To me, this session is a Rosetta Stone, the link between classical dressage and Icelandic gait training. I think it would be very helpful for riders and trainers with “regular” horse backgrounds to view a few times if they want a bridge to understand tolt. I hope that it can also be used to introduce experienced conventional trainers to the Icelandic horse.

Thokki was bred by Sarah Jones and at the time of the video was 5 years old. He had been started by Amanda Rossiter at Shinto Farm and had been trained in the conventional gaits. Sarah brought him to a two-day clinic with Gudmar Petursson and this was a opportunity for Gudmar to meet and evaluagte Thokki the day before.

This is not a “how-to” but a document of what the lesson was actually like. I felt that it was so rich in content I wanted to share that it deserved to be seen in its full length with just a few edits for continuity.

The video is in HD. If you have the bandwidth, I invite you to sit back and watch it full screen in High Definition video.