My full name is Herdís Reynisdóttir but am usually called Dísa. I live on the west coast of Ireland with my family on our Icelandic Horse Farm, Hestakot (www.hestakot.com)

While growing up, my family always lived in a city, first in the US, then in Sweden and finally in Iceland and I always wanted to move to the countryside, mainly because that’s where the horses were.

Ever since I can remember I’ve been fascinated with this magnificent creature even though none of my family had anything to do with horses. I started working with and training horses at age of 14. From then on I had one foot in the stable along with my regular school education and dedicated every free time basically to horses.

After finishing high school in Reykjavik, Iceland, I went to Germany to work on a big horse farm and in 1997 I went to Hólar (Icelandic Equestrian University College) and graduated as a young horse trainer. In the following years, I kept working with horses and then the opportunity arose for me to work in Canada on another big horse farm where I started teaching a bit.

The next years I spent taking my B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Science and then I went back to Hólar for the Riding Instructors Program, where I graduated from in the year 2001.

In 2006 I graduated as a high school teacher in natural science and was working as a teacher in Hólar for 3 years, teaching for instance Equine Behaviour, Pre-training of young horses and History of Riding along with other projects.

Since 2002, I’ve been an International Breeding Judge and I’ve traveled extensively in that position. I’ve also been busy giving general riding courses as well as seminars regarding breeding judging, in various countries. My experience from 20 years of training hundreds of horses as well as my education as a high school teacher, Breeding Judge, Sport and Gaedinga Judge, helps me assist my students in all various stages.

In between these projects I’ve worked as a journalist, mainly for Eidfaxi, one of the most well known Icelandic Horse Magazines in the world. I’ve been a member of the Education Committee of FEIF since this committee was established in 2003 and am only this year quitting that work. However I will make sure to keep close contact to FEIF and all the exciting work that happens within this international umbrella organization of Icelandic Horse Associations from around the world.

I often travel to breeding shows, seminars, courses, and breed a little bit my own horses in Iceland besides enjoying and taking care of my family. All in all a busy and satisfying life of a horse-crazy person.