August 21st // Vik and Horses

     Horseback Riding // Sports ●
    At the hotel there's a restaurant also, which was really convenient because Vik is a very, very, small town and there's not much there except country side.  We had heard about the lavender fields around the Myrdal church in the summer. The church is up on a high hill on the outskirts of town and can be seen from anywhere in town.  
     It was a short

Abby with "Maximums" doing the
most awkward pose ever

walk to the church from the hotel so we were going to just walk, but our feet were so sore from the hike yesterday that when we found a stable that rented out horses for the day, we decided to get some.  
     Iceland has it's own special breed of horses, aptly named Icelandic Horses, with thick long fur and are more or less pony sized, at only 13-14 hands.   Horses are highly respected, even worshiped, in Norse Mythology and the admiration still holds.  The breed came about from both natural selection and selective breeding.  
     Horses who had shorter hair and were larger unfortunately did not survive often because of how unforgiving the winters in Iceland are.  As a large horse with short hair living in -22 degree weather, it was very difficult to find roughage to survive and keep warm.  Icelanders recognized this, so they started breeding those who had an abnormal amount of hair and shorter stature.  That's how these unique, fluffy, horses came about.  

The Shetland ponies in their
cute little sweaters 

    Today though, if horses aren't fluffy enough, or are a bit too small to keep themselves warm, they give them little sweaters.  Kind of like how my grandma puts her Chinese Cresteds (bald dogs that Taylor says are "vaguely off putting") in pajamas and rain coats, they put their little horses in thick, specialized, long underwear.  
     The horses come in two varieties, either as Shetland ponies, or just short standard horses.  There were a couple Shetland ponies out at pasture who were wearing those little sweaters because they were so small that they got cold even in the summer.  The people who ran the stables said that they normally keep them inside during the winter when it's chilly, but the little guys like to play with the big horses too much to stay inside too often.  
     Kyndall in her coat was about ten times a big as those little adult baby horses.  It was hilarious.  Anyway, those who haven't ever seen horses with this much fur may not even be able to comprehend how fluffy they are.  They look like tiny Clydesdales who rolled around in a barber shop.   To say the least, it was probably the best experience in my life.  I've peaked now that I've ridden one of those tiny fluffy miracles.  
     Abby's horse was named Maximums...at least that's what she made us all call him.  His real name was Peanut, which he would only respond to, but she insisted because that's what the horse was named in Tangled.  We rode up the hill on a small dirt path.  We even got to trot, which is basically when a horse runs.
     I've never been very good at trotting, but compared to Abby I was a graceful pro.  She kept yelling, "Slow it, Max, I don't want your sass!"  Of course, Peanut was like, "They call me 'Stacy,' They call me 'Maximums,' That's not my name, That's not my name,"  (The Ting Tings, "That's Not My Name") and bolted off.  Everybody else, though, had a nice stroll and a calm trot, as Abby screamed as Peanut was speeding up the hill.  It was a lot of fun, and seeing Abby's hair all crazy from the whiplash wasn't too bad either. 

     Lavender Fields // Nature ●
     Lupin lavender grows along roads and lakes, which we had already seen, but this field of lavender was enormous.  Lupins grow in purple, pink, red, yellow, white, and blue.  The most common colors are obviously purple, but in the field there was blue, purple, pink, red, and a few random yellows.  
     We had to keep the horses from eating the lavender because, while it's actually calming because of the oils in it for them, they absolutely hate the taste.  My horse would take a huge bite, then angrily snort because it didn't taste good.  Then, he would take another bite and get grumpier and grumpier until he was snorting and stomping while simultaneously taking huge bites.  He was like a toddler throwing a fit because he wanted chocolate pudding, then remembered he didn't like chocolate, but still kept eating it because his little toddler brain refused to stop and instead he just got progressively more angry.    

     Lupin is planted for soil fertilization to fix nitrogen levels with the beneficial bacteria in their roots.  It's very common in Iceland because lavender thrives in dry soil.  It can also be used for medical uses to help boost immunity when it's boiled into tea.  We had brought thermoses full of hot water and picked lavender to put in them.  The tea was actually really good, although it had a bit of a perfumey taste, and it was nice to have something warm on a chilly day.  

The church and the lavender    

     We rode back to the stable and said goodbye to the horses at 3 and went back to the hotel to hang out for a while until we got back on the road.  The hotel has a big hot tub, so we decided to warm up before we packed up.  We stayed in there for much longer than the suggested 15 minutes, about three hours.  After Alissa nearly passed out, we finally went back to our hotel room to pack up.  
     We got dinner at the restaurant again and then checked out.  On our way out of town we decided to stop to get a couple snacks for the rest of the trip and, of course, more five hour energies.  Also, we had to load up on extra gas because Vik is the last town with a gas station for a very long time.  We got in the car and drove for one and a half hours to Skaftafell in Vatnajökull national park. Once we got to the Skaftafell hotel we settled down in our room for the night to rest up for our big day tomorrow.