Icelandic Horses by Drew Doggett: In the Realm of Legends

Drew Doggett's In the Realm of Legends pairs two of Iceland's great sights: its waterfalls and black-sand beaches, and the small, sturdy Icelandic horses that have lived on the island for more than a thousand years. Shot through what Doggett calls a fashion-inspired lens, the pale horses with wind-blown manes look almost mythical against the dark volcanic landscape.

Drew Doggett and In the Realm of Legends

Doggett is a fine-art photographer whose career started in fashion, and he still describes his storytelling as fashion-inspired. On his website, the Iceland series sits alongside his other horse projects, including the wild horses of Sable Island in Discovering the Horses of Sable Island and Spirit of Sable, and Equus: Underwater Rhythm. His work is held in institutional collections such as the Smithsonian's African art museum and the Mariners' Museum.

The Iceland pictures are carefully composed portraits: light-coated horses placed against white water or black sand, with the mane, tail and turn of the neck doing the work a model's pose would do in a fashion shoot. Prints are sold through his equestrian collection.

The Icelandic horse: a thousand years of pure breeding

Norse settlers brought the ancestors of the breed to Iceland between 860 and 935 AD. In 982 the Althing, Iceland's parliament, banned the import of horses, and the breed has been kept pure on the island ever since. Today about 80,000 horses live in Iceland and around 100,000 abroad, almost 50,000 of them in Germany.

Icelandic horses are small, usually 13 to 14 hands (132–142 cm) tall and weighing 330 to 380 kg, yet they are strong enough to carry adults over rough ground. They come in a wide range of colours, including chestnut, dun, bay, black, grey, palomino, pinto and roan, and the Icelandic language has more than 100 names for colours and patterns. Many stay active into their twenties.

Five gaits: the tölt and the flying pace

Breed registries count five for the Icelandic horse: walk, trot and canter or gallop, plus two special ones. The tölt is a four-beat ambling gait, prized by riders for its smoothness. The flying pace, or skeið, is a fast racing gait, and not every horse performs it.

Riding Icelandic horses in Iceland

Horses are used in Iceland for sheepherding, leisure riding, shows, racing and tourism, and riding tours are a popular way for visitors to meet them. Tell the operator honestly how much you have ridden, so they can match you with the right horse and route.

Iceland protects its horses' disease-free status strictly. A horse that leaves the country can never return, and visitors may not bring used riding equipment or used riding gloves into Iceland, as explained in the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority's riding-equipment guidance. Ask your riding provider what equipment they supply. On the road, stop only where parking is permitted, and ask the owner before approaching or feeding horses in a field.

For another photographer who travels to tell stories through portraits, see Mihaela Noroc’s travel portraits.

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