The Icelandic Horse is a breed available in the Horse Reality game, that can be obtained from the Foundation.
| Icelandic Horse | |
|---|---|
|
|
| General Information | |
| Alternative name | Íslenski Hesturinn |
| Origin | Iceland |
| Horse Reality | |
| Colours | Black, Chestnut, Bay, Seal Brown, Flaxen, Grey, Dun, Silver, Cream, Sooty, Pangaré, Non-Dun1 |
| Whites | White Markings, SW1, Tobiano, Roan, W21 |
| Not yet in-game | W8 |
| Height | 130 - 145 cm |
| Registry | Icelandic Horse Society |
| Alternative name | Icey |
| Origin | Foundation |
| Status | In-game (2018) |
| Artists | |
| Lineart | S. Jullelin (2014) |
| Greyscale | J. Tarkela (2016) |
| Colours & patterns | T. van den Berg (2017), H. Vasseur (2020, 2023), D. Grochowska (2020) |
¶ Conformation
A typical Icelandic Horse is rectangular and compact in shape. They have fine and light heads, well-muscled and high-set necks, wide chests with sloping shoulders, strong backs, and long, sloping croups. Their legs should be as long as possible and robust-looking with sturdy hooves. Icelandic Horses are strong but also light and elegant. This unique combination results in a breed beloved all around the world[1].
¶ Colour Genetics
Despite the limited amount of influence on this breed in the last several centuries, the Icelandic has a wide range of colours that appear in many horse breeds. The base colours bay, seal brown, black and chestnut are the most common; but grey, cream, dun and a limited amount of silver also appear in the breed.
Despite the fact that there are several white patterns in the breed, the amount of common white markings is quite low. Most blazes and white legs can be attributed to either splashed white 1 and/or tobiano. Roan is also present in the breed. Two separate white spotting mutations have been identified in the breed, W8 and W21. The first one came from the mare Thokkadis vom Rosenhof[2]. The second was identified in 2015, both white mutations provide the horse with a striking white pattern[3].
¶ Alleles
All alleles available for the breed can be found below highlighted in green. For better clarity, we bolded alleles that impact coat colours (eg. grey G vs non-grey g).
| Base Colours & Modifiers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Extension | Agouti | Grey |
| E, e | A, At, a | G, g |
| Dilutions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cream-Pearl | Dun | Champagne | Silver | Mushroom |
| CR, n | D, nd1, nd2 | ch | Z, z | n |
| White Patterns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frame | Appaloosa | PATN1 | MITF | SW2 | KIT |
| n | lp | patn1 | SW1, n | sw2 | TO, RN, W21, n |
Please note that the table includes a hidden agouti allele (At). Besides testable genes, untestable ones are also present: sooty, flaxen, pangaré, and white markings (head markings, socks, etc.).
¶ Artwork Updates
The Icelandic Horse is one of Horse Reality's oldest breeds, added during the beta version around 2017. Ever since the current Horse Reality version has been online, the Icelandic Horse received/will receive the following updates:
- Coat variations (colour) on October 14th 2020[4]
- Some additional grey coats in September 2021[5]
- The pangaré, sooty, and non-dun1 alleles were added to the game through new Foundation horses and the dun artwork was updated on April 19th 2023[6]
- Will receive a new greyscale in the future[7]
- The missing genes and alleles will be added to the game through new Foundation horses.[8] Adding W8 will only be possible after the horse profiles & genetics have been transferred to V2 because adding new white spotting alleles requires additional coding work[9]
¶ Breed in Real Life
The Icelandic Horse is a small to medium-sized horse, descending from horses imported by original Scandinavian settlers of Iceland. Both the climate and terrain of Iceland are very harsh, resulting in an excessively sturdy and unique horse breed with a typical feisty, but friendly temperament. They might look small, but don't be mistaken, they are very strong and capable of carrying an adult for longer distances at high speed. This breed is well known for its special gaits. Besides the normal gaits: walk, trot and canter, they can have up to two extra gaits, the "tölt" and "flying pace".[10]
Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the cold and harsh climate of Iceland had a dramatic effect on the population. Numbers were very much reduced and once more only the strongest horses survived. Many horses now reside outside Iceland as they've become one of the most popular horse breeds in the 1950s. Due to the isolation in their country of origin, the horses built a low resistance to infectious diseases. In order to prevent a disaster from happening, it is illegal to import horses of any breed to Iceland, and this includes re-importing Iceland-born horses that were exported at some time in their lives.[11]
¶ References
- International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations, Breeding Rules and Regulations, April 2022
- Haase, B., et al., Seven novel KIT mutations in horses with white coat colour phenotypes, 2009, Animal Genetics, 40: 623-629.
- Haase, B., et al. A novel KIT variant in an Icelandic horse with white-spotted coat colour, 2015, Animal Genetics, 46: 466
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/34/birthday-surprise-new-horse-colour-variations-small-community-update-v2-transfer-bugfixes
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/72/community-update-new-icelandic-greys-other-bug-fixes-competition-scoring-server-struggles-tbs-market-redesign
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/133/community-update-foundation-batch-1-pantaneiro-horse-release-date-poll-results-more
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/127/community-update-massive-sales-quarter-horses-redo-art-survey-results-art-plans
- https://deloryan.notion.site/Horse-Breeds-Artwork-Genetics-6d0a84be35284b12806976bbb8cc886c
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/25/brumby-arrival-on-july-28th-rules-update-thoroughbred-community-poll-foundation-names-changed
- Horses of Iceland, The Icelandic Horse: https://www.horsesoficeland.is/the-icelandic-horse; Access: November 2022
- International Federation of Icelandic Horse Associations, Icelandic Horses: https://www.feif.org/feif/icelandic-horse/; Access: November 2022