News and Announcements 

(15.08.2007) The 2007 World Championships for Icelandic Horses ended on Sunday with a prize giving and a closing speech by the Chairman of NSIJP - The Netherlands' Icelandic horse Society, and member of FEIF. It was generally agreed that the Dutch could be proud of the organization of the whole event; the 500 volunteers did an exemplary job. However, there is always something that could be done better, and the press said that facilities on site for the media were unsatisfactory; also that the timetable was too tight to give the visitors enough time to look around the trade stands - not unusual at World Championships and Landsmots. WorldFengur had a stand on the Icelandic Horse Plaza which put a lot into making the most of Icelandic horse breeders, and into serving the Icelandic horse fans at the event. The greatest emphasis was placed on promoting the stud book of origin; in addition to this, Þórarinn Eymundsson and Atli Guðmundsson gave interesting talks that were well attended by the visitors. Amongst the visitors to the Horse Plaza was a deputation from the French Icelandic horse association to discuss registration of the French horses in WorldFengur; a meeting was held there with the breeding leader of the Dutch Icelandic Horse Association to discuss matters of concern that had come up regarding the registration of horses in Holland; the new WorldFengur registrar for the USA, Ásta Covert, met the WorldFengur team, and FEIF President Jens Iversen, requested that the WorldFengur registrar designate for New Zealand could be introduced to WorldFengur. The WorldFengur team was Hallveig Fróðadóttir, Kristín Halldórsdóttir, Germany, Thorberg Th. Thorbergsson, Kim Middel, Holland and Jón Baldur Lorange.

(11.08.2007) On the WorldFengur's homepage is a photo of Dalvar from Auðsholtshjáleigu when he was shown at the second assessment of breeding horses yesterday at the WC 2007. The photographer is Sabine Sebald who is WorldFengur's special photoagent. Sabine has taken many photos here at the World Championships and subscribers to Worldfengur will enjoy when the selection has been entered into the database over the next few weeks.

(26.06.2007) The Norsk Islandshestaforening has negotiated a deal with Prokaria in Iceland. This deal consists of the analysis of DNA samples from Icelandic horses located in Norway and an automatic import of those samples into the WorldFengur database. Around 1.000 samples have arrived in Iceland for analysis with Prokaria and the results will simultaneously be entered into WorldFengur for comparison with previous DNA analysis.

(26.06.2007) Today, 26th of July, a new version of WorldFengur - the studbook of origin - was published on the web. WorldFengur is developed in the developing tool JDeveloper from Oracle. The old version was written in the 3.1 version but the new in the 10.1 version of JDeveloper. The new version offers much more possibilities in the developing work which users will see in more a professional layout, more functions and in more speed. The new version is also runned on more powerful server Oracle Application Server at the IT company SKYRR Ltd. This means that WorldFengur can now serve all the members of the FEIF countries that soon will have free access to WorldFengur.

(25.05.07) WorldFengur had 1.734 hits yesterday compared with 864 one week ago . Use of WorldFengur has been closely monitored so information can be gathered that will improve the service offered to subscribers (see picture to the left)- number of visits 15th to 24th May 2007). Total sum of visits these days was 11.734. About 46% of the subscribers come from Iceland, 16.5% from Denmark, 13.3% from Germany, 12.6% from Sweden, and about 5.3% from Norway. No other country has more than 2% of the total number of visits but the visits come from 26 countries around the world. It is interesting to see how widely spread around the world subscribers are, from Santa San Luis Obispo, USA, in the west to Auckland, New Zealand, in the east; from Milan, Italy in the south, to Tromso, Norway, in the north. The visitors come from 289 cities. 30.2% of the visits are from Reykjavik, and that is where the largest group of subscribers is. 97% of subscribers use the Windows operating system, 2.7% Macintosh, and no more than 0.4% use Linux. The languages used in the computers of the visitors were 28 total; English 47%, Danish 15.1%, German 14.9%, Swedish 11%, Norwiegan 4.3% and other less.

Successful FEIF Conference
More then 110 participants from 15 different countries participated in the FEIF Conference, Februari 16-18, 2007 in Glasgow (GB). The conference included the FEIF Delegates' Assembly (the highest body within FEIF), the annual Chairmens meeting and annual department meetings for Breeding, Sport, Education and Youth, plus a meeting for editors of national magazines. In the general part Elisabeth Berger (DE) presented her view on youth work and explained the success of youth and young riders in Germany. Elsa Albertsdottír (IS) presented research results about the relation between sport results and the breeding value of horses. Eyjolfur Isolfsson (IS) explained the education system of Hólar University College in Iceland.
The Board presented the new Vision and Mission of FEIF. (Source: www.feif.org. The new website of FEIF which opened on the Glasgow meeting)

(05.02.2007) The deadline for entries to the "New Year Quiz" has been postponed until 1st March 2007. This is to give more subscribers the chance to have a go. It is also relevant to mention that registration of members of the Danish Icelandic Association (DI - Dansk Islandshesteforening) couldn't begin until February 2th. due to technical reasons. Only 300 subscribers out of a possible 4000 have had a go at the quiz - an unbelievably small proportion.

(14.01.2007) WorldFengur invites all its subscribers to a New Years sweepstake. The winners will be determined February 1st. 2007. The prizes are magnificent, as usual, and the first prize is the Ástundarsaddle Winner+ worth roughly 190.000 Íkr. The second place winner receives the English edition of The Icelandic Horse, a renowned book, which has received many praises from all over the world by people who enjoy the Icelandic horse. Other prizes include subscriptions to Eiðfaxi and Eiðfaxi International. As of January 2007 many new subscribers will receive their access through their member society so it was therefore decided to have the sweepstake during this period. Answers to all the questions can be found on www.worldfengur.com, either in the news-bulletin or through a search of the database. The search for the answers will test your knowledge of WorldFengur. Only subscribers can participate in the sweepstake and you can only send in your answers once. “WorldFengur” will randomly pick winners from correct answers only (7 questions). Bændasamtök Íslands and FEIF would like to wish their subscribers a happy new year.

(14.01.2007) The Icelandic Horse Society in the United States and WorldFengur have come to an agreement regarding a free access for all members to participate in The United States Icelandic Horse Congress (USIHC) in the year 2007. The board of the Icelandic Horse Society has invited Jón Baldur Lorange, the project manager of WF, to attend their annual meeting in Dallas Texas on Mars 24, 2007. There he will hold a presentation on WorldFeng potentials. There are 540 registered members in the USIHC that own about 3000 Icelandic horses. The number of horses registered in WorldFeng today are 3834 thereof 2946 are registered alive.

(23.11.2006) DNA analysis of several thousand horses done by Prokaria (a private biotechnology company based in Reykjavik ) has been entered into the WorldFengur database in accordance with an agreement between The Farmers' Association of Iceland (Bændasamtök Ísland) and Prokaria. WorldFengur can also compare the DNA analyses of a horse with those of
its parents, if such information is present, and conclude whether the pedigree fits in or not with the requirements stipulated by the Prokaria researchers. Prokaria also has direct access to the DNA results held by WorldFengur, for further study and research. WorldFengur subscribers can
now see the results of the DNA analyses of every horse, but the research laboratories are the only ones that can see the actual analyses themselves (the markers). It is likely that the Norwegians will also make an agreement with Prokaria to analyse those DNA samples which are
held in Norway and await analysis. In the near future WorldFengur will be entering into negotiations with laboratories in Sweden and the Netherlands to get data from them to enter into WorldFengur. At the same time these laboratories need to work together find a way of
standardising their methods.

(12.11.2006) About 20,000 people will get free access to WorldFengur next year. Icelandic horse associations in USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands have come to an agreement that will allow their members free access to WorldFengur next year. The Swedish Icelandic horse associations has also decided to renew their agreement for free access to their members in 2007. This means that all the members of 8 FEIF member countries will have free access to WorldFengur next year. The countries involved are Austria, Great Britain (Icelandic Horse Society of Great Britain), The Netherlands, Iceland (Félag hrossabænda/Horse
breeders' association and local club Hörður), Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany. A ninth country, Finland, has also come to an agreement where their members can buy a subscription to WorldFengur through their society at a special rate. This means that a large
majority of FEIF members will get free access to WorldFengur in 2007 through their own countries. According to Jón Baldur Lorange, WorldFengur project manager, this is a clear indication how much interest has been generated in WorldFengur throughout the World. "Today
there are about 3,500 WorldFengur subscribers, and next year well over 20,000 will have the right to access the studbook of origin for nothing, if they choose to do so.
On the other hand we have seen that it can take time for people to get going; the use of the internet, for example, is not as widespread in all countries as it is here in Iceland. I feel it would be better if people could access WorldFengur via their Icelandic horse associations, thus
strengthening these associations, rather than making WorldFengur wide open to all without subscription. Opinions are clearly divided on this; I know that the new FEIF board does not share mine on this issue, and it is right that their view is not overlooked." Jón Baldur also wanted to thank those who have generously and diligently worked on the expansion of WorldFengur over the last few years; without them it would not have been possible to get as far as we have with the aforementioned agreements and free access to FEIF members. These individuals include Kristín Halldórsdóttir in Germany, Kim Middel and Tim van der Akker in the Netherlands, Reinhard Loidl in Austria, Mike Edwards and Fi Pugh in Great Britain, Annegrete and Jens Otto Veje in Denmark, Annette Knudsen in Denmark, Barla Barandun in Switzerland, Clive Philips in Scotland, Caryn Cantella in the USA, Inge Kringeland and Per Oddvar Rise in Norway, Kati Ahola in Finland, Per Anderz Finn and Göran Haagberg in Sweden. Jón Baldur ended by saying, "In Iceland, Félag hrossabænda (The Horsebreeders' association), led by its chairman Kristinn Guðnason, has always stood behind us right from the beginning, and their support is immeasurable for the FEIF community as a whole."

