My breeding goal at Kval-avl
Kval, the name of my breeding, is the old Norwegian name for Hvalstad meaning “hill”. The first Norwegian farms where typically placed on hills and I grew up at Hvalstad and keep some of my horses there. It was thanks to my daughter Camilla, that I bought my first horse back in 1998 a Norwegian “Fjording” that was born just outside our garden at Hvalstad in Asker, Norway. We had her until she was five years old, then we bought our first Icelandic horse, the gelding Ask fra Holabakken in 2004, and he has been Camilla’s competition horse ever since. Ask is son of our best five-gaiter, the stallion Asi fra Jór, that got sixth place in this years World Championship in Sweden. Asks home is the farm Torstad in Asker (www.torstad.no), close to where I live. My love for these beautiful horses from Iceland was sparked.
I have a background in medicine and genetics and soon understood that the Icelandic horse also came with a very interesting history, presenting itself as the perfect “case” to explore genetics and inheritance with excellent records on phenotype that goes long back (i.e. how the genes present itself in the individual; composition, colour and riding abilities) and a most stable “settlement”; No Icelandic horses are allowed to enter Iceland and the ones leaving Iceland may never come back. Its putative origin from the Norwegian so called “Lyng horse”, made it even more interesting. I was hooked on breeding. My breeding goals were, I must admit, rather blurry in the beginning, looking for the horses with the best possible pedigree i.e highest breeding index (BLUP).
The first horse I bought was Hugur fra Oren from Anne Marie Vejstrup in Denmark in 2005. He is a truly handsome stallion and the plan was (and still is) to have him as Camilla’s second competition horse. His father being the promising four-gated Orri son Freyr fra Holtsmula and his mother Krafla a real black beauty and still Denmark’s highest judged five years old mare. I soon learned that the key to all good breeding and the most important starting point was good breeding mares. In order to be able to get the breeding mares I wanted, i.e. mares with the “right” pedigree, and give them the very best upbringing, I decided to buy them young; 1-2 years old.
So, the second breeding horse I bought was Litla Mari fra Håkansgården early in 2006. She is a long legged and well raised young mare, qualities that I do like to see in my horses. She has three very pretty full sisters (all of which I wanted to buy but came too late…) and a strong pedigree (BLUP 120). I have always admired her father, three times world champion Askur fra Håkansgården and had heard about her strong-willed and beautiful mother Heiddis fra Fällan. And Litla-Mari, being a very sweet horse, has given me a lot of great moments already. She is also carrying a palmino (yellow) gene that I find particularly interesting to introduce in my breeding.
Subsequently, I bought Visa fra Sundsberg (BLUP 123) from Birgitta Ibert. She is black with a star, long legged and very pretty. She is after Isar fra Keldudal (the best stallion outside Iceland today-in my opinion) and the tree year old (at the time) Vaka fra Østeråker. Vaka is daughter of Mökkur fra Varmelæk, a stallion that I wanted to have in my breeding from the very start and probably the best breeding mare in Sweden Von fra Vindheimum. Vignir Jonasson (the famous Icelandic rider (WC-winner), trainer and breeder living in Sweden presented both Vaka and Isar to me and Ivar Lindstad, my breeding companion in Norway and the owner of Torstad “gård”. They were both beautiful and I decided to buy Visa as well as a beautiful two year old palmino stallion (Ljomi fra Sundsberg, son of Askur) from Birgitta. Ljomi is now taken very good care of by Marie Louise Persson at Härresta Säteri close to Vignir, that is going to start and eventually present him together with my other stallion prospect Hugur. Birgitta has been a close friend ever since we met and my mentor, having learned me a lot. Patience, that is so important in breeding, is probably the hardest part for her to bring through to me….but I try.
Birgitta also found my third breeding mare Hrund fra Arbæ (BLUP 119), that is kept on Iceland together with Birgittas horses. She is five and qualified for Landsmot (2006) soon after I bought her. She is now pregnant with the Landsmot “star”, Wilmundur fra Feti (BLUP 131), receiving close to nine for riding abilities as a five year old! So, if all goes well, I will receive my first foal next spring…I expect a lot from Hrund in the future. She is extremely talented as well as having the best pedigree I have ever seen.
I bought my fourth breeding mare on Iceland in April 2006, from Susanne Sjöström, the beautiful silver black (dapple) Orri daughter, Platina fra Holtsmula (BLUP 115). She is the only silver dapple offspring of Orri and she will be started by Olil or Erlingur in October next year and subsequently put into training. She will stay at Holtsmula until she is presented and I am thankful to Siggi and Lisbet for taking so good care of her and to Susanne for trusting me to buy her. I am currently looking for a few more breeding mares that I will keep and use on Iceland to introduce some other bloodlines into my breeding. Top of my list is a Hrodur offspring, a Holar mare and a really good Orri daugther. Then I am hopefully “all set” for an interesting future in breeding.
In my horses, I want to see a good character, willingness and rideability pursuing to keep and develop further all five gaits. I put particular emphasis on their trot and walk as well as slow tölt-gaits that are “often forgotten. Furthermore, I want them to be well raised and long legged and not to heavy built, and with a lot of expression under rider. The many nice colours and amazing mane and tale are very characteristic for the Icelandic horse, which I would like to strengthen as well. Only time will show if I can reach some of these goals: I am still only in the beginning of my learning curve.
Hvalstad, 06.10.06
Per Thrane