A note to visitors
Northstar has closed
After Lanny’s passing in November 2021, Northstar Icelandic Horse Farm stopped operating. The farm is no longer breeding, selling, training or holding events. This website stays online as a memorial to Lanny and to the horses he loved.
A small number of Northstar horses are still being cared for while Lanny’s estate is settled. If you might be able to give one of them a good home, please get in touch using the form here.
Ask about the remaining horses
Tell us a little about yourself and the home you could offer. A member of Lanny’s family or a friend helping with the horses will reply by email.
The form opens on Google Forms. No Google account needed.
In memoriam
Remembering Lanny Lee Carroll
Lanny was born in Dayton, Ohio, and spent his career in military service, retiring with the rank of Major. While he was stationed in Iceland as an engineer, he met the Icelandic horse, and it became the passion of his life.
He brought that passion home. In 1994 he founded Northstar in Brookville, Ohio, and for more than twenty-five years he bred, raised and cared for domestic Icelandic horses. He later moved the farm to northeast Mississippi, where he spent his last years with his herd.
People who knew Lanny remember how generously he shared his time and what he knew. He would happily talk bloodlines, gaits and horsemanship with a seasoned breeder or a curious family seeing an Icelandic for the first time, and he made sure the horses that came off his farm were matched with homes that suited them.
Lanny passed away peacefully on November 26, 2021, in Tupelo, Mississippi, at the age of 72. He is missed by his family, his friends, and the many horse owners across the country who started with a Northstar horse.
- Born
- November 22, 1949 · Dayton, Ohio
- Passed
- November 26, 2021 · Tupelo, Mississippi
- Obituary
- Read Lanny’s full obituary (Newcomer Dayton)
The Northstar legacy
What Northstar gave the Icelandic horse community
Northstar was always a breeding farm first. Lanny’s goal was healthy, sound horses with good dispositions, clear gaits and balanced conformation, bred here in the United States for American riders and their families.
Domestic-bred Icelandics
Starting in 1994, Northstar bred four- and five-gaited Icelandic horses in the U.S. from respected Icelandic bloodlines. Northstar horses now live with families all over the country.
Raised the Icelandic way
The horses grew up in free-roaming herds on open pasture, where the youngsters learned their manners from the older horses. Young horses weren’t started under saddle until they were four.
Prized stallions
Northstar stood the first-prize stallion Kolskeggur and the stallion Funi. It also bred its own stallions, including Herkir, a five-gaited smoky black, and Leistur, known as “Blue Eyes.”
Opening the gate to others
In 2011 Lanny hosted a gaited-horse schooling clinic at the farm. It was open to riders of every gaited breed, and Northstar lent its own horses to riders who needed a mount.
Promoting the breed
Northstar took part in the Equine Affaire in Columbus, Ohio, and in local gaited shows. That brought plenty of people face to face with an Icelandic horse for the first time.
Caring for the retirees
Lanny placed his older horses in loving retirement homes at no charge. The one condition was that they be cared for for the rest of their lives, and returned to Northstar rather than sold if that ever became impossible.
Rest in peace
Kolskeggur · 1989 – 2009
Kolskeggur was an exceptionally talented five-gaited dun stallion, sired by the honored first-prize stallion Ófeigur frá Flugumýri. As a young stallion in Iceland he ranked second in his class at the 1994 Landsmót. In 1995 he earned first-prize status with a score of 8.01, and in 1996 he raised his best overall score to 8.36 at the Fjórðungsmót at Hella.
By then he had sired 96 registered foals in Iceland. He came to Northstar in Ohio in 1996, where he became the first-ranked stallion in the Midwest and the highest-ranked first-prize stallion in Ohio.
Kolskeggur sired roughly 200 offspring in Europe and the United States. He passed away on September 27, 2009, and is buried on the farm.
We were honored to host this magnificent horse at Northstar for many years, and proud to see his legacy flourish here in the United States.
- Translated name
- Black Beard
- Color
- Yellow dun
- WorldFengur ID
- IS1989187063
- USIHC ID
- US89100794
Shared by friends
Memories of Lanny and Northstar
Did you buy a horse from Lanny, ride at the farm, come to a clinic, or just stop by to talk horses? We’d love to hear your story. Memories are read and added to this page by hand, so it may take a little while for yours to appear.
The form opens on Google Forms and asks you to sign in with a Google account, so that you can attach a photo.
I was thirteen when I first met Lanny. I’d just fallen in love with Icelandic horses at the Equine Affaire in Dayton, found his farm’s ad in Horse Illustrated, and called him at 8 PM to ask for a job. He said that as soon as I turned fourteen, it was mine.
That phone call changed my life. Northstar became my second home. Lanny gave a kid without much money a door into a world she might never have found otherwise, and we stayed friends my whole life.
Thirty years later, I’m still a devoted Icelandic enthusiast. I bought my first Icelandic just days after Lanny passed. I never got to tell him, but none of it would have happened without him. Thank you, Lanny, for everything. You are dearly missed.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who bought, rode, trained, cared for or simply visited a Northstar horse. That includes the trainers, farriers and veterinarians who worked alongside Lanny, and the friends who showed up whenever there was work to do.
Every Northstar horse still out there, carrying a child on the trail or a rider around the oval, is part of what Lanny built. We hope you’ll give yours an extra scratch in his memory.
— With love, from the friends of Northstar