Exercises for the tölt

Hi! How lovely that you ride an Icelandic horse! Many Icelandic horses that need to strengthen their tölt are pacey and often go in a high outline with a hollow back, finding it hard to stretch the topline in tölt. So what should you do? As with everything else, solid basic schooling helps a great deal. That means building balance, straightness and posture, and teaching the horse exercises and movements.

The single best exercise for helping a pacey horse become cleaner in the rhythm is the halt. If the horse is very pacey and it is hard to keep it in tölt, it is worth riding plenty of walk exercises and working on balance, self-carriage and straightening. Avoiding trot for a while can also be a good idea. If, on the other hand, the horse has not really learnt to tölt and is very strong in the trot, leg-yield in trot can be the way into tölt.

If what I have described feels hard to manage on your own, my best tip is to get help from a good trainer with sound knowledge of Icelandic horses. Good luck!