FIELD NOTES FROM THE LUPINE RIDE
THE LUPINE RIDE | ICELAND
“Thorsmork was voted Icelander’s favourite place in our own country” shared Stefnir. We all nod, understanding what they meant. It’s glorious, expansive country.
In 2022 I first rode with Hekluhestar on the Landmannalaugar tour. I loved everything about it but struggled with the lack of privacy in the mountain huts with up to 24 people in one cabin.
Anita from Hekluhestar created a ride with a similar feel - but with twin room accommodation in country hotels. We called it the Lupine Ride, because we'd timed to coincide with the wildflower bloom in June.
This year I was returning to trial the new itinerary and spend more time with one of my favourite couples, Hekluhestar’s Anita and Stefnir.
I arrived into Reykavik at 12:30am from London. The midnight sun illuminated the fields of purple lupine flowers around the airport with an otherworldly twilight glow. The sun won’t fully set the entire time I’m in the country.
Our adventure begins at the BSI Bus Station at 6pm that day. Black Saddle riders appear one by one until all 15 of us are gathered, ready for Stefnir to start the 90 minute drive to the farm. Loa, the family’s white Icelandic Shepherd dog welcomes us excitedly as we arrive. There are new cabins on the property this year, finished just in time for our stay. They are beautiful wooden buildings with black walls and traditional grass roofs.
At dinner we go around the table sharing our riding experience and describing our ideal horse. Anita listens to each person, mentally match-making. We have time to visit the horses before tucking into bed. They live in herds in fields around the farmhouse. Anita’s father, Jon, who was a horse riding tour pioneer in Iceland, has retired to a small house on the property near to the barn. Back when he started guests would write letters to him to book their tours.
Anita left Iceland for a while to study ecology and train as a teacher but the tours have always been her first love. As soon as the moment was right she gave up her job as a high school teacher to lead the tours full time. “The school was very sad to lose her” Stefnir tells me. Anita is clever and patient, with a calm, kind nature. I can imagine her being a favourite teacher in her old life.
The next morning we are met with an enormous monster truck with tyres the height of a human. Our bus to Thorsmork. As we venture into Thorsmork valley, fording rivers and bouncing over boulders it makes sense why our transport is so battle-ready. The mountains grow higher and close in on us until we finally arrive at the Volcano Huts where our pretty bell tents are set up in rows. We have time to drop our luggage off inside before Stefnir takes us up the mountain for a quick look around. I was pleasantly surprised to see real beds inside, with bedside tables, a heater, sheepskins and comfortable chairs.
Stefnir informs us that it’s just a short hike to a look out. I glance nervously at Judy who rode with me in Iceland last year. We both know that Stefnir is incredibly fit and climbs mountains for fun after eight hours of riding. It's a short and steep climb but worth it. We can see three glaciers and the ocean all at once. Unicorn Mountain, where Stefnir proposed to Anita, is on the horizon and we can see the volcanic plateau we will ride that afternoon stretching out before us. A helicopter flies across the valley below us.
“Thorsmork was voted Icelander’s favourite place in our own country” shared Stefnir. We all nod, understanding what they meant. It’s glorious, expansive country.
After a quick lunch of hot dogs, Clinton made this humble meal infamous by trying one during a presidential visit, we meet our horses. The herd have all been bred and trained by Stefnir and Anita. They know every horse as well as they know their own two children. Each guest is introduced to their horses by Anita. She shares little insights into each horses character and where they like to position themselves in the herd. “Emma, I have given you Rambo. He’s wise, trustworthy and independent. He’s ideal to manoeuvre around to take photos on”. Perfect.
We walk only a few hundred meters before Anita pushes the group into a tolt. All of a sudden we’re moving at pace, climbing higher into the mountains. I get a thrill from seeing the delighted faces of the girls experiencing their Icelandic horses for the first time. We had an excellent group of great riders. The girls are confident with their horses, laughing and chatting by the time we speed back to our accommodation. That night we enjoyed our buffet meal in the wooden restaurant cabin. The wine started to flow and the midnight sun fools us into thinking it was earlier than it was until we scurried off to our beds after midnight.
Everything turns up a notch on day two. This is a long day riding along the Thorsmork Valley. Today, we are joined by the loose herd. The riding is fast and terrain varied. Every 90 minutes the horses will be corralled and we’ll all rest. Today we meet our second horse. This is a semi participatory ride where you tack up your own horse, your two horses share the same tack.
The sky is typically grey as we depart. Our horses are headed home and we can feel their excitement. They push forward and we hold them back behind the guide until every horse finds their rhythm and natural order. It’s then that the herd is released to follow us. They surge forward around us, playing and weaving amongst our horses. The tempo picks up and we are tolting and cantering at a rapid pace down the valley. Minka, from Finland, is our horse wrangler. She responsible for keeping the horses behind Anita. Like a rugby player she uses her horse to edge the fastest horses back behind her and then darts diagonally across the field to push back another keen horse.
