You guessed it, here's Monday/27 AND Sunday/26. I should really get an award for being on brand 99% of the time. I mean honestly.
JUNE 26: We seem to have acquired a cat. I'm not sure how it happened, but he showed up a couple days ago and hasn't left, so Lisa got him some food and he won't stop cuddling us. We aren't sure if there's something wrong with him, or if he's just weirdly super affectionate, because the acts like all of us are the warmest, coziest, baby blankets of humans for him to sleep against and make bread upon. I'm almost positive if the manager knew we had him in the apartment they'd throw him out, so as of right now he's a secret. Lisa named him Apple (since Ölfus has Papaya), but we're all a little unsure if we want to form an attachment to him or not. Iti came over after her work and we all ate some snacks before heading over to play with Rikke's foal that Iti has been helping out with. It was so so cute, and Lisa and I took turns playing with it and letting it climb all over us and eat our hair (not really, but it did try).
We also met Rikke's "ugly" foal--which Lisa and I instantly fell in love with. Aparently Rikke had a competition with her friends on who could buy the ugliest foal and she won :(. Lisa and I were taken ABACK and could make a lengthy and solid argument for why it was actually so cute--and will undoubtedly make a beautiful horse. Idk, feel free to interject your opinion whoever ends up reading this.
I have no idea what this is from but enjoy the chaotic mess that is both my hair and my emotions.
APPLE!
JUNE 27: Woohoo now onto today! Oh what fun we all had together, I could just burst! The morning started with a breakfast of fig newtons and cuddles from Apple, of course, even though he woke all of us up multiple times last night biting our ears and climbing under our covers to sleep pressed against our backs or stomachs. ALSO, the neighbors (large, shirtless men always in their randomly placed hot tub and piss drunk) keep making comments at us, and after yelling back at them Judith took an opportunity to see if their hot tub was still on and worth us treating ourselves to a dip (lol entirely a joke, you couldn't pay us to submerge in that water). She said it was very cold, so we went riding instead.
SIDE NOTE: Yes I have been wearing the same sweatshirt every day. No it's probably not that clean. I don't really care--my mother will never see this I'm almost positive.
We decided on a huge fun ride to the “mountain” since Judith and I hadn't experience it before, and Lisa kept talking about it with such glorious descriptions. Iti took Grape (I thought she would like his flying pace and I think he did it a little for her, but truthfully its still so much slower than the gallops so she was pretty far behind), I took Mbrun, Judith took Gledi, Axelle took Fra, and Lisa took Tina. The later 3 were bareback, but Iti and I aren’t idiots when it comes to fun rides with Axelle, so we went with saddle—a choice they all voiced that they regretted later. I would like to note Iti also wore a safety vest, if that tells you anything about Axelle's reputation.
We took one of the forest trails around to the "mountain"--through groves of saplings, Christmas trees, and multicolored lupines. Iti found some tree leaves to eat (so on brand it hurts) and swore they were very good for the body. I tried one. It was not good for my body and I spent the next 10m trying to spit it out. Somehow I ended up in the front (either because Mbrun just genuinely walks so much faster on fun rides, or I was just there so the bare backers could let their horse follow-the-leader, but Iti and I traded off a bit and did out best to get them off with surprise uphill gallops and sharp turns. Unfortunately it didn’t work. At the top of the mountain we had the coolest view of the city and the little lake, and were beside ourselves with glee as we navigated through SO many lupines! Truly a special time of the year here for Iceland…it’s like a scene from a movie. It’s not 1000% peaceful riding though I will be honest, as the lupines mostly grow on super rocky ground so the horses risk stumbling a lot. You’ve got to be ON your riding game for sure or else your horse pays for it—and with all these horses do on a daily, they don’t deserve that on our account.
In between videoing each other in too-good-to-be-true moments, and racing along our day trail, I think our hearts all lifted quite a bit. At one point, Mbrun and Fra were racing neck and neck, and Gledi stormed through the middle like an actual force of nature. Axelle, Judith, and I all agreed once we slowed down that it was one of the coolest moments to see, and felt like a film. We rotated between walking and galloping the rest of the way home, and Lisa surprised us all from behind as she tore in front of everyone on Tina--for a second I wasn't sure if she was going to be able to stop and genuinely feared for little Lisa!
Iti had to go home near the end of the trail, and we decided to do a final race along the straightaway towards home. I think we all wanted a cool video and also, a fun run obviously! I strapped my phone and Axelle's to a light post on the track using my guide leads and Judith set hers up on a rock. We somehow managed to get a starting line set, and then we were off! M and I won (not by a lot though as Fra was right there near the end, however Axelle was bareback so she did have less weight than M and I). I won’t be letting that one go for a while with Axelle either way--she really enjoys jest banter haha.
Judith had to go home soon after we got back, so we all gave our horses some extra snacks and graze time and bid her goodbye. It makes me so sad she only is here for the day, I wish she could move to Reykjavik too. We enjoy grazing the horses though, it feels nice to just sit and talk about shit while the horses get to enjoy vitamins. A very hot topic of our horses in the city is the lack off minerals the boss and manager provide for them. They are given hay and water--not salt blocks, no supplements, and no grass. Usually we try to take the older horses to graze (as I've posted in the blog before--a habit Iti, Axelle, and Lisa started that I fully agree with), but today it was a way to say thank you to our noble steeds. They truthfully need it and we hung out next to them for about 30 minutes before putting everyone in and feeding supper.
The Race of All Races
& My Little Champion
The neighbors can kick rocks.
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