Icelandic saddles

Before I even got to Iceland, I knew that Icelandic saddles are black, with straight cut flaps and large knee blocks.

In fact, some of them look a lot like dressage saddles, but with shallower seats.

Others - specifically the synthetics - have a little more of an English trail saddle vibe.

No surprise, most of the saddles at Eldhestar fell into the second category.

Here's the saddle I rode in all week.

It had a padded seat and was surprisingly comfortable. Honestly, if I thought I could find one wide enough for Olive, I would definitely consider buying this saddle.

The billets were designed to fit either a long or short girth. Most of the girths for sale at Lifland were short.

At Eldhestar, we used long, black, cord girths.

The saddles had lots of d-rings to accommodate saddle bags in front...

and rain slickers behind. These were attached to the saddle via long leather straps with buckles at one end and holes on the others, kind of like extra long spur straps.

Both at Lifland and Eldhestar, all the stirrups were of the forward-facing, curved-sided safety variety.

I've never ridden with forward facing stirrups on an English saddle. They're comfortable, but definitely have a different feel. In retrospect, I suspect that difference was at least part of the reason I kept losing my stirrups on the first ride.

Most of the horses at Eldhestar were ridden with the saddle placed directly on their backs, but there were a couple foam half pads in the mix. If you look closely, you can see one peaking out under the panels of Vaskur's saddle.

Similarly, a few horses needed girth covers. These were navy blue and looked like cut down gym socks. You can see one here on Tinna.

That's it for saddles! Tomorrow we'll look at bridles.