Now it was time to think about the horses at Ísólfsstaðir. Ingólfur and Óli Sam had a look at them at Thursday and Elín checked on them on Friday. They were at a good spot and all 20 of them alive, which wasn't taken for granted after the storm over Iceland on Tuesday and Wednesday and the news we got from Skagafjörður and Húnavatnssýsla where horses were covered by snow and burried alive.
We met Friðbjörn around 10 o'clock and decided to open the gate to the meadows and feed some big roundbales there. Then we had to check on the fences and move the horses to their new place.
The weather wasn't too good, wind and snow showers whilst we were opening the gate, checked the fences and finally moved the roundbales with a car and per hand to the right place. The horses were still at the same place and didn't dare to move from there as it was really difficult to walk in the snow. Whilst Ingólfur and Friðbjörn fetched the horses and I moved the car back to the right spot, Óli removed the plastic from the bales and spread bread for the horses. Then we just had to wait for the herd. After a few moments a beautiful line of horses appeared following Friðbjörn leading Ösp. What a relieve to watch them approaching and then just rushing to feast on bread and hay. All of them in good shape and healthy. Alltogether this took about 4 hours.
There's still no electricity at Tjörnes, where the horses are staying and most of the farmers left their homes as their heating is solely electric and the houses were getting pretty cold.
Tomorrow we'll keep on deicing the fence here at Húsavík and we hope to get a machine with a concrete breaker to get through the frozen ground and put down new fenceposts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may believe me that it was a rather difficult night, lots of really ugly thoughts about what could probably have happened to the horses.
Starting around 8 this morning, we went to fix the fence close to the mainroad. We had to get sledge hammers to get the ice off the wire. Managed to clean the upper most of 3 wires. When it started to get bright we decided to start looking for the horses. We hadn't moved that far when I had a look down to our meadow and the windshelter there. First I thought I was victim of a Fata Morgana, but then I realized that there were horses in the shelter for sure! Don't know who was happier: us or the horses. They started to run towards us, but then stopped and waited for us to arrive. Obviously old Vordís found a better place to stay overnight during the storm and then brought the group back when the weather got a bit better. We haltered Vordís and Magnús and the rest of the bunch just followed. Now the horses are in the fence close to the road with enough hay and water.  We hope to be able to fix it as soon as possible, but the ground is frozen, so it will be difficult to put poles down. At the moment we use platicpoles where the wooden ones are broken and put orange fencing tape as a second string to increase visibility for the horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weatherforecast has been pretty bad for today and for the first time there was issued a red weatherwarning in Iceland. There was no school today and people were asked to stay inside as it was definitely no weather to travel. It was a combination of very strong winds, a lot of precipitation and rather mild temperatures. Thus it was sleeting with the snow being rather wet and heavy and not the usual snowdrift with powdersnow in such strong winds. 
We went to check on horses and fences the moment we trusted ourselves to go. Just very few people outside, but the snow clearance had already started, the visibility was poor, but good enough to drive slowly out of town. We first checked on the fence close to the road and it was in rather bad shape, the cornerpole most likely broken and the fence down on some parts. The wire is completely covered with ice, the icicles up to 20 cm in diameter, a few sticks broken and still that much wind, that it's hardly possible to clean the wire... We decided to check again a little bit later today when the storm would have calmed down a bit.
When we went to check on our fences and the horses down by the sea in the afternoon we had to realize that the horses were missing. Even though Ingólfur took a walk along the coast line to Litla Saltvík he couldn't get a glimpse of them. We even got 2 young men and a huge car from the local Search and Rescue Team to help us, but all in vain. No horses nowhere to see and the weather that bad you couldn't see inbetween the sticks on the road. We took another drive later in the evening, just to try to locate them. But to no result. So we just have to hope the best and try to find them tomorrow when it starts to get bright again. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a well deserved night inside Snerpa and Magnús were supposed to join Vordís and her herd in the big field. But before releasing them we had to have a look at the horses at Ísólfsstaðir. We go there once a week to make sure everything is ok and the horses aren't a burden for Jóel the farmer, who counts them on a daily base.
There's barely any snow in the fields and no need yet to open to the meadows. The horses were in good shape and happy to get some big bags of bread. 
When arriving back at the stable Magnús and Snerpa were already waiting for us. They were happy to get a few weeks off and get the chance to relax with the other horses, just eating, sleeping and playing.