American woman trades city life for Icelandic horse ranch

Nicole Zohdi left her life in a US city to move to the Icelandic countryside with her husband, Einar Þór Jóhannsson. In an interview with mbl.is, she describes their long-distance relationship, their horse-riding business and her life as an Icelandic farmer.

The couple live on a horse ranch in southern Iceland and run Thor hestar, a horse-riding business for tourists. Nicole spends her days caring for the horses and visitors, maintaining the ranch and sharing content about her life and work on social media. Around 100,000 people follow her account, Nicole in Iceland, where she describes life as an American woman in Iceland and gently pokes fun at both Icelanders and Americans.

“I lived in the capital for 10 years, but now I am a farmer in Iceland,” Nicole says with a laugh. She is in her thirties and has lived in Iceland for two years. Before moving, she and Einar were in a long-distance relationship for three years.

Nicole met Einar while travelling in Iceland with her mother, who had always dreamed of visiting the country. They chose a private tour rather than a group trip, and Einar was their guide.

“We first met on August 10, 2021. It was my first trip to Iceland. My mother and I had planned to come earlier but had to postpone the trip because of Covid. I was not particularly interested in going because I preferred warm countries, but Iceland was my mother’s dream destination,” Nicole says.

Einar spent three days with them as their guide before leaving them at the Blue Lagoon. Nicole gave him a tip, as is customary in the United States, and included her phone number.

“A few hours later, I received a message,” she says. Einar’s first message consisted of “hey” and an emoji of a person wearing sunglasses. The two began speaking across countries, and their relationship soon developed into a romance.

“We spoke on video calls every single day. We talked a lot about when we could meet again and when I would return to Iceland,” Nicole says.

She returned to Iceland in March 2022, after which they decided they wanted to be together. At the time, Nicole was still deeply involved in her own company, and much of their discussion focused on getting Einar to move to the United States.

However, Einar’s work had always involved Icelandic horses and guiding tourists. He had previously run Íshestar with his former wife and father-in-law and therefore had extensive experience in the field.

After three years of long-distance dating, Nicole closed her company and decided to move to Iceland to begin a new adventure. They married in July 2024, and she moved to Iceland in September.

“His family welcomed me with open arms. Einar has four daughters, and we get along very well, which is wonderful,” she says.

Nicole takes tourists on horseback rides alongside her husband and also uses her time to create content for social media.