It only felt right to group these together :)
JULY 9: A very very chill day. Elisa and I took the afternoon 2 hour tour, as we were trying out the new alteration the manager made to the 2hr route--which included a bit of climbing on the mountainside now! 11/10 move on his part, I think it makes the tour much more exciting and adventurous. Plus the construction really stressed some of the horses out and that's no fun for tourists. We enjoyed the morning before tacking up and getting our 8 person tour ready to ride. I picked Gáski, and Elisa took Sindri, and I'm not sure if it was last couple days magic or what, but the ride was phenomenal. The sunlight was scattered upon the mountain, every gate dismount/mount I did with G went flawlessly, and he was happy and calm the entire ride. Even Elisa agreed that he looked incredibly relaxed and happy to be working with me--the best compliment she could have given me. I'm the most proud of Gáski considering how we started at the beginning of the summer. I was practically beaming by the time we got back to the stable, and the rest of the night went by in a glow, with pasta and Euphoria all around.
JULY 10: Today was a bit more of an adventure. We had to herd the horses from one of the closer grass fields before a group tour (more to come on that soon) and I took Gáski to herd--I usually take Jordán as he could care less what was going on around him, but I figured I needed to herd on G before I left so that we could fill in all the fun guide stars. He was actually so cute, and very excited to be working the herd I think. What can I say, the horse really likes a job to do. Luckily it was all calm, customer horses so nothing crazy to have to keep together, and Elisa took the front, but it felt so special to do one of my last headings with him. It's been such an amazing summer working with him and as funny as it sounds, I'll miss him just like my other coworkers. The rain was constant, the wind was brisk, and the asian tour group arrived soon after. *Special Delivery for Elisa and I.* I’m not sure what to think of the whole ordeal, but Asians have to be the WORST at horsemanship out of any tourist genre ever. It’s sooooo bad I can't even describe to you the frustration. Each group of tourists has their "thing" (see Iti's post on Nationalities), but this day was for the eastern visitors. They always wear all white, don’t want to communicate with you, only want to video/photo every single thing with both hands, and ESPECIALLY don’t understand that horses are living animals waiting for your direction. “Pull the reins” or “kick the horse” mean about as much to them as a vacation without photos. Elisa rode Jarpa and I picked Gaski, so at least we felt confident in our horses should we need to execute any highly professional rescue or salvation moves. Gaski did seriously well all things considered, but at about my 5th time screaming to pull the reins at a small grandpa, I gave up and just let them do their thing, good or bad, on the ride--considering they weren't doing anything super life threatening and the horses were all stupid easy customer horses. I kept G near the middle of the line to form a barrier of sorts that prevented the riders behind us from trying to move up in the line or go to the font. The rain and wind stayed with us the entire ride, so the poor creatures were soaked through and loosing grip on their phones every minute. Back at the coffee house they kept throwing 20 or 50 euros Elisa’s way, it seemed somewhere between apologetic and as reimbursement for the multiple rolls of paper towels they used and the photos we took. At the end of it all Elisa and I both got about 75e worth of tips, which was exciting but also baffling considering we thought the tour went astronomically bad. The group left almost as quickly as they arrived, and the coffee house remaining was nothing short of a mess--rivaling even that of two Disney groups worth of mess--and I truly hurt for the small Norwegian family that had to sit in the middle of the whole ordeal.
We had to herd some of the horses to the closest grass field afterward--Gaski among them--so I said my goodbyes, watched him roll in the mud for a final time, and tacked up old Nasi for a hilarious herding experience with Elisa. It seems that old Nasi had gotten spunky in the country since my first Rvk ride one him, and as we galloped to the field he gave me some bucks and head shakes--all quite funny for how small and plucky of a horse he is. It feels good to have a last herding laugh.
Thankfully, it was a relatively calm day afterward—Elisa and I took our time cleaning, and then climbed the hay bale stack next to the hay pasture. I don't know why, but I have been fighting the urge to all-fours climb the hay bale stack every day that I've worked here. Maybe it's something deep down that urges me to summit the hay, but I gave in today. We did a few dramatic poses, gave the horses a pep talk, and sat staring at the grim sky reminiscing of our time together. I will miss Elisa quite alot—my little German firecracker. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s going to be such a vibrant human being one day. I'm sure we'll end up at the same spot in Iceland one day again...I truly wouldn't be surprised.
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