Last weekend it was time for the first tour of the season; the wintertour special – Horses On Ice! Every year in the first weekend of March, the competition on Ice ´Mývatn Open´ takes place, and the day before the competition there is a groupride organised for anyone who would like to do some iceriding.
Our tour ´Horses on Ice´ counts 4 ridingdays with the iceride on the Friday afternoon as the highlight of the tour. This year we had a pretty big group with 13 participants plus our friends Helle & Holger who were cooking for the group, but also joining some of the rides. So 15 riders plus guides Bjarni and Mieke = a total group of 17!
We had great weather the whole tour with plenty of white landscape to ride through.
On Thursday afternoon, after arrival at Saltvík and a lunch, we headed out for the first ride. This was a good test-ride and the whole group enjoyed the ride over the white cliffs with the view over the arctic ocean.
Friday morning we took a short ride from Saltvík in beautiful sunshine. After lunch we had ordered a big truck which fits 25 horses to transport our ´icehorses´ to lake Mývatn. Everybody helped loading the horses and within 15 minutes all 17 horses were on the truck and ready to go. We ourselves boarded our 2 minivans and off we went.
At Mývatn it was rather chilly with a strong, cold wind, but the sun was shining and to start with, we had the wind in our backs. The ice was about half a meter thick and a track had been cleared of snow with a tractor, so we had a perfect track for riding.
The horses always clearly feel great on the ice and they performed like never before! After riding for a while, we arrived at a little island in the lake, where we met some ladies who were ready for us with hot chocolate and small sandwiches & the icelandic rye bread with smoked salmon. The group very much enjoyed those snacks while the horses had a little rest before we headed back to shore. Someone had magically turned off the strong cold wind before the ride back and everyone was glowing of joy with the golden light of the setting sun in their faces.
The Saturday was a very special day this year as well. We normally always go and watch some of the competition on ice, but as a special treat, there was a participant we could all cheer for while watching! Bjarni joined the A flokkur (5gait) with both Vilmar and Týr (the grey one). Vilmar did super great in the tölt and trot, but unfortunately got his boot stuck under his shoe just at the start of the pace and therefore was too much out of balance to show a proper pace. With Týr Bjarni got into the finals though, and in the end, they placed 5th! Super good in a professional field of competitors while for Týr (and for Vilmar as well, by the way) this was his very first competition and he has never been trained for competing since he‘s such a great tourhorse. Halfway the afternoon we went back to Saltvík again to take another ride over the cliffs at home.
Sunday was our last riding day and in the morning we headed to the waterfalls Æðarfossar. There was a bit too much snow to do much more than walk and only a few bits of tölt, but with the views so beautiful over a frozen river Laxá and the sun shining on the fresh snow from the night, it was just magical. At the waterfalls we took a little break, and when we were heading home again there was a lot of extra energy with the horses! In the afternoon we took a last shorter ride, but as we mainly rode over the trails that were cleared of snow, we could ride faster than in the morning, and we closed the tour with a lot of great tölt.
On Monday the plan was to drive the group with our 2 vans back to Reykjavík. But because there was an orange weather warning for the east part of the country, we had to leave early to be ahead of the incoming storm. Everybody was fast in the morning and at 7:30 am we were all ready to go and made it over the first mountain pass before the storm really hit. After that, it was just nice weather in the northwest, west and southwest. Windy, but nothing bad. Lots of sunshine, so it truely was a good sightseeing trip to end the tour.
