I don't know how you guys travel but when I do there's no time to waste! Considering we had 9 days in Iceland (and 8 of those involved road tripping the rest of the country) we decided to do our horseback riding experience on day 1. SO running on a few hours of sleep, copious amounts of coffee, and wearing EVERY. SINGLE. LAYER of clothing I brought for this trip, we headed out to a farm 20 min from Reykjavik for our riding tour.

Typically riding on a tour is less than exciting as most tour groups ride nose to tail and you wind up in groups with people who've never ridden before (heck I've been that person!) But as my friend who traveled with me is a seasoned rider, and I love horses to the point that falling off one twice over the course of a year of lessons has yet to deter me, we both conceded that lame tour or not, we HAD to try out this Icelandic Horse TOLT.

But... what is the tolt you might ask?

The Icelandic horse is a VERY special breed of horse as it has FIVE natural gaits. (other horses typically only have 4: the walk, trot, canter, and gallop) The Icelandic horse has the walk, trot, TOLT, canter, and Flying Pace. For those who have ridden horses before at a trot, the tolt is most similar to that, only it is very smooth and comfortable to ride in comparison. The Icelandic horse is also known as the most PURE breed of horse in the world. The horse was introduced to Iceland by the vikings and in 982 AD Iceland banned the importation of horses, meaning they would have to do all their breeding and horse raising within country. Thus 1000 years of being isolated in Iceland with no other horse breed gives us the most PURE breed. It also makes disease control imperative, so any horse that is exported to another country, can NEVER return to Iceland.

Last fun fact of the day is the sheer NUMBER of horses in Iceland. There are 80,000 horses, an incredible number for a nation that counts only 330.000 people.

So we signed up using Viator for a ride that was the cheapest while giving us the longest ride time and we ended up with Ishestar for our riding tour. There are MANY riding tours available all over Iceland (later we even stayed at a lodge situated on a horse track) but in the interest of scheduling, this place fit best and would give the boys traveling with us a chance to rest while we braved the cold elements to ride.

You start out in a nice building watching a sort of instructional video on steering and directing the horses' movements as well as other safety information. Then you gown up in your rain gear and head out to pick a horse! Everyone gets on their horse (with help if you need it) in a paddock and then you head out for a beautiful ride!

The overall property you ride on for Ishestar is beautiful. Amazing views of lava fields, lakes, and hills. Our big group of about 15 people was split up into 2 groups after about 30 minutes of riding. One group would walk the entire time, and the other group would get to tolt. We obviously went with the faster group... along with another 10 people who had never ridden before... Oh boy. All in all it was a good ride and the weather actually held off raining on us until the last bit. The tolt was nice when my horse would do it but for the most part I got a lazy horse who wanted to go as slow as he wanted and would trot to catch back up to the group. TROTTING on an Icelandic horse, in full rain gear, and with an odd saddle wasn't the most pleasant, not going to lie. It was very bouncy and if I didn't have some training on how to hold myself on with my legs, I imagine I'd have fallen off pretty easily. It also would've been nice to try another of the gaits like the canter, but I digress... next trip to Iceland I'll do a more intense trekking tour (and hopefully be even more prepared for it by then)

The end of our tour concluded with very nice complimentary hot chocolate and coffee (NEED) and then a ride back to the city.

To check out the barn and tour we took, visit Ishestar horseback riding tour

Tips:

1. The barn we rode at did provide rain gear but they were HIDEOUS rubber orange jump suits. So Word to the wise, bring some comfortable water proof, if not resistant, pants and rain jacket so that you can stay dry in inclement weather while not being an orange marshmallow.

2. If you have experience riding, consider a more private tour option so you can spend less time walking nose to tail, and more time feeling the wind in your hair gallivanting around the wilds of Iceland!

3. No matter what, book somewhere scenic! (not that that is particularly challenging in Iceland) but there is a variety of scenery so choose something that appeals to you be it lava rock, lakes, crossing streams, or all of the above!

COST: For a group tour, expect to spend around $150 pp. (Our tour cost $110)

And that's it folks! I hope whenever you make it to Iceland you get to experience these incredible animals either at a riding farm or along the road side (there's 80,000 of them so trust me... you'll see them)

Next up: What to do/ see/ stay in Reykjavik