Does anyone board their Icelandics with big horses? How do they get along? I am thinking of a situation where the herd would be 12 mixed breeds out in one huge field. Hoping it goes okay.
Are you worried for the Icelandics or the big horses?
I have never seen a problem with ponies and horses together on a field. Minis present logistical challenges but Icelandics are in the 13 to 14 hand range I think?
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Depends on the horses.
I’ve kept geldings of mixed sizes w/o problems.
13H pony & 17H+ horse were fine.
Currently 16H horse, same pony & 34" mini are turned out - with free access to stalls - 24/7/365.
Everyone gets along swimmingly.
Hope your larger group has enough room to sort themselves out amicably 
My 12 hand pony has always gone out with bigger horses. Never any issues, only reason I could see would be different dietary needs. My pony goes in a dry lot when we have green grass.
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This video is hysterical!! Thank you for making me lmao this morning!
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Why were the horses afraid? Was he tolting? Making ugly faces?
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OMG I’m laughing to tears lol…maybe it is his massive tuft!
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It turns out he is local to us and we met him once on the same trail system years later. My mare was absolutely fascinated and wanted to sniff him all over.
I don’t know. From the videos and when we met he’s just a floofy large pony walking along normally.
Horses also sometimes lose their minds over minis. My mare thinks they might be foals and is fascinated. But she was freaked out by the Tennessee Walker doing a running walk, first and only either of us had ever seen IRL, it sounds frantic to her.
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Paso Finos are terrifying!
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Lol! Probably makes them feel ten feet tall.
As someone who would seriously consider an Icelandic, I just wanted to know what sort of terror I might instill on the trails.
So, for the OP, we’ve established that Icelandic horses will be perfectly safe. The other horses, however, might act as though they’re being turned out with zombie horses that possess secret weapons stored in their floofy forelocks, and will gleefully shoot lasers at them with their eyes at any moment.
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Good grief. Did the little one have horns and was breathing fire? That was weird.
Susan
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I know, right? I don’t see him do ANYTHING “wrong”
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hahaha… as the owner of one of these terror inducing horses (not an icelandic) I can firmly say that no one knows. Horse never put a foot wrong and people would bolt away from him in warm-up - presumably because he had black/white spots. Could be the spots, the hair? I know a friesian with long feathers and ground-shaking movement that is terror inducing for many.
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That video is a hoot. My initial impression was that that lane happened to be traveled by a lot of “that one horse”s we all know who absolutely lose their minds when they see one of their own kind in pinto.
Yes it’s a lovely horse park with a cross country field and a destination for a safe pleasant 2 hour loop ride. So there may be more “arena horses” getting out in the open world than you might see on other trail systems.
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My current horse is a bit “racist” as one clinician called it - he is terrified of leopard appaloosas and other loudly colored horses. Another freaked out because we could just see a walker show in the distance. Another hated - hated - large gray horses in warm up (would bolt away from them).
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The video is hysterical!
My mare, who is very picky about the company she keeps, got along really well with a little Icey mare at one barn. We trail rode and did hunter paces together and the little Icey always led. She was all of 13 hands, could outwalk 17 hand horses (just walking, not tolting), and quite fierce, except for being terrified of ducks and Canada geese in a pond. (There always has to be something!)
My mare isn’t afraid of most horses, except for large black ones; she just doesn’t want most horses anywhere near her. Minis are fascinating, and a mini pulling a cart was doubly fascinating. Ponies are fine and mules and donkeys are weird but OK, but she regarded a pony-sized mule with deep suspicion.
Icelandics are pretty tough in general and I think they’d be running the herd, a lot of the time.
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My lease guy is extremely offended by having to share a ring with greys. It’s not fear so much as a visceral sense of disgust. It always reminds me of the priest in the Robin Hood Men in Tights “Hey Abbott!!!” scene, he’s very “* shudder * ugh, I hate that guy!”, lol
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