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Charly shows you:

the Icelandic horsefarm Ásgard

Here I took residence.
Ásgard means "Castle of gods" but on the map you'll find it under the name "Süsshof".

The studfarm is situated in "Hottingen", it belongs to a village called Rickenbach in the "Hotzenwald".
The "Hotzenwald" is a part of the southern "Black-Forrest", in Germany, near to the three-country-corner:
Germany - Switzerland - France.
Here we can see the Alps from 2300 feet above sea level.

On the pastures around the studfarm are living Icelandic horses of many different families and generation.
The special thing of Icelandic horses is that they have the possibility of having 5 gaits:
walk, trot, gallop, flying pace and tölt.
The tölt sounds like a sewing machine and is very comfortable to sit for the rider.

the icelandic horse stallion Kolbeinn of Ásgard

The black stallion is called "Kolbeinn of Ásgard".
He has his own pasture and can only look at the mares on the other pastures until his time has come.

Vis á vis are the geldings,
They live in an open stable where they come and go as they please.

They like to playfight or relax in the shade.
They know exactly when it is time to go in for food.
They are sold to people who appreciate their qualities.

The older mares, wich are not in stud,
have a Paddock on the south side of the farm.
They are ridden by the special trainer at the stud farm.

The breeding mares always get the best pastures, because they have to eat for two.

The foals are born in the pasture in May and June.

At the beginning, they have blue-grey eyes.

The foals in the herd learns the horselanguage and how to live with other horses in harmony.

As soon as it gets warmer then the flies and horse-flies start appearing and annoy the horses.
Because of this, the Icelandic horses love the wind and the rain.

Every day the horses are visited in the pasture by their owner and looked over if everything is OK.
They get a mineral treat for coming.

icelandic horse foal judge on the riding place of the studfarm

In September it is the first time that the foals go into the stable with their mothers.
Two judges judge their exterior while they move beside their mothers.
Of course, this is very exciting for the foal.

Finally, they get a glowing iron pressed on the left hind leg for their brand.
After that, they get a wormer against worms
and then they are turn back to their pasture after a few days.

When the winter comes, the years foals are taken into the stable with their mothers.
After that they are separated from their mothers to get used to the humans.

young icelandic horse stallions on the pasture

The young stallions are separated from the young mares in the spring.
They are brought to different pastures to prevent inbreeding and unwanted pregancies.

young icelandic horse mares on the pasture

They have the enjoyment to grow up until they are five years old, before they are ridden.
Until this time, they are only disturbed for wormers, trimming the hooves and transporting to a new pasture.

In winter the Icelandic horses eat hay, straw and silage.
Fresh fir branches are welcome for a change; they even eat the bark of big branches.
After they eat the fir branches, the ponies smell of fir very well.
A storm blew down an apple tree.
The geldings picked at the tree like beavers (beaver-ponies!).

salt-stone-halter in the paddock of the beaver-ponies

Apples, carrots and dry bread are always welcome treats.
The horses have access to salt licks and mineral blocks.