(10.11.2006) A new International Breeding Evaluation (BLUP) has been calculated and can now be found in WorldFengur. Guðlaugur Antonsson, the national breeding advisor of Iceland, introduces the new breeding evaluation on the annual conference 'Hrossaræktin' tomorrow (Saturday 11th.).

(12.09.2006) The Icelandic Horse Society of Switzerland (Die Islandpferdevereinigung
Schweiz) has decided to give all its members (numbering just under 1000) free access to WorldFengur as from January 2007. The registration of this new subscriber to WorldFengur will be completed in the next few months so that access will be open to its members from 1st January 2007. Barla Barandun, breeding leader for Switzerland, finalised the agreement. Switzerland is one of the first countries that sought to register all its purebred Icelandics in WorldFengur, doing so in 2001. The Swiss association is the fifth one to sign an agreement on free access to WorldFengur for all its members - Sweden, Austria, Germany and Norway have already entered into similar agreements. All members of Iceland's Horsebreeders' association (Félag hrossabænda) also have free access to WorldFengur. According to Jón B Lorange, WorldFengur Project Manager, agreements are being drawn up with two other Icelandic horse associations. Watch this space over the next few weeks to find out which ones they are.

(31.08.2006) WorldFengur and Hestafréttir (www.hestafrettir.is) have made an agreement to allow WorldFengur subscribers access to videos of stallions that Hestafréttir (www.hestafrettir.is) controls the rights to. The link to the stallion videos will be put on the information page (flip) Myndir in WorldFengur so that all subscribers have to do is to click on it to run the video. According to Daníel Ben Þorgeirsson at Hestafrettir.is they are planning to add 300 videos to the Hestafrettir database that subscribers have access to in the next 6 - 8 months. Daníel also praised the cooperation with WorldFengur which has often prompted him to present
new things of service to horsemen over the years. Jón Baldur Lorange, WorldFengur project manager, feels the agreement with Hestafrettir.is offers horsemen a better and improved service at minimal cost, and Hestafrettir.is can provide videos and other goods via a powerful
medium. "The only thing we are doing is benefitting our subscribers". Thus the access to and use of the videos which the stallion owners have had made for Hestafrettir.is is greatly improved as about 3000 WorldFengur subscribers can now view them easily when they look at the
information on the horses in the database.

(16.07.2006) A successful Landsmót (Icelandic National Championships) at Vindheimamelar in Iceland has drawn to close. The Icelandic horse was the undisputed champion, as it has been at previous Landsmóts, and thousands of guests from many different countries enjoyed the very best breeding horses every day of the show. WorldFengur was on site on the 2006 Icelandic Horse Plaza together with the Association of Horsebreeders (Félagið hrossabænda), Horse Trainers´Association (FT), Hólar University College and the Icelandic Horse History Centre. This initiative was enthusiastically received, the Trade Area was busy and the instructional seminars awoke well deserved interest. In his speech as he opened the Icelandic Horse Plaza, Guðni Ágústsson, Iceland's, Minister of Agriculture, described WorldFengur as "Odinn's all-seeing eye over the breeding of Icelandic horses all over the world." Here are the names of a few of the Landsmot guests who did us the honour of visiting us at WorldFengur: Guðni Ágústsson, Iceland's Minister of Agriculture, Martina Gates (USA), TöltNews, Per Anderz Finn (Sweden), FEIF director of breeding, Marko Mazeland (The Netherlands), FEIF director of sport, Tone Kolnes (Norway), FEIF president, Per Kolnes (Norway), member of the FEIF breeding judges committee, Reinhard Loidl (Austria), WF registrar, Halla Eygló Sveinsdóttir, local advisor, Guðmundur Jóhannesson, local advisor, Vignir Sigurðsson, manager local advisory service BSE, Jens Iversen (Denmark), FEIF treasurer, Annette Knudsen (Denmark), WF registrar, Tim van den Akker (The Netherlands), WF registrar, Karen Bronzman (USA), Johannes Hoyos
(Austria), dr. Ferdinard Smith (Germany), Hákon Sigurgrímsson, head of the ministry of Agriculture's office, Oddur Hafsteinsson, director of Þekkingar, dr. Ágúst Sigurðsson, Principle Iceland's University College of Agriculture, Hallgrímur S Sveinsson, FEIF judges committee, og Stan Hirson (USA), Hestakaup.com.

(30.05.2006) The Icelandic horse associations in Austria and Germany have decided to follow the example of Sweden and Norway and have finalised an agreement which will allow all their members access to WorldFengur. According to Jón Baldur Lorange, WorldFengur project manager, this is a turning point in the gathering of subscribers to the studbook of origin, and an acknowledgement by these associations of the huge amount of work done over the past few years by individuals in several countries when WorldFengur was being set up. "It will be a pleasure to take steps to ensure that WorldFengur can deal with the increased load. This is the unavoidable consequence of getting thousands of new subscribers from these countries."

(30.05.2006) Over the last few weeks subscribers have been in contact because the WorldFengur system has frequently been down. The Farmers' Association's computer department has requested an explanation from Skýrr hf, the company that houst WorldFengur servers, and asked the company to find a way to ensure a more secure and stable connection. It seems that the system is under a lot of pressure at the moment because of the number of breeding assessments taking place all over the world that are run directly from the WorldFengur system. Preparations for the sport competition at the Landsmót are in full swing and loading the system even more. In addition to this, the number of WorldFengur subscribers has been rapidly increasing over the past few weeks so that the average daily number of users is about 600. We are now waiting for Skýrr to conduct more accurate loading tests so that a way can be worked out to deal with this increased load. The first results that have come from Skýrr suggest that the servers that run WorldFengur should be able to deal with the increased load. Because of these problems with connecting to WorldFengur, users who have been inconvenienced are asked to email the Farmers´Association´s computer department at tolvudeild@bondi.is in order to get the correct number of visitors to the site.

(10.04.2006) The Norwegian Icelandic Horse Society (Norsk Islandshestforening) has agreed to apply for access to WorldFengur for all its members as from next year. This was agreed at their annual general meeting a few days ago. This means two Icelandic horse associations have now agreed to open access to WorldFengur to all their members - the Swedish Icelandic horse society had already agreed to do that earlier this year as you can read in the previous news items below. It now looks as though the number of WorldFengur subscribers will be somewhere around 10,000 by the end of the year.

(24.02.2006) The Swedish Icelandic Horse Society (SIF) has made an agreement with www.worldfengur.com that will allow its members free access to WorldFengur from 1st March 2006 until 28th February 2007. Members of SIF number approx. 6500 at present. The agreement is similar to the one made between WorldFengur and the Horsebreeders Association (Félag hrossabænda) here in Iceland. According to Jón Baldur Lorange, project manager, other FEIF member associations, including Landssamband hestamannafélaga, are expected to enter into similar agreements on behalf of their members. A financial arrangement has also been made with the Icelandic horse associations in Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, and Germany for their members, although it doesn't go as far as the
agreement with SIF. At the beginning of the year WorldFengur subscribers numbered about 1800, today there are actually over 2000 active users, and the aim is to get 3500 active subscribers by the end of the year.

(12.02.2006) After a successful 3 day meeting in Amsterdam the annual FEIF Conference ended today. This is the second time the Conference has taken place in this format; last year a trial run was held in Copenhagen and went so well that it was decided to continue the meeting in this way. The conference opened on Friday. Over 100 participants attended from 14 of the 18 FEIF member countries, about 10 of these from Iceland. The well-known horse breeder Bjarni Þorkelsson gave an excellent talk about the breeding of Icelandic horses, and Tone Kolnes, FEIF president, announced that it will be published on the FEIF website www.feif.org. The main theme of this conference was breeding goals, and other major discussion topics were World Championships and WorldFengur. The Conference incorporated the annual FEIF international meetings for breeding, sport, education and youth. There was also a meeting for newsletter editors, but no representative from Iceland attended it.

