I didn't think a horse could get in this posistion

I saw a video of the icelandics falling through the ice. In the one I saw, they all got out in about 15 minutes -- It could have been horrible.

i think he should be tied to a truck and dragged around on ice for a while see how it feels. poor horse. i do give him a wee little bit of credit for actually checking the horse, most of those dumb a$$es would of just got right back on and took off.

omg. thts horrible.

This is so sad. That poor horse! I can't believe someone would do that!

Racing and showing on ice is very common in Iceland. The horses ususally wear special "ice and snow" shoes so that they can get a better grip on it. While the riding does not impress me, I see nothing cruel here, just looks like an accident to me.

I can't see it but judgeing from comments it might not be such a bad thing that I can't.

I don't find it cruel, it just seems silly to me. If the horse was on grass or sand, he'd have had a chance to catch himself. Whatever shoes he's wearing certainly didn't seem to help the tiniest bit when he was flailing to catch his balance.

Though I suppose sliding down the ice seems a lot safer then face planting after a 4'0" cross country jump. Maybe they all think we're cruel lunatics!

Here's the video of the Icelandics falling through the ice. Only thing that outraged me about this video was how many of them were hauling and yanking on the bits, like somehow they could pull them out. In a different video, I was under the impression it took a few hours to get them out, but I could be wrong!

I think that last video is amazing. All those horses stayed super calm in that situation as did most of the poeple. The horses could have easily freaked out and caused serious injury or death to themselves.

I think yanking on the bridle was an attempt to encourage the horses to try to jump out of the water though it wasn't a very effective method.

wow,
people are so cruel... that is just sick that he would race that poor, innocient horse on assfault!

I agree! And the riders didn't leave their horses even though they themselves were soaking wet and probably freezing cold. And I think it took them so long to get them out because they tried to take their saddles off so that it would be easier for the horses to get out.
They probably thought that the ice was thicker than that (it looked thick). And Iceland is named Iceland for a reason ;)