A Woman, A Horse, A Leader: What I Learned About Courage In Iceland

You're Too Old to Spend the Rest of Your Life on the Couch: Let's Adventure!

The author in Iceland 2015

A PhD scientist showed me what courage really looks like

The long line of riders stretched out in front of me like a conga line. We’d been riding for nearly eight hours by this time, and the perpetual sun- which, in this country during summer never sets- was slowly dropping. At best, at this altitude, the temperature might get into the sixties. At best. Add to that the ever-present wind, and it can be damned cold. In July.

That’s Iceland.

I was the only American riding with a group of young German women. As is typical of Icelandic horse adventures, we rode with a herd, as we would switch out our horses regularly during the day.

Icelandic horses have a unique gait called the “tolt.” They are among just a few horses in the world born with this extra gait which replaces, or is in addition to, the trot. Easy to ride for hours, and our days were long, usually about eight to nine hours in the saddle.

That afternoon we were about an hour out from our day’s destination. Eldhestar, the outfit that I had booked three back-to-back riding tours with, hires their guides largely from Europe. Germany, in particular.

I never saw a male guide the entire time I was in Iceland. Most of the guides are extremely good riders, and spend their summers in Iceland leading groups just like mine. There are superb guides, and those still learning.

Photo by Andrey Andreyev on Unsplash

A Land of Endless Water

Towards the end of a very long day in the saddle, we were all tired. We were snaking towards a broad, low stream which we’d all need to cross. One thing about Iceland: you’re never short on water. Ice cold, clean, crisp water, waterfalls aplenty. The only down side is that it’s close to freezing even in the height of summer.

The locals and the horses are accustomed to it. Most of us are not, certainly not for bathing.

One of our guides, a lovely German woman with a dense cascade of blond hair, was in the middle of the stream on her horse directing traffic as we crossed. I was close to the rear of the follow-on group, and as was my habit, had my camera in my left hand to film our progress.

One moment she was seated on her horse. The next she had plunged into the rushing waters, her foot caught in her right stirrup, the freezing water tumbling over her. At knee-depth, waters this fast can make it impossible to stand, to walk, especially when you are dressed in endless pounds of layers to stay warm.

Now those layers can act like dead weight dragging you under the surface. That’s especially true if your riding helmet also fills with water and is caught by the stream the way an umbrella is caught by the wind. It’s an immense force and hard to control, and you can drown in just inches of water.

That’s what was happening to our guide.

I was too far away to do anything but watch. None of the other riders stopped or helped, and I watched helplessly as she struggled to rise.

If you’ve ever been summarily dumped into ice cold water-whether in a kayak or anywhere else, you know how impossible it is to get a breath. The shock is sudden and overwhelming. Add to this the power of sweeping waters, the many many layers of clothing, now soaked, bearing her down, you can understand her distress.

Her dark gelding planted his feet against the current. Rock steady, he was her Gibraltar. I watched her struggle to grasp anything- a leg, a stirrup. Inch by inch she fought the icy onslaught as the riders continued to pass her. I think most were in shock.

Finally she was able to grasp the stirrup by walking her hands up the horse’s legs. By this time she had to be nearly frozen. She slowly pulled herself up, stood, and remounted. She was wet head to toe. In those late afternoon winds, her body was losing heat swiftly. The freezing water had soaked her heavy coat, her leather chaps, and most certainly had filled her boots.

We had at least an hour before we would reach our destination for the night.

This brave woman sat straight-backed, dripping icy water, as she continued to direct us across the river, watching with the protective eye of a mother hen, while her body shook. You could hear it in her voice as her teeth chattered. She didn’t move until every single one of us had safely passed the danger point.

Her horse had stepped into a hole in the river and she was guarding that spot so that nobody else met the same fate.

An hour later she was helping the slower among us to dismount and take off our tack as we released the horses for the night, and gathered in the small hotel which was our shelter for the night. She was still soaking wet, but didn’t change until the last of us were inside.

Not once did she complain.

About an hour later, she came to see me because I had a video. She asked to see what I’d filmed. She wanted to understand what had happened, so that it wouldn’t happen again. I transferred the video to her camera. I wish I still had it.

She wanted to understand what, if anything, she had done wrong so as to learn from it. Nothing to do with posting it on social media.

As I travel the world doing pretty epic adventures, I’ve seen a broad range in the quality of guides. All too often, young people with limited experience are hired to take on the sometimes quite dangerous work of leading people across forbidding country. Without good leadership and exceptional instincts, people can get hurt or die.

The best guides have a singular focus, well beyond the customer PR and interactions all day long. They make sure we’re safe.

My German guide in Iceland, a woman with a PhD and a career in scientific research, was the perfect example of what true leadership looks like. She pulled herself out of a very dangerous situation and made sure the rest of us were safe.

She suffered extreme discomfort and the danger of hypothermia in the freezing winds while soaking wet. She didn’t take care of her own needs until all of us were safely inside and warm.

Adventures in the wild like this are deeply telling about character. Seeing people like this in action is just one reason why I do these trips all over the world.

When the going gets tough, do you get going?

A woman of the horse, a true Viking, demonstrated more about leadership in the space of a few hours than any class, any program I’ve ever attended.

There is nothing like watching pure courage in action. Leadership is action in the face of adversity, putting others’ needs before your own as necessary, and doing what others will not, cannot do when the situation demands it.

Let’s play.

Photo by Vladimir Riabinin on Unsplash

Thanks for traveling with me for a few minutes today. I hope you got some inspiration and I also hope you choose to head out to the world and travel. If this intrigued you please consider

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Either way, please, let’s play.