Jul 15, 2024

Landsmót in Reykjavík 2024

Here is to a great week at Landsmót!

Sigurður Vignir Matthíasson and Sigursteinn Sumarliðason ride side by side and raise their arms in Pace during Landsmót 2024

Sigurður Vignir Matthíasson and Sigursteinn Sumarliðason ride side by side and raise their arms in Pace during Landsmót 2024 - Photo: Carolin Giese

Landsmót

2024 is over and it is safe to say, we had an amazing time!

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.

Pretty Boy Tjokko

then blew the roof off by singing a few songs. We believe that, that night, many children either fell asleep really, really fast after a very eventful day or had a hard time falling asleep thanks to the great memories they had made that day.

Ásmundur Einar Daðason, Minister of Education and Children, shaking a boy's hand at Landsmót 2024

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

. We wanted to show everyone how we promote the Icelandic horse over the world.
For this purpose, we were equipped with not only our great mood but also our virtual reality glasses and offered everyone who wanted, to go on a virtual ride with us in

Rauðhólar

.

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.

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

in the near future.

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

were of course represented as well via their promotional videos, played in our booth, and other promotional material such as brochures and flyers. To stimulate people to discover more about them, we organised a scavenger hunt. Participants of all ages had a lot of fun completing various tasks and 11 lucky winners were drawn and won really

cool prizes

.

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

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

for inviting them to take part in their 7 steps ritual as soon as they got off the plane on the Friday. On the Saturday morning, our three writers, went on a short ride with

Íshestar

before joining our team on the Landsmót grounds where they also spent their Sunday.

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

's stables in Mosfellsbær, get a riding lesson on a first prize mare at

Kjarr's

and go on to visit the breeding farm and insemination station in

Hjarðartún

. They then headed for Seljalandsfoss before going back to Reykjavík and flying back home to Germany on the Tuesday.

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

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.

Sigurður Vignir Matthíasson pats Safír frá Mosfellsbæ after winning the B-class

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!

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