Landsmót in Reykjavík 2024

Landsmót

Here's a short recap of our week:
On the first day, we had the pleasure to photograph each rider of the Children's class so they can have a memory of this day to cherish forever and maybe show their children and grand-children one day.

Later that day, all children who had ridden earlier, were invited to a VIC (Very Important Child) party where they could invite a friend to join them. There, Horses of Iceland and Landsmót had organised for them to receive gift bags and a medal - handed over by none other than the

Minister of Education and Children

Ásmundur Einar Daðason, Minister of Education and Children, shakes the hand of a young Landsmót competitor.

Our main goals during Landsmót was to introduce more people, Icelanders and foreign visitors, to

the project

Berglind Margo Þorvaldsdóttir, head of Horses of Iceland, explains how the project works to a woman while her child is on a virtual ride through VR glasses.

Of course, we also wanted to give visitors the opportunity to deepen their knowledge about the Icelandic horse. To reach this goal, we became the organisers and hosts of lectures on various topics in the space we called 'Education House'. We are now happy to announce that most of them were recorded and will be available on our

YouTube channel

We also put up big panels with a history timeline about Landsmót and other tidbits of information about Icelandic horse breeding, and the various forms of competition were also installed in the Education House. At the end of the week, the horse club Fákur, who hosted Landsmót alongside Sprettur, got to keep those panels to present to children in their youth club.

Our partners

Björk Jakobsdóttir, author og the children's books 'Hetja' and 'Eldur', as well as Bjarni Þorkelsson, author of the book 'Aviskeið, Starfssaga Þorkels Bjarnasonar hrossaræktarráðunautar' honored us by their presence at the Education House for an afternoon, during which they performed book signings.

Björk Jakobsdóttir and Bjarni Þorkelsson hold their books Hetja, Eldur and Æviskeið in front og them byt the Education House at Landsmót.

To finish on a great note, we invited 3 German journalists to join us over the weekend. We thank the

Sky Lagoon

On the Monday, Berglind Margo Þorvaldsdóttir, head of Horses of Iceland, took them to open houses and they were lucky to get to visit

Export Hestar

Berglind, Alisa, from Business Iceland's PR department, our PR representative in Germany and three journalists by Seljalandsfoss

Now let's talk a little about what was happening on the track. Competition and breeding evaluation results can be found widely online so we won't go into those but we would like to highlight what we think is exemplary in Icelandic Horse riding and was showcased very clearly at Landsmót this year: the rider's fair play, the genuine joy they express for one another when things go well and the true love of horses they display through little gestures such as letting them graze during prize giving ceremonies, petting and hugging them and making every decision about the horse but not personal glory. We feel like this was really well displayed over the course of the week and want to really celebrate it.

Horses of Iceland would like to thank everyone involved in the preparation of this rich program and of Landsmót itself: Kristín Halldórsdóttir, Barla Isenbügel, Einar Gíslason along with his various teams, Hjörtur Bergstað and Jónína Björk Vilhjámsdóttir.

We of course also send warm thoughts and wishes to all the volunteers, riders, breeders, trainers, families and the audience! Such a celebration of the Icelandic horse and its place in Icelandic culture could not happen without all of them.
Congratulations on a great week, we already look forward to the next Landsmót in Hólar, on 6-12, July 2026!