(22.12.2005) The winners in the WorldFengur's Christmas Quiz are:

1. Ástund-Super+ from Astund Í kr. 192.900,
Sandra Maria Marin, Akureyri, Iceland

2. Epson photo printer Íkr. 15.000,- from the IT company Tæknival.
Ingi Rafn Jónsson, Reykjavík, Iceland

3. Supscription to the agricultrual magazine Frey
Þórður Ingólfsson, Reykjavík, Iceland

4-5. Subscription to WorldFengur with 150 visits.
Timo Kaarakainen, Finland
Sigurhans Jónsson, Egilsstöðum, Iceland

6. -11. WorldFengur's t-shirt and bag.
Susanne Kreuter, Germany
Anike Schneppe, Germany
Pétur Vilhjálmsson, USA
Kirsten Hofman, Germany
Sæmundur Runólfsson, Reykjavík, Iceland

(18.11.2005) The new International Genetic Evaluations (BLUP) was introduced by Guðlaugur Antonsson, the Icelandic Horse Breeding Advisor, during the yearly conference Hrossaræktin, which was held November 12th. at Hotel Saga, Reykjavík. This is a break through in the history of the Icelandic horse breeding and the WorldFengur's cooperation, but that project was launched to reach that specific goal. Horses from eleven countries were included in the breeding evaluation and those are as followed: Austria, Germany, Great-Britain, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and USA. Dr. Þorvaldur Árnason has written detailed information on the International BLUP (click on the link International BLUP to the left). The new BLUP has been read into WorldFengur.

Now it is also possible to do a Virtual Mate Selection (VMS) with a special program developed by Þorvaldur Árnason and is based on the WorldFengur data. The program computes genetic relationship (R) between parents and inbreeding coefficient (F) and pedigree BLUP index in the potential offspring . Click on Virtual Mate Selection to the left. The FEIF-ID numbers of the parents are typed in. The F is purple if it is over 5% and red if it is over 7%. Have a nice time! /JBL

(21.10.2005) The TOP 10 List has been updated. USA is new in the 7th. place.

(21.10.2005) Dr. Þorvaldur Árnason in Sweden is working on the first International BLUP calculation based on data from WorldFengur. The current BLUP in WorldFengur is for all horses from the Nordic countries. In the International BLUP, which will be published soon, horses from Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, USA and Switzerland will be included with a breeding evaluation. The FEIF Associations in these countries have assessed horses according to FIZO rules of FEIF in the recent years and all assessments are registered into WorldFengur. Furthermore a great effort has been done in registering horses into WorldFengur from the national studbooks. An International BLUP was one of the main goals in the WorldFengur Project in the beginning.

(13.09.2005)Change between languages

As a subscriber to WorldFengur, you can select your own language settings. The system allows you to switch between seven different languages, that is: Icelandic, Danish, English, Finish, Dutch, Norwegian and German. Simply select the “Language” button on left side of the screen and click on the flags to switch between languages and the change will take place immediately.

Link to the breeder homepage

Because of frequent request from breeders, we have decided to offer them to add a link to their homepage in WorldFengur. An icon to their homepage will appear next to all his/hers registered horse/s in WorldFengur. With a one click on the icon a new page to the breeders homepage will appear. By doing this it will not only make the search much more easier when a WorldFeng´s subscriber needs to search for a breeder and details of their horses it will also be a great way to introduce your breeding horses. A monthly fee will be charged for this service, the cost is 35 Euros. We offer all breeders 20% discount for each month until the end of this year as well as getting the month of September free of charge. This offer only applies if your link to your homepage is registered before the October 1 st.

Details needed: We need your full name, postal address, e-mail address and your credit card number. Orderform. You can order by an e-mail to worldfengur@worldfengur.com. You can fax these same details on +354 5625177 or contact one of our customer service agent on +354 5630349.

Approximately 300 photos will be added to WorldFengur within the next few weeks. These photos of breeding horses were taken at breeding shows during the year 2005. Most photos were taken by Mr. Eirikur Jonsson.

(10.05.2005) Breeding shows are in full swing all over Europe these days. Recently there were shows in Norway, Finland, Denmark and Germany. The main news of individual horses is that the stallion Garri frá Reykjavík got an amazing judgement in Denmark recently, scoring 8,75 for riding abilites and 8,26 for conformation, 8,55 overall. Garri got 10 for willingness/temperment and 9,5 for both tölt and trot, being a fourgaited horse. Garri got 9,0 for gallop, form under rider, mane and tail and back and croup. The lucky owners of Garri are Jóhann Skúlason and Ove Lorentzen, but the breeder is Berglind Ágústsdóttir in Iceland. Garri is by Orri frá Þúfu and out of Ísold frá Gunnarsholti.
You can follow further developments at breeding shows all over the world here at www.worldfengur.com, information on subscription can be obtained from the Farmers Association of Iceland, telephone:+354-5630300 and e-mail: worldfengur@worldfengur.com. /HGG

(10.04.2005) WF Registrars from Sweden (3), Norway (3), Great-Britain, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany (2) have decided to come to the Registrars meeting in Sweden May 20-22th. Further information will be send to the participates soon.

(30.03.2005) A Meeting/Seminar for all WorldFengur's Registrars will be held on the weedend May 20-22th in Sweden. The object of the meeting is to "walk-through" all functions in WorldFengur and to hear the opinions of the registrars on how is best to improve the system. Furthermore it is important to coordinate the data registration work of the registrars in the studbook keeping. At the meeting place will be computers with an excellent connection to the Internet. The registrars have only to take care of the travel cost and the hotel room which hopefully will be a fair price. All registrars who can attend the meeting please contact Jón Baldur Lorange (jbl@bondi.is) as soon as possible and not later than April 8th.

(28.02.2005) We have received a comment from dr. Kai-Uwe Sprenger on the report on the BLM. We publish it here:

Dear Ms Kolnes, dear Mr Lorange,
with interest I could read in 'eidfaxi' a short summary of the FEIF Breeding Leaders meeting (http://www.eidfaxi.is/frettir/eindex.php?lang=2&frett_id=10830). I would like to comment to the following statement:

"... Bændasamtök Íslands may be obliged to enter into WorldFengur every Icelandic horse that any EU approved studbook says is Icelandic (even if it is an approved studbook outside FEIF and does not follow any of the FIZO rules to ensure the purity of the breed)...".

This is not in conformity with the EU zootechnical rules. It is the principle of EU legislation that all studbooks following the rules of the organisation which maintains the studbook of the origin of the breed (see point 2(b) of the Annex of Dec. 92/353/EEC) grant each other mutual recognition of their animals. So it is not enough only to say what breed it is but primarily to follow the rules, e.g. to ensure purity.

Kind regards,
Kai-Uwe Sprenger
European Commission
DG SANCO/ E2
Rue Froissart 101-2/86
1040 Brussels

(23.02.2005) February 11-13, 2005, the annual FEIF international meeting of national breeding leaders was held in Copenhagen in connection with the big Icelandic horse event arranged by the Danish Icelandic Horse Association, Dansk Islandshesteforening. Until now, the FEIF annual breeding leaders' meeting has been held in the autumn, often in Reykjavik, but it was decided at last year's FEIF Delegates' Assembly to hold all the FEIF annual departmental meetings at one big conference. Consequently, the annual FEIF sport meeting was also held at the same time as the breeding leaders' meeting, and Iceland's representative for sport is Sigurður Sæmundsson. Also representing Iceland at the sport meeting were Hörður Hákonarson og Sigurður Emil Ævarsson. The FEIF sport leader is Marko Mazeland. The annual FEIF youth leaders' meeting was also held during the conference and the youth representative for Iceland was Rosemarie Þorleifsdóttir; also representing Iceland at the youth leaders' meeting were Sigrún Ögmundsdóttir and Sigurrós Johansdóttir. The FEIF annual meeting for education leaders, too, was held at the same time; Iceland's representative for this is Herdís Reynisdóttir. Jón Albert Sigurbjörnsson, chairman of Landssamband Hestamanna attended the FEIF chairmen's meeting. For the first time a special meeting was held for the editors of the national FEIF member associations' newsletter editors, and Jónas Kristjánsson, editor of Eiðfaxi attended on behalf of Iceland.
Ágúst Sigurðsson, director of the Agricultural University (Landbúnaðarháskóli), and Icelandic Veterinary surgeon Sigríður Björnsdóttir gave talks to general sessions of the conference where all could be present, to great applause. The FEIF conference format worked very well and it was decided to put a proposal to the FEIF Delegates' Assembly 2005 to continue with the FEIF conference in the future.

