One of the things we did in Iceland was to go horseback riding. The Icelandic horse is supposed to be calm and easy to ride, so it’s a good horse to go on for your first time. They are also a protected species in fact and do not mix with horses outside of Iceland (you have to disinfect riding gear if you brought your own). We booked an outing which included transportation and a couple of hours of riding on lava fields for pretty cheap, I think it was only €100 for two people.
When we got there, they picked out some horses for us. Each horse had a Icelandic name, which unfortunately for me made it impossible for me to remember my horse’s name (turns out it was Hrimnir). They helped us to climb on our saddle and off we went. There was no lesson or anything! All we were told is pull on the reins to stop and don’t squeeze your legs together because that will make the horse go faster.
Apparently the horses were trained or accustomed to following the horse in front of them, so they just kind of took off. In theory at least, I was the second last horse and my horse didn’t have a sense of personal space so s/he would keep walking even if the horse in front stopped. Plus Pauline was the last horse and her horse decided that it wanted to eat grass instead of following everyone else at the beginning.
Riding was pretty easy to pick up, at least at the slow pace we were going. You definitely need a sense of balance, but I think if you know how to ride a bike then you have enough awareness to ride a horse. I couldn’t figure out how to make my horse go faster (squeezing legs didn’t work, and I couldn’t figure out how to kick my horse in the belly without falling off) but at least i could make it stop! When the group started going faster, it was a very bumpy ride. I can’t imagine how bad it would be during a gallop (are you supposed to stand up in the stirrups?)
Although you can probably go riding here in the GTA, it was fun and not too expensive to do it in Iceland. They even have multi-day tours travelling across Iceland on horseback, but I think I need a bit more experience before trying that.
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