Occasionally only the peasant will shovel away the snow from a little spot, to assist the poor animals in searching for the grass or moss concealed beneath.

It is then left to the horses to finish clearing away the snow with their feet.

It may easily be imagined that this mode of treatment tends to render them very hardy; but the wonder is, how the poor creatures manage to exist through the winter on such spare diet, and to be strong and fit for work late in the spring and in summer.

These horses are so entirely unused to being fed with oats, that they will refuse them when offered; they are not even fond of hay.
As I arrived in Iceland during the early spring, I had an opportunity of seeing the horses and sheep in their winter garments.

The horses seemed to be covered, not with hair, but with a thick woolly coat; their manes and tails are very long, and of surprising thickness.