The FEIF breeding leaders' meeting had fewer hours than on previous occasions, and there was not really enough time to fully discuss important matters. Per Anderz Finn (SE), the breeding leader of FEIF, was in charge of the meeting, and Fi Pugh (GB), the secretary of FEIF, wrote the minutees of the meeting. Representing Iceland were Guðlaugur Antonsson, horse consultant, Hallgrímur S. Sveinsson, member of the FEIF international breeding judges' group (with John Siiger Hansen, Denmark, and Per Kolnes, Norway, both present at the meeting), and Jón Baldur Lorange, member of the FEIF Registration group. Sigríður Björnsdóttir, Veterinary surgeon, also attended the meeting. Others attending the meeting were Rebecka Frey, Sweden, Reinhard Loidl, Austria (also a member of the FEIF registration group), Barla Barandun, Switzerland, Barbara Fische, Germany, Annette Knudsen, Morten Haggquist and Jan Thye, Denmark, Linda Bergström, Finland, Mike Edwards, Great Britain, Ewald Schmid, Italy, Carla van Nunen and Hans Bettonviel, Netherlands, Inge Kringeland, and Per Oddvar Rise, Norway, Ante Eklund, Göran Haggberg, Jan Lockwall, Karin Magnusson, and Þorvaldur Árnason, Sweden, and Anne W. Elwell from USA. This was the first time for a few years that USA had sent a representative to the meeting, and this is almost certainly due to the new "conference" format.

All written reports from the breeding leaders, breeding judges' group, registration group, and the WorldFengur annual report were distributed at the meeting but there was not really time to discuss them further. Most of the time was spent discussing the proposed rules for veterinary checks of stallions; these rules will be formulated into an official proposal for the FEIF 2005 Delegates' Assembly. Sigríður Björnsdóttir gave an extremely interesting and informative talk on research results and the aims behind such rules. Agreement was reached on the same rules for the x-ray of stallions (regarding bone spavin) as the Horse Breeding Committee (Fagráð í hrossarækt) had agreed for Iceland. It was also agreed to begin to gather information about the health status of horses at breeding assessments and a new FEIF veterinary committee was established (chaired by Sigríður Björnsdóttir with Rebecka Frey as a member of the committee) to put together some provisional information sheets. The breeding judges' committee proposed a list of "head judges" should be drawn up, and that one head judge should be on every judges' panel at FEIF international breeding shows. Although participants agreed it was important to have an experienced head judge in each judges' panel they did not want the qualified FEIF international breeding judges to be divided into two groups. Another proposal that all FIZO breeding assessments should have international status, rather than some being national and others international, was better received, all present acknowledging that it is important that all breeding assessments should be held under the same conditions if it is to be possible to compare results from one country to another. Participants at the meeting acknowledged that Iceland puts so much financial support into FEIF in connection with the development and running of WorldFengur, that an exception should be made for Iceland, and that a way should be found to release Iceland from having to pay the fee payable to FEIF (agreed to be kept at 15€) for each horse shown at an international assessment. The judges' group will work on a proposal to be put to the FEIF Delegates' Assembly 2005 concerning this matter. Germany's proposal for assessments of foals and young horses was discussed and it was agreed that Germany would set up a working group to draw up provisional rules that could be accepted by all FEIF member countries. Sweden's proposal to discuss the payment of breeding judges was rejected. Thorvaldur Árnason talked about the current status of his and Ágúst Sigurðsson's work on the International genetic evaluation of the Icelandic horse in WorldFengur and gave a good description of the breeding goals for the Icelandic horse.
Jón Baldur, WorldFengur project manager, gave a brief summary of the current status of the WorldFengur project, and wished to hear what the meeting's participants felt about whether Bændasamtök Íslands should apply to the EU to be listed as a recognised breed society with responsibility for the studbook of origin of the Icelandic horse; he referred to the meeting he and Tone Kolnes, (president of FEIF) , had with Dr. Kai-Uwe Sprenger at the European Union (see news 17.12.04 below). Everyone who cared to voice an opinion about the matter thought it important that Iceland was put on the list to strengthen their position with regard to the EU. However, one concern was that it is possible that if Iceland adopts the EU directive, then Bændasamtök Íslands may be obliged to enter into WorldFengur every Icelandic horse that any EU approved studbook says is Icelandic (even if it is an approved studbook outside FEIF and does not follow any of the FIZO rules to ensure the purity of the breed). It also came up at the meeting that the participants considered it important that WorldFengur could be useful for them as a studbook system, e.g. to produce passports. Inge Kringeland, Norway, was elected as the new chairman of the FEIF Registration group to replace Kati Ahola. Kati has worked hard as chairman of the group for four years and did not wish to stand for reelection. On Sunday Inge managed to get most of the breeding leaders to attend a meeting about the WorldFengur project, and there were about 20 present. The emphasis was on getting ideas from the countries on how WorldFengur could be improved and how to get more subscribers, to strengthen WorldFengur's development over the next few years. Jón Baldur encouraged the member associations to go the same way as Iceland, and to include a subscription to WorldFengur in the annual membership fee to the society. This would considerably reduce the cost of a subscription to WorldFengur and increase the value of a subscription to the national FEIF member associations, thus increasing members. WorldFengur would be Iceland's contribution to international cooperation within FEIF. Thorvaldur Árnason suggested that WorldFengur should be well publicised at the Icelandic horse World Championships in Sweden this summer and news about this tremendous database given out between the days' events.

(15.02.2005) Subscription cost unchanged. Subscribers can now subscribe to WorldFengur for 6 months with 20 visits to the site for the same price that a quarterly subscription was offered previously. In this way we are complying with the wishes of our subscribers who thought that a 3 month period was too short. After this change subscribers can choose between 3 types of subscription; annual, with 300 visits, annual with 150 visits, and 6 months with 20 visits. In spite of the huge rise of the rate of exchange of the Icelandic króna and the increase in inflation in Iceland during the past year the subscription fee remains unchanged. This is only possible as the number of subscribers has increased by 65% over the past year.

(05.02.2005) All FEIF member country associations register Iceland as the country of origin of the Icelandic horse in the EU stud book register. Iceland would have to adopt the EU directive no. 90/427/EEC and fulfil the requirements of EU directives no. 92/353/EEC and no. 92/354/ECC in order to get Bændasamtök Íslands registered into the EU studbook register. Norway and Switzerland, which are not members of the EU, are in the register, as these two countries have also had to adopt the afore-mentioned directives. This was made clear at a meeting held in Brussels November last year between Tone Kolnes, FEIF President, Jón Baldur Lorange, WorldFengur project manager, and Dr. Kai-Uwe Sprenger, EU development manager. Guðmundur Sigþórsson from the Icelandic Embassy in Brussels also attended the meeting, as did Kristín Halldórsdóttir who is responsible for registering the horses for IPZV in Germany. The aim of the meeting was to present FEIF and WorldFengur to the EU, to get information on EU rules regarding the registration of horses into studbooks, and to find out where Iceland stands with regard to her request to have Iceland recognised as the country of origin of the Icelandic horse. Dr. Sprenger advised the Icelanders to introduce directive 90/427/EEC in order to secure Bændasamtök Íslands' position as a recognised breed society, and World Fengur as the mother studbook, even though we already fulfil all the conditions of the EU rules. This led to a discussion about the complaint from the Scottish Icelandic Horse Association (SIHA) about it having an unfair position with regard to WorldFengur, but the EU felt this matter was outside the EU's jurisdiction since Iceland is a "third" country as far as the EU is concerned. If we, on the other hand, introduced the directive, this would change, and the matter would have to be dealt with once again". According to Jón Baldur, the meeting in the EU Headquarters lasted about two hours and was both useful and enjoyable. Another point for discussion was the so-called EU life number, a unique number identity for every horse which the EU is preparing to introduce and which will have to be put on horse passports. As far as the EU is concerned, the main point of the passports is animal health and welfare and not a registration document for breed societies. "Dr. Sprenger could see no reason why we should not continue to use the FEIF-ID number since they are unique globally. It came out in conversation that Dr. Sprenger felt WorldFengur is one of a kind as it is a database on the internet for one agricultural animal. He knew of no other comparable system", said Jón Baldur, and emphasised that the next thing that needed to be done with regard to this matter was that the Icelandic government, together with Bændasamtök Íslands, should look at the advantages and disadvantages of introducing EU directive no. 90/427/EEC. "My opinion is that the Iceland's position as country of origin of the breed is not disputed, and the same goes for WorldFengur as the mother studbook of the Icelandic horse. The WorldFengur agreement between Bændasamtök Íslands' and FEIF, International Federation of Icelandic Horse associations, which is accepted as part of the International breed standard in the form of the FIZO, and which all FEIF member associations abide by, has helped to secure Iceland's position as the country of origin for the Icelandic horse. The same is to be said for the directive about countries of origin (no. 948/2002) which contains the breeding goals from the FIZO and which FEIF has accepted", concluded Jón Baldur.

(31.12.2004) WorldFengur wishes all subscribers a very happy and prosperous new year.

