History

Kolkuós is one of the best-known names in the history of horse breeding in Iceland. One of the oldest stories about horses in Iceland is in The Book of Settlement, where it is reported that when a ship loaded with cattle arrived in Kolkuós, a man named Þórir Dúfunef bought a young horse there, which he called Flugu and thought was "the fastest of all horses." That mare then had a foal called Eiðfaxi and became widely famous.

 

Horse breeding in Kolkuós began in the early years of the 20th century in the breeding of Hartmann Ásgrímsson, a farmer and merchant who lived in Kolkuós from 1900 to 1948. Right from the start, the horse stock in Kolkuós became nationally known for its great advantages and some of the most successful breeding horses in the country in the first half of the 20th Century were from there. Special mention should be made of Hörð 112, who was the stallion that most shaped the Kolkuós stock at that time. Under the guidance of Sigurmon, Hartmann's son, the cultivation continued and with an even greater scope than before.

 

He went the longest in breeding with the stallion Herði 591, which was one of the best-known and at the same time the most controversial stallions in the country between 1960 and 1980.

 

Around 1980, the Kolkuós herd was scattered all over the country, and until recently there had been no organized horse breeding in Kolkuós. It is safe to say that in Kolkuós there was one of the most remarkable and at the same time the most successful stock breeding in the last century, and its influence can be felt very widely, in Iceland as well as abroad. It can be said that the breeding that is practiced at Hólar in Hjaltadal has its basis in breeding horses that came from Kolkuós.

 

It is the opinion of the director of the Icelandic Horse History Center that a development of the kind planned in Kolkuós, and the breeding of horses from the Kolkuós bloodline locally, is an extremely necessary and good project. It is suitable for promoting tourism and job creation in the region, and should be beneficial for horse riding and horse breeding in general.