In the afternoon, after our hike around the crater, we went horseback riding around the lake. We arranged our ride with Safari Hestar at the bottom of lake Mývatn. Our guide was the owner of the farm.

My horse, the one with the black mane, was named Ster-mumble-mumble-stur, “Strong Horse.” I called him Thor.

Something to know about riding horses in Iceland: the saddles they use are quite different from those used in the USA. No saddle horn. No blanket. No padding. Metal stirrups.

And, most importantly, the saddles aren’t very tightly strapped onto the horses. In fact, when our guide climbed aboard, he and his saddle just about slid right off.

Not very comforting to watch at the outset of a ride.

From the farm, we headed off on an improved trail along the lake’s edge, learning as we went that Icelandic horses are trained differently. They’re not “steered” like horses in the USA. You have to hold the reins in separate hands, whereas, in my limited experience elsewhere, I’ve been able to control the horse with the reins in one hand.

Our guide referred to the horses by the number of gaits they could manage. “That’s a five-gaiter,” he said.

What gaits? Walk, tölt, trot, gallop, pace.

Dale was getting used to her horse, but not feeling comfortable with the saddle.

We walked the horses on trails through the lava fields, then headed back onto the lakeside path where we picked up the pace.

On the way back to the paddock, we learned the tölt. Aside from the gallop, the tölt is the smoothest gait, perhaps even smoother. It’s what I’ll call a 1-3-2-4 gait, that is, the hooves hit the ground in that sequence, rather than a trot which is more 1/3-2/4. Take a look at this video to see what I’m talking about.

At any rate, the tölt is a comfortable way to ride, and looks pretty cool, too. I tried taking a video of Dale doing it, but needing to hold a rein in each hand, and without a saddle horn, I couldn’t use my camera while doing anything other than a walk.

Dale’s horse didn’t do the pace, so she was on a four-gaiter.

I guess if you had to call us by our gait, we’d be Florida Gaiters.