(8.12.04) A discussion forum about WorldFengur has been opened on the Icelandic horse news website www.847.is. Here, subscribers have the opportunity to put forward comments on the validity of WorldFengur today and how the system could be made even better. WorldFengur is the studbook of origin of the Icelandic horse and is developed by Bændasamtök Ísland in partnership with FEIF, the International Federation of
Icelandic Horse Associations. WorldFengur was opened at the Icelandic Horse World Championships in 2001 and encompassed three systems; Fengur, Íslandsfengur, and Veraldarfengur. Next year the plan is to thoroughly upgrade the development and design of WorldFengur, since there has unfortunately not been time to work on this so far. However, the IT department of Bændasamtök Ísland is constantly making improvements and
additions to the database in order to make it more powerful, more reliable, and quicker. It is hoped that the discussion forum on 847 will provide useful discussions and criticisms which can help future work.

(01.12.2004) World Fengur gets in the Christmas spirit.Approximately 400 photos have now been added to the photo album in World Fengur. Most of the photos have been taken by Eiríkur Jónsson at breeding shows held this year, but there are some photos from a few
other individuals. About 40 photos are of horses in Sweden.Registration of horses into World Fengur is in full flow in most of the FEIF member associations. Recently 400 horses have been entered from the United States Icelandic Horse Congress in the USA (USIHC). Work is continuing with registering the horses from the IPZV database in Germany, where about 2000 horses have been registered. The situation is similar in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Registration has almost been completed in Finland, Great Britain and Switzerland. Today the total number of horses in World Fengur is 210,552, and about 35% of
these are resident outside Iceland.This December breeders are offered a special subscription deal to WorldFengur. The special Christmas offer of 29 Euro for a
year´s subscription, includes 150 visits to the WorldFengur site, and is normally worth 39 Euro. An annual subscription including 300 visits to the website is also on offer this December for 48 Euro but in January this will go up to 59 Euro again. A subscription to WorldFengur is the ideal Christmas present for anyone interested in horses and can be ordered from www.worldfengur.com.

(22.11.2004) A new breeding evaluation for Scandinavia (Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) has been put into WorldFengur. A new and improved program was used for the calculations and a broader database in WorldFengur has provided the basis for evaluations from countries other than Iceland cf news below. The thing that has changed
in the breeding evaluation is that there is one combined mark for willingness and temperament instead of two separate marks as before. Thorvaldur Arnason will explain in more detail how this new calculation works. We would like to draw the attention of WorldFengur subscribers to the fact that it is possible to see the breeding evaluation for each horse, but it is also possible to look at the breeding evaluation under Reports -> Breeding evaluation.

(13.11.2004) Thorvaldur Arnason presented a new international breeding evaluation to the Horsebreeders 2004 conference held today. In his presentation he described an extensive computer analysis of pedigrees and breeding assessment data from Iceland and the other Scandinavian countries which are in WorldFengur. Then he reminded them that one of
WorldFengur's tasks has been to come up with an international evaluation system that will make it possible to compare breeding horses born and shown in different countries. The first stage has now been completed with comparable breeding evaluations for horses in Scandinavia, and the next step is to produce a breeding evaluation that is also based on the
FEIF assessment system (FIZO) used in other countries. Then Thorvaldur realised that the variability and heritibility of assessed characteristics (traits) changed dramatically around 1990, so it seemed that the best thing was to divide each characteristic into two separate characteristics, depending on whether the assessment took place before 1990 or afterwards. In the new evaluation the older assessments carry less weight than the more recent ones. To start with, the breeding evaluation has been worked out for the total mark given for conformation and for ridden ability. Thorvaldur brought the new breeding evaluation with him to the meeting in Sweden. On Monday Thorvaldur will present the changes to the breeding evaluation to the computer department of the Farmer's Association of Iceland (Bændasamtök Íslands) with the aim that work can be started on putting the new evaluation system into WorldFengur. This will require some changes to the WorldFengur database and program.

(04.11.2004) During the 2004 breeding assessment season eleven horses were awarded 8.50 or higher in total. Þóroddur frá Þóroddsstöðum is way ahead of the other horses with a total of 8.74 which was famously awarded to him at the National Championships (Landsmót) 2004. Next is Hryðja frá Hvoli with a total of 8.65 at the same event. Other horses
that got over 8.50 in total are Akkur frá Brautarholti with 8,57, Pyttla frá Flekkudal with 8,55, Kraftur frá Bringu with 8,55, Aron frá Strandarhöfða with 8,54, Gári frá Auðsholtshjáleigu with 8,54, Dökkvi frá Mosfelli with 8,54, Óskar frá Litla-Dal with 8,54, Illingur frá
Tóftum with 8,53 and lastly Ægir frá Litlalandi with 8,51. All the horses were shown at assessments in Iceland apart from Dökkvi frá Mosfelli who was shown at Forstwald in Germany. Þóroddur got 9.04 for ridden abilities, and is the only horse to have got over 9.00 for ridden abilities since Gígja frá Auðsholtshjáleigu og Sóldögg frá Hvoli got 9.05 at the District show at Sörlastaðir (Héraðssýningunni á Sörlastöðum) in 2002. The highest mark for ridden abilities recorded in World Fengur is 9.23 which was awarded to Rauðhetta frá Kirkjubæ at the Landsmót 10 years ago. In order to get a true comparison of the marks
above you need to look at horses that were the same age in the year they were judged.

(21.10.2004) Today an important new search capability was added to WorldFengur (Search - Assessments). Subscribers can now, for example, do a search on all horses that have been awarded over 8.00 for their average mark at a breeding assessment, or chose which trait (such as tölt) to do a search on. This new search capability also makes it possible to find all the offspring of Oddur frá Selfossi, for instance, which have got higher than 9.0 for tölt, or any other trait. It is possible to do a search on different breeding assessments and countries and do a combined search on all of these. In this way it is possible to call up, for example, all assessments in Finland in 2004 where 8.5 or more was given for tölt.

(12.10.2004) The number of WorldFengur subscribers has increased since this time last year from 896 to 1453 in 16 countries, or by 62%. The greatest proportionate increase has occurred in Finland, by as much as 233% and in Sweden by 158%, giving a total of 235 subscribers, which puts Sweden in second place behind Iceland. The Icelandic subscribers
have increased by 62% and now number 815. The number of subscribers in
Denmark and Austria increased by 67% and Denmark lies in third position with 145 subscribers. It is interesting to note that the number of subscribers in Norway has gone down from 43 to 32. In Germany the number of subscribers has increased by 12% giving a total of 101. The USA is well under way with 37 subscribers, doubling the number of subscribers in the space of a year.

(11.10.2004) The Farmers Association of Iceland has set the following rules on Registrar Access to WorldFengur in accordance to Regulation No. 948/2002 with amendments.

1. Only FEIF Member Associations can be given registrar access to WorldFengur in terms of a Subscriber Agreement.
2. FEIF shall maintain in force a system of rules for registration and identification of Icelandic Horses and rules for Icelandic Horse Breeding shows applicable to its Member Associations, which in so far as is reasonably possible, shall comply with the requirements of WorldFengur and the Icelandic Regulation no. 948/2002 with amendments.
3. Only the Subscriber with full registrar access, according to article 1 has the authority to add or change any data relating to that Subscriber's Section of the database during the period of its subscription. For this purpose Section means that part of the database relating to horses registered by the Subscriber as born in or living in the Subscriber's nation state.
4. The Subscriber shall be responsible for ensuring that all data submitted to WorldFengur complies with the relevant data protection or personal privacy regulations in the Subscriber's nation state.
5. The Subscriber shall ensure that all persons having access to the system on its behalf is properly trained and familiar with the operation of the system and the terms and conditions applying to its use.
6. Each Subscriber is obliged to co-operate with the other Subscribers of the system so as not to hinder the registration of horses and the efficient operation of the database.
7. The Subscriber shall be responsible for facilitating registration in WorldFengur of the entire Icelandic horse population in its nation state. Its duty is to offer the necessary co-operation to all Icelandic Horse studbooks in its nation state to register the data for the whole Icelandic Horse population born or living in that nation state. More than one Registrar Access may be allocated for this purpose although each access will cover the entire nation state, and regulation will rely on cooperation.

Bændasamtök Íslands,
10th October 2004
Sigurgeir Þorgeirsson, director

(29.09.2004) The WorldFengur database is rapidly increasing in size and it is clear that many of the FEIF member associations have undertaken the registration work. The total number of horses has reached 204.906 of which just under 82% i.e. 167.956 horses were born in Iceland. In about a year the number of horses in the database has increased by 19.685 or about 11%. The total number of horses on March 19th 2004 was 194.309. The second highest number of horses registered (18.747 or 9.1%) were born in Denmark, and in third position we have Sweden with 8.613 registered horses (4.2%) with 3.853 more horses now than in March this year. The Netherlands, Germany and Norway are next, with each country registering 1,200 horses. Germany is obviously just taking a breather; a lot of work has been done recently to get the data into WorldFengur from the German association IPZV, and the effects of this will be seen in the next few months. In the table below you can see the increase in number of registered horses from 19th March 2004 until 24th September 2004 in the 6 highest ranked countries. For more information see the Top 10 List.

