Icelandic Horses flee Volcanic Ash
Today’s interactive technology made it possible for horse owners half a world away to email Holistic Horse and share dramatic images of Icelandic horses fleeing the ash-laden clouds and muddy pastures left in the wake of this north Atlantic island nation’s erupting Eyjafjoell volcano. Thanks to Holistic Horse readers and friends, the magazine has been able to continue its 15-year tradition of bringing news that impacts horse health and wellbeing from throughout the world – from Saudi Arabia and Mongolia to, now, Iceland: Farmers like Ingi Sveinbjoernsson, 56, have managed to bring their herds inside to safety, and out of pastures clouded in fogs of ash so dark, Reuters News Service reported, that it “turned day into terrifying night,” and blanketed the countryside in gooey, grey mud. “It was so dark,” this horseman said, “I couldn’t see my own hand.” Approximately 80,000 horses live in Iceland – one horse for every four people in a national population of about 320,000. As the volcano continued to erupt in mid-April, a mass exodus began as horse owners tried to evacuate themselves and their herds. Herds of up to 100 horses at a time, driven down main roads in blizzards of dust, became a common sight. The hardy horses, long credited with the same resiliency to the elements as their owners, and accustomed to living outdoors, have been more than willing to bring their ash-laden selves inside and out of the way of the volcanic onslaught. In the case of Sveinbjoernsson, an assessment of his horses’ overall health has indicated that a few have runny, irritated eyes, but the full extent of the ash, on his horses, their health, and on their pastures, has yet to be assessed. “I think they’re OK, but I don’t know what they’ve been eating all that time, so I’m worried,” he said. Sveinn Steinarsson, south Iceland representative of The Horse Breeding Association, has added that the ash-covered, tainted grass that the volcano has reduced most horse pastures to, is not immediately poisonous, but as fluoride levels rise from the ash, so does the danger: “In areas where there’s ash fall and horses are outside, the conditions are terrible. They can’t survive in this if it carries on too long. The horses have to be fed with hay and have access to running water to avoid consuming a lot of ash.” Vilhjalsson does think Iceland’s “volcano horses” will ultimately survive. But just when horse farms will return to their normal routines is less easy to predict. “I don’t know,” Vilhjalsson said. “The volcano will decide.”