For the woman who says, “Why walk when you can ride”, the horseback ride at Safari Hester along Myvatn Lake was a trip highlight for Martie. She absolutely loved the tolt (a four-beat lateral) gait of the Icelandic ponies. I was doing well just to stay in the saddle. To signal for this gait, one shortens the reins and presses with the knees against the English saddle. With a little practice and a pause to shorten my stirrups, I was maybe getting the hang of it an hour later when we returned to the horse barn. Maybe… Martie assures me that if you do it right, it is a super smooth ride. Watching the tolt from behind reminded me of the way one of our cats, Catnip, runs as her legs swing out to the side a bit.

We had bug nets for our helmets and the horses had bug nets over their eyes and ears as well. Midges are abundant near lakes and wetlands and are annoying, but non-biting. We did not have problems with other bugs.

Martie rode on Fon, with an umlaut over the ‘o’ making it sound like “fun” which is an Icelandic word for snow, an appropriate name for a white horse. My horse was named Harpa and seemed to be friends with Fon.

We were accompanied on our ride by two of the herding dogs the farm has and three young employees (here for the summer from Europe) along with their boss.

Our luck with the sunny, warm (for Iceland) weather continued to hold.