IS2015158162 - Hannibal frá Þúfum

The peddigree
Hannibal is out of Grýla frá Þúfum and Stjörnustæll frá Dalvík. Stjörnustæll deserves his own chapter here as he meant so much to us. Exept from winning the fivegait on the Icelandic championship with Mette and go to the World Championship, he did great in the breeding for us. We used him on seven mares. We got two males; Hannibal, Sírius, a very good competition horse and five first price mares! Two of them we kept as breeding mares; Stjönuspá and Svarfdæla both with 9,5 for slow tölt

The tölting youngster
We did get to watch as Hannibal was born. Our mares give birth outside in the field since we have no predators in Iceland. And it usually happens at night or early morning hours.
Memories of Hannibal as a youngster was jet-black young stallion tölting towards you. It was this „dillandi“ movement. Dillandi is Icelandic and I cannot find it to translate it, but it means a horse moving smooth and springy. He also showed trott and canter, but a lot of tölt. And always this clear tölt, not a pace. We don´t have anything against pacing youngsters, some of our best horses paced all the way through life, when without a rider. But Hannibal tölted, and so does many of his offspring.

Early training
Gísli started him, and since he had shown so much tölt, but a very beautifull trot Mette incurraged him to stregthen him in trot and canter. It was not until early spring we started to look for the tölt again, and that became Mette´s job. We are not sure how good idea it was to wait with the tölt this long as it was so natural. But maby it was… Who knows? He was, as his father Stjörnustæll, a bit slow the first winter, had a lot of movement and huge stridelength so he needed time to balance. The thing he was not slow in though was gallop. He quite early discovered how fun that was and how good he was at that. As with all our young horses, they do get brakes inbetween for some weeks when we think they need it or we just don´t have time for them.

Gísli rode him mostly again the winter he became five and Mette took over early spring again, and showed him in his first judgement and the Landshow. Where he made greate sucsess. Reciving 9 and 9.5 for most gaits. A fun memory from the conformation judgement was the judge walking up to him and pointed out his strong crest and wither straight away. Thought it was unusual. We agree and belive this is a very strong side of him and helps him to be so easy to ride and in good selfcarriage.

Four or fivegaiter?
Hannibal was meant to be Mette´s next fivegaiter. We trained pace a few times when he was five, but as the canter got better the pace was a bit further away. And as it got close to the breedingshow we decided to show him as a fourgaiter—for now. Again as a seven year old we trained the pace a bit and it was clear-beated very good movements a bit as his father. Again that year, closer to the breedingshow we felt it could be possible to get a 9,5 for tölt and wanted to concentrate on that first. That spring Hannibal got a judgement as the highest fourgaiter in Iceland at the time. With five times 9,5 and no gait under 9.

Competition career
Hannibal became Mettes fourgaiter. His competition careere started with a blast, winning everything he took part in his first season. Everything with him was so easy. He payed no attention to audience applauding, always relaxed, but willing. Very easy warm up. And warmups can be hard in the winter indoor competitions. As you warm up outside in the dark, often on ice and snow. Then enter the warm, bright noisy competition arena, with a totally different surface to ride on. This is a very unnatural thing for a horse to do and not in its nature to addapt so quickly to change of light and suprisong sounds like applaud. But Hannibal behaved like it was a totally normal thing to do. One thing he was especially good at was cruising throug the corners and short sides in fast tölt. I never had a horse like this. In his first year of competition he recived over 8 in tölt AND fourgait. We never had a horse with such a full package as Hannibal. Looks, temprament and all gaits good. Great walk, still very easy with selfcarriage in tölt. And the easyness and simplicity of riding him.

Offspring
It seems his offspring have the same attitude, tölting towards you. We have not started any under saddle yet but they seem to have the same calmness and the bounchy movements. And we see the very strong withers and crest that we think is a big part of what makes Hannibal so easy to ride.

The joy of owning Hannibal
It´s just fun. And it is a privilege to enjoy the developement of such a horse. Hannibal is exited about his tasks every day. Comes running and followes you to the riding arena as a happy puppy. What I learn from him is that it doesn´t need to be complicated or difficoult to be supergood!