Black Beach Riding tour

Just like people, all horses are different. We know our horses well and whether they are suitable for beginner or experienced riders, so it is best for the guides to choose a horse for you. It’s great if when booking you can let us know the experience levels of everyone in your group so that we can prepare suitable horses.

We advise against bringing too much with you on the ride. Backpacks can get uncomfortable or affect your balance, as can large DSLR-type cameras. It´s fine to bring a GoPro if you have a suitable mount (helmet or chest) but as you need both hands on the reins, we advise against the stick type mounts. Drones are also not allowed, as they can scare the horses, and also you need full attention on your horse rather than flying your drone!

It's a good idea though to bring a small camera or phone in a zipped pocket, as we make sure to stop on the beach for the guides to take some photos of you.
We have some lockers at the stable where you can leave your bags and cameras if you do not have a car to lock them in.

Please be aware that we never let children/babies ride on the same horse as an adult.

We may sometimes allow 9-year-olds to join the 1-hour tour if they have a good level of riding experience (e.g. regular riding lessons, not just a few trail rides) and are confident riding in a group. Please email us before booking to discuss this.

From experience, we find that children under 10 can be a bit more easily distracted or less focused, and more easily overwhelmed by a new activity. Even for children who have a lot of riding experience, being on a new horse in a new environment - and with instructions in a language they maybe do not understand - can be a lot of pressure. 

For the 1 hour Black Beach Riding Tour, we ride in groups of up to 10 people and everyone is in control of their own horse (no lead reins and guides are also mounted). We ride on an open public beach and need to ensure the safety and enjoyment of the group as a whole. For groups with children younger than 10 years, in the summer months, we offer a 30-minute Family Tour daily at 16:00 - on this ride, guides are walking with the children on a lead rein to be able to provide closer assistance for our youngest guests. 

At the moment, we only offer the regular 50-60 minute tour and the 30-minute family tour.

If you have a larger group and the booking calendar does not have enough spaces, please get in touch with your requirements and we will try to accommodate you. It is best if you can let us know well in advance so that we can make sure we have enough horses and guides ready for you.

Yes! Private tours enable you to have a tour tailored to your wishes and abilities and are ideal for more experienced riders. We will ride according to the abilities of the least experienced rider of the private group. Please note though that even if riders are experienced we can't guarantee canter/gallop on the beach, as the beach conditions change daily, and it is often too soft or too rocky to go fast. We do have a slightly different route to the normal tour that we can possibly use to try more tölt, it is still 1 hour long though. Please get in touch with the weight/riding experience of everyone in your group to arrange a time for a private tour and find out prices.

Experienced riders are very welcome to join our tours. However, please note that our groups are normally mixed ability and we adjust to the speed of the least experienced rider for safety reasons - this means the speed is normally walking for the majority of the tour. We always do our best to make sure that everyone can try some tölt on the tour and to accommodate more experienced riders, but this will be at the discretion of your guides on the day. Please note that the 30-minute family tour is only ever walking.

It is very unlikely that you will be able to gallop on a tour with us. The beach conditions change with the tides and storms, but it is normally very rocky and soft so unsuitable for going fast. Our guides are experienced at assessing riding ability and the potential risks of speeding up. They are best qualified to make this decision on our tours, with the safety and enjoyment of the group as a whole and the welfare of our horses in mind. Please respect our guides’ instructions during the tour and accept that it is unlikely they will offer you a chance to go faster than trot/tölt.

The plane wreck on Sólheimasandur is around 30 km away on a different beach, so we do not visit it on our tours. It is around a 30-minute drive from Vik, and then a 4 km walk each way from the car park.

We operate our tours from Víkurfjara, the black sand beach located directly in Vík. Reynisfjara, the basalt columns and Hálsanefshellir cave are on the other side of Mt. Reynisfjall, so we cannot reach them on the tour. Reynisfjara is just a 10 minutes’ drive from Vík, which makes it the perfect destination to visit before or after your ride.

Children or teenagers are welcome to join the rides without an adult (subject to our minimum age restrictions) as long as they are confident controlling a horse independently and are able to understand our instructions in English. Our guides speak a variety of languages but we cannot guarantee which guides are working on which tour.

Due to the isolation of the Icelandic horse for the last thousand years, many common equine diseases are not present in Iceland. To protect the horses here, visitors are asked to not bring riding equipment, clothes, and boots into Iceland unless it is either new or has been cleaned and disinfected according to MAST's requirements. 
We provide helmets for everyone, and for a short 1 hour ride we find that hiking clothes and walking boots or trainers work just fine.