(25.09.2004) The second WorldFengur course/seminar for WF's Registrars will be held in Copenhagen November 13-14th. 2004. More information will be e-mailed to all registrars soon.

(11.09.2004) Export. This year 1.019 Icelandic horses have been exported from Iceland which is an increase on the same time when 974 horses were exported. Most of the horses, 330, went to Sweden, 157 went to Germany, and 145 to Denmark. Icelandic horses have been exported to 15 countries this year. This year, more horses have gone to Denmark, Finland and Austria than last year but fewer to USA and Norway.

(26.03.2004) A short status report from the Genetic Evaluation group

"The scientists Ágúst Sigurdsson and Thorvaldur Árnason have received Icelandic fundings for the development of the Global Genetic Evaluations of the Icelandic horse. Their work is in progress and an Animal Model Multiple Trait BLUP index using records from Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland is expected to be ready for practical applications in autumn 2004. The methods and the results from the analyses will be presented as an invited main paper at a scientific conference (EAAP, European Association for Animal Production) in Bled, Slovenia in the beginning of September 2004. Shortly thereafter the BLUP index will be available on the Worldfengur Website.

The genetic analysis are well in progress and will result in new improved estimates of genetic parameters for different traits in different time periods and the environmental and genetic differences between countries will be evaluated. Completely new programs for computing the BLUP index will be written.

The BLUP results which are now available for Scandinavian Icelandic horses are incomplete since they are based on the "old" model and do only include judging score results obtained in Scandinavia since 1994 and are excluding older results. In the "new" model all relevant data will be included and weighted as correctly as possible based on the preceeding genetic analyses.

Ágúst Sigurdsson has stressed that the present results which are now on WorldFengur are only preliminary and must be considered as a step in the development, aimed towards the integration of the data in the database and building of a complete international pedigree register. Apperently this has not be made clear enough for people who have not been able to read Icelandic text. This we are sorry for becauce this should have been made more clear. So please have some patience, it is important that the work will be done thoroughly and according to scientific standards."

On the behalf of the FEIF Breeding Evaluation group Þorvaldur Árnason

(18.03.2004) The Annual Farmers Congress (Búnaðarþing 2004) in Iceland that ended today agreed unanimously on the following statement about WorldFengur:

"The Farmers Congress of 2004 wishes to declare it is extremely pleased with WorldFengur and urges that the database should be continually developed with a view to containing all records and information of importance to the Icelandic horse in Iceland and abroad.
WorldFengur is a powerful tool in the Icelandic horse market place, and it enhances the reputation of horse breeding and of the Farmers' Association of Iceland both at home and abroad. We must ensure that it is possible to deal with the necessary maintenance and expandsion of the database, and to meet the wishes of our customer nations to the utmost
of our ability."

(03.10.2003) About 2000 Icelandic horses born in Sweden have been added to the World Fengur database. Most of the horses have now been successfully moved from the Swedish database into World Fengur and there are now 4588 Swedish born horses in the database. Very shortly, this year's breeding assessments in Sweden will be added, and then the breeding assessments held in Sweden last year. When this work has been done the foundation will have been laid for working out BLUP values for Scandinavia, and Dr. Þorvaldur Árnason and Dr. Ágúst Sigurðsson have recently been working on preparations for this. The total number of horses in World Fengur is now 185,221. The number of horses registered per country are as follows: Iceland 157,063, Denmark 17,913, Sweden 4,588, Netherlands 2,294, Norway 753, Switzerland 614, Finland 478, Austria 392, Belgium and Germany 314, Great Britain 303, Italy 136, other countries 59.

(14.07.2003) A list of WorldFengur registrars was posted in last month. According to FEIF rules all FEIF member countries must nominate a WorldFengur registrar whose responsibilities include assigning FEIF ID numbers (birth numbers) to horses and entering them into World Fengur if the country is a subscriber. It is very important that the registrars work together, for example to ensure that horses pedigrees are registered correctly. World Fengur registrars are as follows: Denmark: Anne-Grete Veje (joveje@private.dk), Austria: Reinhard Loidl (marchegg@islandpferde.at), Belgium: Frans Van Beeck (bsijp@wanadoo.be), Canada: Brett Arnason (brett@arnasons.ca), Denmark: Sigrun Erlingsdóttir (se@islandshest.dk), Faroe Isalnds: Hjalmar Petersen (hjalmar@vonin.com), Finland: Linda Bergström (ronja1@saunalahti.fi), France: Jaqueline Clementz (jacqueline.clementz6@libertysurf.fr), Germany: Thomas Schellhorn (thomschell@aol.com), Great Britain: Mike Edwards (icehorsestud@hotmail.com or mike.edwards@nats.co.uk), Holland: Kim Middel (kim_middel@hotmail.com), Iceland: Hallveig Fróðadottir (hf@bondi.is), Ireland: Andrea Brodie (fiddlinvet@iegateway.net), Italy: Ewald Schmidt (stormur@gmx.net), Luxemburg: Albert Schiltz (a.schiltz@pt.lu), Norway: Nils-Ole Gilde (o-gild@online.no), Slovenia: Tomo Tadel (pro-ma@siol.net) or Zvone Pavsic (slodan@quantum.si), Sweden: Sussie Lindberg (avel.svenska@icelandichorse.se), Switzerland: Barla Barandun (g.u.b.auas.sparsas@bluewin.ch), USA: Caryn Cantella.

(30.05.2003) There haven't been many changes to the ranking of the Top Ten countries for the number of registered horses in World Fengur during the period 10th February to 29th May this year. The number of registered horses has, however, hugely increased. Still in top place is Iceland with 154,844 Iceland born horses. This is an increase of 3,636 horses since 10th February. Denmark is safely in second place with 17,865 horses, with a considerable increase of 6,334 horses since February. During this time horses from the database of Dansk Islandshesteforening (The Danish Icelandic Horse Society) were entered into World Fengur - a huge task carried out uncomplainingly by Annegrete Veje on behalf of her countrymen. In third place is Sweden with 3,719 registered horses - no increase here since during this period there has not been time to undertake further work on the Swedish database. According to the IT department of the Farmers' Association (Bændasamtök Íslands) it is a priority task to continue work on the database next autumn. The Dutch data registrar, Kim Middel, has also been working hard on the register during this period, and there are now 1,503 registered horses born in the Netherlands, as opposed to the 666 registered in February. The Netherlands now has a strong fourth place. Norway has gone up a place since last time with 693 registered horses, instead of the previous 511. Switzerland is in sixth place with 613 registered horses. In seventh place is Finland with 478 registered horses. The Finns have almost completed registering all the horses in their studbook, and the honour of that job has gone to data registrar, Linda Bergström. Austria has not added any new horses since February and has lost out on eighth place to Great Britain. Britain has 390 horses registered - a better result than at the Eurovision Song Contest! Germany is at last beginning to wake up and gets into the Top Ten List for the first time with 268 registered horses.

(30.05.2003) Top quality horses are competing at the District breeding show at Sörlastaðir in Hafnafjörður, which is taking place at the moment. The highest marks given so far this year to 4 and 5 year old stallions have been given to horses judged at Sörlastaðir. Árni Geir frá Feti IS-1999.1.86-908 takes first place from Hrani DE-1999.1.06-091 von Schloßberg in the 4 year old stallion class with an average mark of 8.19. Gári frá Auðholtshjáleigu IS-1998.1.87-054 is in top place in the 5 year old stallion class with an average mark of 8,63 and so beats Lykill IS-1998.1.87-942 frá Blesastöðum 1A. Gári has got a higher total mark than any other stallion last year in this class (see news 26.05.2003). Both Gári and Árni Geir are sons of Orri.

(28.05.2003) The number of visitors to the World Fengur site broke all records yesterday 27th May when the number of hits to the site on one day went up to 556. Over the last 6 months the average number of hits per day was approx. 160. The previous highest number of hits per day was on 26th May and 28th April this year with 282. This is a considerable increase. The 2003 showing season is just beginning, so we can expect yesterday´s record to be broken very soon.

(26.05.2003) Hrani DE-1999.1.06-091 von Schloßberg is the highest marked 4 year old stallion that has been judged in 2003 with an average mark of 8.1. Hrani was shown at the breeding show in Drammen in Norway, but was born in Germany. The owner and breeder listed in World Fengur is Günther Weber. Last year Illingur IS-1998.1.87-280 frá Tóftum was the highest marked 4 year old stallion with marks of 8.36. Lykill IS-1998.1.87-942 frá Blesastöðum 1A is the highest 5 year old stallion with an average mark of 8.3. He was shown in Wurz in Germany. Uli Reber is listed as the owner in World Fengur. Last year Djáknar IS-1997.1.84-211 frá Hvammi the highest judged 5 year old stallion with an average mark of 8.35. We should point out that the 2003 showing season is just beginning and there are bound to be considerable changes regarding the highest marked horses.

