July 4

Today was the start of our journey across part of Iceland. We saddled up our horses after a substantial breakfast from which we also made our lunch sandwiches (saddled is the word, these hardy animals only use a heavy, dressage-type saddle, no pad at all). 






Here is the horse I began riding that day:














We were going to travel all day at a fairly good clip, so we took spare horses with us. Some of us led one, and the extras were attached to the ones led by staff guides — there were five or so of them. 







We went for three hours or so over the same bare but beautiful terrain. When the settlers first came to Iceland, about 40 percent of the land was covered by trees. What the settlers didn’t know was that trees wouldn’t regenerate in that harsh climate, so now most of it is bare. Lunch was a very pleasant picnic. Note sheepdog curled up with Louise; he also helped herd the horses.



No comments:

Post a Comment