Breeding
Úrvalshestar breed ca 10 - 15 foals every year, and we take our mares to the best available stallions in the country in order to try to get what we want. We own several first prize mares, and we also often breed the best young mares (well developed three year old mares) to get one foal out of them before they start official training.
Our breeding goals are clearly defined and you can read them here below. We are not focused on special bloodlines, we do not care where good quality horses come from. However, many of our best horses decent from Kría frá Lækjamóti, a mare that Magnús got when she was five years old. Magnus trained her and showed for first prize, and she later gave us many of our most successful broodmares. Kría lived to be 31 years old herself, and now rests piecefully here in Holtsmúli. Her offspring and their offspring keep giving us more fantastic horses, as do many other great broodmares in our herd.
Spæta, a daughter of Kría frá Lækjamóti with her newborn daughter Snilld
Breeding Goals
We have clear goals as to what kind of horses we want to breed. We have bought mares according to this breeding goal and we use stallions that we think will supplement each mare as well as possible, of course according to that same goal. Here is a detailed description of the type of horse that we want to breed:
Conformation:
We want to breed big horses with abundant mane and tail. We emphasize the neck, that it is high set on tall withers, and that the shape of it is round, long, shallow and thin. The proportions have second priority, and long legs are most important. We furthermore find it important that the body is well proportioned, cylindrical and topline and underline parallel. The back should have its lowest point close to its middle, be broad and muscled as well as the croup. We aim for varying colors as long as it doesn´t come before other traits.
Gaits:
Gaits should be characterized by high leg lift, long strides, lightness and flexibility. Trot and canter should have a lot of suspension, but we don´t care whether the horse has four or five gaits as long as he is capable of varying speed.
Disposition:
We want our horses to be brave and somewhat reactive for increased responsiveness.