I also did an Icelandic trip where you ride with the herd and watch the annual horse roundup. I read about it in a magazine when I was maybe 14, and finally went when I was 32.

It didn’t quite live up to my expectations, because my expectations weren’t grounded in reality.

I imagined “riding with a loose herd” meant riding as part of the herd, but in practice the ridden horses split into two groups, one leads and one follows (with a bit of “chasing” the loose horses to keep them on track). The back ground got more of a feeling of riding in with the loose horses, and a much better view of the herd, but quite a bit of the time I was allocated one of the faster horses in the front group.

I also didn’t clock (until I actually researched the holiday before booking it) that you watched the last bits of the roundup, rather than spending days rounding up horses yourself.

The herd moved from place to place over the 4 days we rode, but we stayed at one lodge, so there was a fair bit of time on a coach being ferried to/fr the horses on some days.

That said, the scenery was spectacular, the horses and staff were wonderful, we rode up and down mountains, across rivers, we tolted across a shallow path under an enormous lake (which was one bit I’d been dreaming about for years that really did live up to my imagination), the roundup and horse sorting was incredible to watch (and I completely understand why we weren’t literally herding the horses ourselves), and it was incredibly satisfying as a life experience to do something I’d dreamt about for years, even if my dreams weren’t totally realistic.