Twelve horses die after falling through ice

Twelve horses have drowned after falling through an ice-covered lake in Iceland.

‘Disappeared’

Their owners noticed they were missing from the herd when they went to bring the horses in to their stables. They seemed to have “simply disappeared”, but their bodies were spotted in the water by a coast guard helicopter on a surveillance flight.

Seven of the horses belonged to tour company Ishestar and five to local equestrian club Sóti.

According to Einar Bollason, director of Ishestar, they had walked onto the ice of a lake in Alftanes near Reykjavik. When the ice broke they were unable to crawl back onto land even thought they were close to the bank.

Strong bond

“People bond with these horses over the summer,” said Einar in Iceland Review. “We have owned some of them for about 15 years. I told my staff, ‘thank God these weren’t our children’. But this is the closest you can get.”

Helicopters have since been used to remove the dead horses from the lake.