(26.05.2003) The 2003 breeding shows are well under way throughout the world. On the front page you can see an overview of all those breeding shows that have taken place, that are taking place at the moment, or that are just about to begin. For those interested it is possible to see the highest marks of the 2003 showing season at every hour, and for this, breeding shows in Iceland as well as in other countries are included. Click on the year required from the drop down list. This list is only in Icelandic, but it is hoped to translate it into other languages shortly.

05.12.2002: Is a picture of the horse in WorldFengur, has the horse been assessed or has it been marked? WorldFengur is in a continues development as you have hopefully noticed. The newest facility answered the questions above in the basic information flip for the horse so you need not to click on the flips pictures, assessments and marks to find out to see if this data exists. If a picture of the horses exist then you will see the icon , if the horse has been assessed you see the icon and if it is marked . Furthermore the basic report for a horse in the menu Reports has finally been translated to English and German.

21.11. 2002: Today ca. 300 pictures of horses from Landsmót Vindheimamelum 2002 were added to WorldFengur. Enjoy!

19.11.2002: Breeding leaders meeting in London. See news in Eidfaxi.is.

11.10.2002: Horses with the highest breeding evaluations? Horses with more than 100 judged offspring? WorldFengur will now answer these and similar questions about BLUP. Something many have been waiting for. See Reports and Breeding Evaluation.

07.10.2002: In WorldFengur you can find a new BLUP Evaluation for all Icelandic born horses. The goal is to calculate an International BLUP Evaluation next year when more information has been registered into the WorldFengur's database.

20.09.2002: The United States Icelandic Horse Congress has signed a subscriber agreement to WorldFengur by Sara Conklin, the president of the association. USA was the 6th country to register a breeding show directly into WorldFengur. The breeding show no. US-2002-01 was held in California in this month. The judges were Ágúst Sigurðsson and Jón Vilmundarson. See news in Eidfaxi.is.

10.09.2002: Is the colour code right for the horse? It can be difficult to choose the right colour code for your horse. Now WorldFengur can help. If you click on the colour code, when reading about the basic information on the horse, you will get a new window with horses in this colour. You can also get the colour table and simple choose the colour code and then WorldFengur shows you horses in that colour.

18.07.2002 Landsmot 2002 in Vindheimamelar was a success and the organizers deserve a well-earned praise. WorldFengur had a booth in the show area where visitors could access WorldFengur. A great number of visitors took advantage of this opportunity, among which Princess Anne who arrived with the Icelandic president, Mr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. Princess Anne is well informed when it comes to horse breeding, and it would be beneficial for Icelandic horse breeders if she were to take an interest in the Icelandic horse. The Farmers´Association presented Princess Anne with a copy of Islandsfengur as well as a subscription to WorldFengur. During Landsmót 2002, a new subscription arrangement was introduced. First of all a yearlong subscription with up to 300 log-ins, and secondly a 3 month long subscription with up to 30 log-ins. The number of subscribers is currently close to 500, our goal is to have over 1000 subscribers in the beginning of 2003.

18.07.2002 As of this month, horse exporters will need to obtain horse passports instead of certificates of origin when exporting horses. This is according to Act 55, dated May 2nd, 2002. The Ministry of Agriculture passed a law on exports last month and it is applicable as of July 1st, 2002. Abroad, horse passports have been required for some time now in order to transport horses between countries. A horse passport is only issued once for each horse and it should follow the horse throughout its life. The information registered in the horse passport is based on WorldFengur´s database, the pedigree certificate of the Icelandic horse. The passport contains information such as the FEIF ID number, name, origin, color, identification marks, and owner at the time of issue. Tunglid ehf. designed the passports which will be printed on quality paper. A press conference was held on July 18th when the first passport was presented.

14.06.2002: WorldFengur has received thousands of visitors during the last few weeks due to breeding shows taking place in Iceland. WorldFengur received around 10.000 visitors during May and this is a record number of visitors per month since WorldFengur started in August 2001. Due to this, WorldFengur suffered some technical problems which have now been resolved. We remind our subscribers to set their browser correctly in order to avoid any problems while using WorldFengur. During a few days, hundreds of horses have received breeding evaluations, of which 154 horses in Skagafjordur, 192 in Sorlastaðir in Hafnarfjordur and 500 in Gaddstadaflatir - although 100 horses remain to be assessed there. The next round started with district shows in Borgarnes, Hvammstangi, Hunaver and Stekkholmur. We would also like to bring to your attention the breeding show taking place in Vestnes, Norway. The breeding evaluations are all recorded directly into WorldFengur and are therefore available to all subscribers.

07.06.2002: See Breeding horses, which have qualified for Landsmót 2002. The list is updated at once a new assessment has been registered into WorldFengur.

03.05.2002: It is easy to add links from your webpage to a horse in the WorldFengur's database so far the visitor to your page is a subscriber to WorldFengur. You just copy this hyperlink to your page, http://www.worldfengur.com/main.jsp?FN=IS1990186271, and change the FEIF-ID number to the FEIF-ID number of the horse you like to look up in WorldFengur. See webpages with links to WorldFengur.

11.04.2002: Meetings in the WorldFengur Board and in the FEIF Registration Group will be held on April 24th, 2002 in Arnakke, Denmark. The main issue on these meetings is the WorldFengur project.

02.04.2002: In last month, The Icelandic Farmers' Association and Hestur.is signed a new one-year agreement regarding a change in their cooperation. A 1999 agreement concerning an Internet bank marketing cooperation was suspended and replaced by a book publishing agreement with hestur.is. The biggest change as a result of this new agreement is that the Farmers' Association will no longer manage Veraldarfengur on the Internet. Current subscribers to Veraldarfengur will be offered a subscription to WorldFengur until the end of their subscription period. A mutual discount of 40% will be offered to future subscribers to WorldFengur and Hestur.is, although the collection of the subscription fee will no longer be jointly managed. Horse fans will benefit from this new agreement in the future, as a substantial publishing project regarding the Icelandic horse is under way. The Farmers' Association will provide material as well as cooperate with Jonas Kristjansson editor of Hestabækur on material and structure of the project.

21.03.2002: Do you have a photograph of your horse? For a 9 EUROS fee you can put a photo of your horse in WorldFengur. Send the photograph in a digital format to worldfengur@worldfengur.com. You can also send a conventional photograph to the Computer Department, the address is : Bændasamtök Íslands, Tölvudeild, Hótel Saga v. Hagatorg, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland. Please state the horse´s FEIF ID number as well as information on the photographer (name and personal ID number). Photographs sent in a digital format need to be at least 585 x 390 pixels (the ratios need to be as follows: height = 1, width = 1,5) and the resolution at least 72. Photos are accepted in digital format, film (ordinary and slides) and conventional photographs.

18.03.2002: During last week, Halldór Blöndal, congressman and president of the united congress, opened the web of the breeding farm in Torfunes. The web is designed by Netlist, Holding Company using the web solution system Óðinn. Óðinn is designed to be easily maintained without specialist knowledge of programming for the web. At the same time, the Farmers’Association of Iceland and Netlist signed an agreement concerning the connection between Óðinn and WorldFengur. This enables the user to click on a horse in Óðinn and get the information WorldFengur contains on that particular horse (provided that the user subscribes to WorldFengur). The connection will also enable horse-breeding farms that use Óðinn to send sales lists to WorldFengur, where a connection will be to the farm in question. Photos from Óðinn will also be automatically transferred to WorldFengur. According to Jón Baldur Lorange, WorldFengur’s project manager, it is valuable that the Farmers’s Association are able to support progressive projects like this and contribute to the promotion of Icelandic horse breeding.

15.03.2002: The number of read-only subscribers to WorldFengur has increased rapidly these days. The subscribers today are 209 from 12 countries. Most subscribers are from Iceland and in second place is Sweden.

08.03.2002: According to a new agreement signed by the Minister of Agriculture, the Icelandic government will contribute 2,5 million kr. during the years 2003 and 2004 and subsequently 1,5 million kr. during the years 2005-2007 to WorldFengur. This is a gratifying acknowledgment for those who have participated in the construction of WorldFengur.

08.03.2002: IPZV, the German Icelandic Horse Association, signed a subscription agreement to WorldFengur on March 2nd, 2002. See news on IPZV. This means that the biggest membership countries of FEIF are now subscribers to WorldFengur, the international database on the Icelandic horse. The Computer Department of the Farmers’ Association of Iceland is currently preparing the data transfer from the German and Swedish databases into WorldFengur. By doing that, thousands of horses are added to the current 130.000 that are registered in the database today. The preparation of the data entails considerable work, as basic registration for thousands of previously unregistered horses born in Iceland needs to be completed.

