Mum’s Gone to Iceland – Day 2 – Horse Riding

They warn you in all the books that, although the main route round Iceland is mostly paved and in good condition, some of the other roads are no more than gravel tracks. The 2 hour journey from our hotel to our next stop, Hveragerdi, is over a bumpy track on which some vehicle with caterpillar tracks has been travelling recently. So the gravel is bad enough but the regularity of the bumps is bone-shatteringly awful. Plus it’s miserable weather: misty, rainy, cold and with such poor visibility that we can’t even ooh and aah at the scenery which I’m sure is spectacular!

Hotel Ork is a cracker; spacious room and with Dove stuff in the bathroom. Hubby is dispensed to local supermarket to pick up some conditioner for my wild locks which were making me look like Wurzel Gummidge – courtesy of a dip in the Blue Lagoon the previous day.He returns with the added assortment of baguettes, crisps and chocolate for lunch. Have to eat this quick as we are due to go horse-riding at 2pm. HORSE RIDING?! With Eldhestar Riding Tours. I gather Eldhestar means “Volcano Horse” so that puts me in a bad mood before we’ve even got there. None of us have ridden a horse before and we are kitted out in huge waterproof jackets and trousers: I’m so cold I put mine on over a ski jacket so I look like an enormous orange. (See pic above of tangoed husband and son: I couldn’t possibly show you my photo!)

There are a couple of Americans, a quiet Icelandic couple and a young girl from the stables leading us. A quick run-through of the basic skills in the ring and then we’re off into the wild blue yonder! Hubby’s horse is a fearsome-looking black beast but looks can be deceiving as it’s so stubborn it refuses to keep up with the rest of us. The young instructor comes to the back to remonstrate with hubby, to my great amusement, but despite his efforts he still trails behind. The rain is now falling horizontally, I can’t see through my glasses and I realise I should have worn the wellies they provided, as the rain is trickling down my socks into my shoes.We traipse through the countryside which I’m sure looks delightful in the sun, trot through rivers and after half an hour the instructor gets us all to canter. All the horses seem to come alive at this point and we all hang on for our lives, hubby howling at the back that the family jewels are getting a pounding! I’m starting to find the whole thing hysterically funny and, despite being wet and wind-blasted, I can’t stop laughing.

After two hours we try to dismount with some dignity (I fail here) then squelch awkwardly in our waterlogged shoes, desperate to find a loo.Back at the hotel my son and I flop on the bed and find they’ve got ITV on the telly. Shout to hubby, who is in the bathroom trying to get the smell of horse out of our shoes,”Ooh look, Golden Balls is on the TV…..”

“I’ll give you bloody golden balls…..”, he replies rather tersely.