn't a distinction between oval track riders or trail riders. We're all just Icelandic horse riders. And there's so many opportunities and so many classes, especially in the US, to come to, you know, the air quotes competition or sport and participate in novice classes and fun classes. And, you know, learn from the people around you and participate in the community and deepen your connection with your horse that it doesn't have to be always, you know, white, white breeches and the pressure of a dressage show or something like that.

Lionel:

Yeah. Yeah. You know, like Ariane, who was riding or, you know, come from more classical riding or like big horses as we like to call them in the Icelandic world. She always told me what is one of the feet of the Icelandic horses, how powerful they are on the oval track, you know, they are like performing, etc. You drop the reins, just the switch off button, and then they become just like you mentioned, a trail ride, a skogmuller, maybe, is like how they say in Sweden, just like they switch off and like, okay, we just ride.

Jeff:

That's the beauty of the Icelandic horse, and at least one of my personal goals for the US community in the future is to keep showing people that it's all of it, that the Icelandic horse is all of it, that our sport events aren't these fancy big horse style, high pressure, high snobbery events, that it's still just our redback paddock boots, our black riding pants, and put your Icelandic sweater on, and we go there to have fun as much as they are to go to the world championships, and as much as they are to have a horse that you're happy to put a small kid on to go enjoy an afternoon in the forest. So that's at least one thing that I hope to be able to achieve in the US.

Lionel:

I mean, here in smaller competition, in like, let's say, regional competition, you will show up with your horse, there is a huge field, and you put four poles and a tiny rope around it and say, okay, that's his home now. And, you know, they are next to other horses, they will scream sometime, they will call them, but it's never difficult, you know? It's always simple. They are just cool-headed. It's like, that's life and that's it.

Jeff:

That's the beauty of the Icelandic horse.

Lionel:

Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Jeff, for accepting to talk to us today. And thank you, everyone, for listening. We will come back in two weeks for a new episode. In the meantime, do not hesitate to follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Even leave a comment, share the episode. The Tölt Tales is the name. Thank you so much, Jeff, for participating to that episode.

Jeff:

Thank you so much. It was really fun to talk with you.

Lionel:

Thank you. Goodbye and see you soon.

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