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FAQ - Horses & Riding

On the tours we ride with the herd, we’ll bring extra horses with us. Those extra horses will run loose between the riders. 
We will divide the group of riders in front- and back riders, each group will have at least one of our guides with them. The herd will follow the frontriders, while the backriders will make sure all of them come along / keep going. 
Typically the riding with the herd goes at a faster pace than riding without the herd. This means that you should be able to ride at speed (tölt) mainly, with often very little walk in between. 
 
Also it is necessary to be able to mount from the ground multiple times a day, because we can obviously not bring a mounting block on the rides, but we will stop and dismount several times during the ridingday to give the horses their well-deserved breaks!

The horses are mostly between 130 – 150 cm tall (approx 13 – 14,5 hands).

In general, you’ll get to ride at least 2 horses a day. The main guide will choose you a horse for every (part of the) ride. Of course you might get the same horse again on another day, if you were a match the first time! 

We have the tradition to let everybody request their favorite 2-3 horses on the last riding day of the tour. Sometimes this is a little puzzle, but mostly it is much fun to see how diverse the choices are!

Before going out to select the horses on the first day, we have a little talk with all our guests about their riding experience and the type of horse they like. This gives us a first impression of which horse to choose for everyone. During the rides we’re always checking on how everybody is doing with their horse, and we really like our guests to tell us when they truly loved their horse. This way we usually manage to find perfect matches for everyone! 

We use simple bridles with separate, low noseband. All our horses are ridden on a snaffle bit. 

The saddles are Icelandic. This resembles an english dressage saddle, but with a more open/flat seat. Some of our saddles have big knee-pads, others medium to almost none. Before the first ride, everyone chooses a saddle and rides in this saddle the whole week.

The mean length of the day is 4-6 hours in the saddle and can sometimes be longer than that. We start shortly after breakfast when all necessary preparations are done. Whenever the terrain allows it, we enjoy the fast but still comfortable tölt of the Icelandic horse. We take short breaks every hour or two to stretch our muscles and allow the horses to rest a bit. During a long break at midday, we have lunch and change horses before we continue to the destination of the day.