We see a four wheel drive shadowing us - two incredible Icelandic photographers, Lina and Gunnar have joined us to take photos and drone footage. They snap photos while leaning out of the car windows with one hand on the wheel.
At midday the horses are corralled onto a grassy verge on the road side by quick moving wranglers and electric fencing. It’s the only way to stop fifty speeding horses. We enjoy our lunch under any cover we can find. Anita hands out heavy duty raincoats in a dark forest green colour. I’m relieved they’re not the bright orange version that every other riding tour operator uses that makes everyone look like they just escaped from a prison road-working gang.
After lunch we cross a long, narrow bridge that opens out onto the wide open spaces of the lowlands which are covered with lupine flowers. We tolt through the flowers, the loose horses bounding on either side of us. The landscape starts to change and and wilderness is replaced with farmland. By late afternoon we arrived to our country hotel, Hótel Fljótshlíð. The horses are staying in the field directly in front of the hotel. By this time the rain had really set it so we stripped them of their tack, stripped ourselves of our wet weather gear, and dashed inside to check in and have a hot shower. I was sharing a room with Judy. “I’m so glad we’re here with an ensuite shower and not in the highlands sharing one with 20 other people!” I exclaim.
On the morning of day three we enjoy a hot buffet breakfast in the hotel before setting off to our final location. Between us and our next hotel lies a stretch of wild mountain riding with black sands. The weather has set in again and the going is quite tough with the wind and rain. The mass of us moving forward at pace creates a very intense atmosphere, it’s quite a powerful feeling. The landscapes are stunning as we follow a a river winding through a valley with mountains on both sides.
We take lunch in the ruins of an old cottage. Only fragments of the walls remain but it gives us some shelter. Spirits are high even as rain drizzles down upon us and the wind whips around us. We’re experiencing that adrenaline fuelled laughter that is quite freeing if a little unhinged.
“We have a lullaby here” shares Anita. “It’s a story about a girl from an old cottage like the one we’re in the ruins of now. She was young. A poor girl. Working as a shepherdess for a farmer when she becomes pregnant. Who knows what terrible things happened to her. She leaves the child in the woods, wrapped in rags, to avoid the punishment of having a baby out of wedlock. One day when she is milking she hears a ghostly child’s voice singing to her. And this is what it said.” Anita begins to sing.
“Mother of mine in the sheep pen
You don’t need to worry, worry
You can wear these rags of mine
so you can dance and dance”
“All of our lullabys here in Iceland are tragic”.
We are all lost in her song.
After lunch we move quickly towards our final destination, Hótel Lækur. This is the grandest of all of our accommodation with a spa, sauna, incredible restaurant and a snug upstairs. We buy a few bottles of wine at dinner to enjoy there that evening. We’ve earned it after a long day riding in wild weather!
Our final ride takes us from the hotel to the horses home farm about two hours away. Many of the roads in Iceland are double wide with one half tar-sealed for cars and one side left as grass with multiple deeply furrowed tracks from the passage of many, many horses. We blitz down these horsey highways towards the Ranga River. Wide and relatively high, this is our final hurdle to cross before a long and joyful gallop back to the stables.
We are careful to follow Anita’s line at the river’s widest point. The water still reaches the horses’ chests. The young loose horses choose their own lines in the deeper areas and swim across. As soon as we hit land the horses know they’re almost home and we give them their heads all the way home.
The farmhouse comes into view, and as we turn the corner to bring the horses into the garden we see Stefnir standing atop a small hill, playing the accordion. His music elevates the emotion of finishing the ride and creates a really beautiful moment. We whip the horses tack off and leave it to dry in the sun. There are celebratory hugs and time to pose for a final group photo.
Inside the grass-roofed lodge we have Anita’s home cooked lamb soup and hot rolls waiting for us. We wolf down our last lunch together, rush back out to take photos of our lovely horses grazing in the garden and then it’s all over as we load into the bus back to Reykjavik, arriving about 5pm.
We run the Lupine Ride at the best time time of year when the flowers are in full bloom. There is just one ride per year.
Note: The Lupine Ride is three nights from 2024. You will meet the bus to Thorsmork at the BSI bus station 8am on day one.
Where: Thorsmork, Iceland
When: 14 - 17 June 2024
Price: €2,850
What: 3 Night Adventure Riding Safari from the highlands of Iceland to the horses’s home farm
Getting There: Meeting at the BSI bus station at 8am on the 14th of June
Riding Level: Intermediate to Advance. You must be able to control your horse at all times.
Horses: Icelandic Horses
Thank you to Gunnar and Lina for the wonderful photos from our ride.
THE LUPINE RIDE
3 Nights in Iceland | Hotel / Glamping adventure safari | From €2,850 per person sharing