28.02.2002: Dansk Islandshesteforening, the Danish Icelandic Horse Association, has applied for a subscription to WorldFengur. Denmark is the 12th member country of FEIF that applies for a subscription and it is an excellent acquisition to be able to collaborate with Denmark in building up the international database of the Icelandic horse.

30.01.2002: Photos of more than 2.000 well known horses were added to the WorldFengur's database today. The photos can be found under the flip Photos in the main form for the horse. Each photo is stored in 2 sizes.

26.01.2002: The meeting between BI and IPZV in Münster in Germany was successful. IPZV has decided to subscribe to WorldFengur and the IPZV's database will be imported into WorldFengur's database as soon as possible. IPZV has to prepare the data and will be assisted by BI to find FEIF-ID numbers for Icelandic born horses. IPZV also suggested some improvements to WorldFengur, BI will try to implement those shortly. See news on the IPZV website and news on Pegamo.de from the meeting.

10.01.2002: A work meeting between BI and IPZV will be held on January 23rd, 2002 in Germany. The aim of the meeting is to continue discussing and solving technical matters regarding the German database to be integrated into WorldFengur. The participants will be Jón Baldur Lorange from BI, Andrea-Katharina Rostock and Lutz Lesener from IPZV.

10.01.2002: During the next few weeks the IT Department of BI will prepare the Swedish database for integration with WorldFengur's database. When the work is completed, the number of registered horses in WorldFengur will increase by more than 2.000 horses.

03.01.2002: The free access to WorldFengur was very popular indeed. More than one thousand people worldwide have visited WorldFengur during the last few days. Unfortunately, due technical problems and an increased load load on the server the connection to the database was frequently down. However, WorldFengur has worked perfectly in the new year. The free access was closed today. To subscribe to WorldFengur you fill out this form.

02.01.2002: The Top 10 list. Finland, Switzerland and Great-Britain have been working hard over the holidays registering horses into WorldFengur. Switzerland is the first country (excluding Iceland) to register more than 300 horses and is still in the second place. Finland has taken the third place from Austria. Great-Britain is the fifth country to register more than 100 horses. Keep up the good work!

21.12.2001: Íslandsfengur 4.0 CD-ROM was published today. Íslandsfengur is duplicated in Denmark. The CD-ROM will be sent out to all buyers around the world today.

21.12.2001: Many hundred fans of the Icelandic horse all around the world have used the opportunity of a free access to WorldFengur. It was too much for the server so it was necessary to move WorldFengur on a more powerful server yesterday. We hope WorldFengur will ride smoothly as a good "tölter" from now.

19.12.2001: Photos! Early next year photos will be added to WorldFengur's database. The first step is to add photos in connection to the colour codes to make it less difficult for users to choose the right colour code for a horse.

12.12.2001: The person ID number has been changed in WorldFengur. The country code has been added in front of the 10-digits person ID. All the person IDs have been changed in accordance to this. When you register a person WorldFengur automatically puts in the person ID field the country code as the same as the registrar. Therefore this will not cause you more work. As it is possible to use the same 10-digits number in each country this was causing conflicts for the users. However the information in the database was correct as the country code was saved in the record of each person. Now we have a unique person Id for each person as we do have for horses (FEIF-ID).

04.12.2001: The 4th version of Íslandsfengur will be on market before Christmas. The new version has a considerably larger database than the current Íslandsfengur 3.0 as it contains information concerning more than 135.000 Icelandic horses! It also includes all breeding judgments from the summer 2001 as well as new breeding evaluations completed in September 2001. Another new and existing feature of Íslandsfengur 4.0 is the inclusion of data on Icelandic horses born overseas. During the next years, we will continue to expand our data on Icelandic horses born overseas. The price of Íslandsfengur 4.0 is €82. However, as a current owner of Íslandsfengur 3.0 we have a special offer for you - buy Íslandsfengur 4.0 for only €49! Furthermore, owners of any version of Íslandsfengur will be able to subscribe to our websites and receive considerable discounts. We offer you a 25% discount on a subscription to WorldFengur and a 50% discount if you subscribe to VeraldarFengur/Hestur.is (www.islandsfengur.is). Our long term customers (i.e. those who have purchased Íslandsfengur 2.0 and 3.0 as well as those who purchased Íslandsfengur 3.0 and subscribed to Veraldarfengur/Hestur.is during the past 12 months) will be able to buy Íslandsfengur for only €40. As a final gesture of goodwill, we offer our long term customers the opportunity to buy a second copy of Íslandsfengur for only €15. This might just be the perfect Christmas gift for the person who owns everything! The best is that if your Icelandic horses association is a subscriber to WorldFengur then it will receive a commission of each sold copy of Íslandsfengur 4.0 or a read-only subscription to WorldFengur. Order it now.

04.12.2001: The Icelandic horse association is Netherlands, IJslandse Paarden, has sent request for a subscription to WorldFengur. This is the 9th country to subscribe.

15.11.2001: The WorldFengur board held a meeting last weekend in Reykjavik, Iceland. A special guest was Andrea-Katharina Rostock, IPZV, Germany. The WorldFengur board invited Andrea-Katharina to the meeting to discuss the subscription of Germany into WorldFengur. WorldFengur is a co-operation between all the FEIF countries and it is vital to the system that all the FEIF countries take part in this important co-operation. It was decided to address this issue in a special meeting between IPZV, FEIF and BI in January 2002 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The WorldFengur board discussed also the new sport computer program BI has started to prepare for Hestamiðstöð Íslands in Skagafjörður.

15.11.2001: Sweden and Great-Britain signed the WorldFengur's subscriber agreement with BÍ last weekend in Reykjavik, Iceland, at the FEIF breeding leaders meeting.

15.11.2001: The first WorldFengur course was held in Reykjavik, Iceland, February 8-9th 2001. It was important to perform a final test of the current version of WorldFengur for registrars in other countries than Iceland. On the second day of the course was a workshop were the registrars from Norway, Switzerland, Nederlands, Denmark, Germany, Great-Britain, Sweden and Iceland worked together in registering data into the system.

26.10.2001: A multinational WorlldFengur course. In February 8-9th 2001, the first WorldFengur course will be held in Reykjavik. Instructors: Jón Baldur Lorange, Kati Ahola, Hallveig Fróðadóttir and Ingibjörg Pétursdóttir.The following participants will be joining the course: Per Oddvar Rise, Norway, Nils Ole Gilde, Norway, Per Kolnes, Norway, Mike Edwards, Great-Britain, Inge Kringeland, Norway, Andrea-Katharina Rostock, Germany, Sussie Lund Lindberg, Sweden, Barla Barandun, Switzerland, Jens Otto Veje, Denmark, Annegrete Veje, Denmark, Kim P. Middle, Nederlands.

26.10.2001: Data from Finland and Norway. Our subscribers in Finland and Norway have been preparing for the registration work of horses born in their countries into WorldFengur the last months. In the pedigree of some horses are so-called "missing links", that is horses born in other countries. Some are born in Iceland and can not been found in WorldFengur. Therefore BI has been assisting in finding information on these horses and basis registering the horses. This work is almost finished according to Hallveig Fróðadóttir at BI but often it is time-consuming to find information as the horses may be many decade old.

19.10.2001: We have started to analyze the Swedish database. In the first step we will import all horses born in Sweden with a direct link to horses born in Iceland into WorldFengur. The second step is then to work with the horses with the pedigree in countries other than Sweden or Iceland.

1.10.2001: In a cooperation with Annegrete Veje in Denmark we are preparing the FEIF register to be imported into WorldFengur.

1.10.2001: New breeding evaluation calculated in September 2001 is now in the WorldFengur database.

Registrars attention! Before you register a horse into WF please check if the horse is already registered! Search by a name, an origin, by parents etc. to check if the horse you are going to register is already there! When registering horses not born in Iceland this will not be a problem in the beginning but it will be as more horses are added.. If you find the same horse twice with different FEIF-ID numbers send us an e-mail with more information.

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Breeding Shows

Highest Breeding Assessment each year

The WorldFengur´s BI team: Jón B Lorange, the project manager and Þorberg Þ Þorbergsson, the main programmer.

Members of the WorldFengur board: Marlise Grimm, FEIF, Mike Edwards, FEIF, Guðlaugur Antonsson, BI, Jón B Lorange, BI.

Members of FEIF Registration group: Mike Edwards, chairman, Great-Britain, Kristín Halldórsdóttir, Germany, Tim van der Akker, Netherlands, Annette Knudsen, Denmark, Jón B Lorange, Iceland.

International BLUP

Virtual Mate Selection

Number of horses

Fengur's history

WF's Procedures

Links

WorldFengur's blog for WorldFengur's Registrars

Notice: Registrars should check the source of information carefully before registering it into WorldFengur.

Note: Take care of your username/password. If you have a registrar access level you can add, change and delete information on horses in your country. Don't give anyone else your password. If you think that someone has it, please ask for a new password.