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. I speak fluently Swedish, English and
Germany, besides my native tongue, Icelandic.

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 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 from the
Agricultural University of Hvanneyri (LBHI) and then I went back to Hólar for the
Riding Instructors Program, where I graduated from in 2001.

In 2006 I finished an additional study from University of Akureyri (HA) that gave me
a diploma to teach natural science in high school, 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.

From 2002-2019, I was an International Breeding Judge and I traveled extensively
as such. I judged a lot in Iceland, specially the first years with almost 1000shows a
year, but often also judged breeding shows in other countries too like Sweden,
Denmark, USA, Canada, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands,
Norway and UK. Ever since graduating as a riding instructor I have been
giving general riding courses as well as seminars regarding breeding judging, in
many of the same countries. I also include a theory session within most riding
courses, and sometimes do online teaching, both theory of various sort, and
practical riding.

My experience from 30 years of training hundreds of horses, teaching countless
riders, 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 speaker in several big events, like
Landsmót and the World Championship. Also sometimes 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 with only a couple of years break,
and am also a member of the Icelandic Education Committee of LH. Within these
committees we constantly work on evolving the education, both of our equine
professionals, general riders and our horses. We also organize seminars of various
sort.

Between my travels to courses, clinics, seminars and other events, I also teach at
my own little Icelandic horse farm, Hestakot on the west coast of Ireland where
we also offer accommodation (our AirBnb Link here). I have few school horses here and sometimes people
bring their own horses, both Icelandics and other breeds. I even breed a little bit
myself occasionally besides enjoying and taking care of my family.

All in all a busy and satisfying life of a horse-crazy person.