Horses of the Misty Mountains

Between 2019-2024 I have followed the lives of free roaming horses in the mountains of northern Spain and Italy. The horses are often my only neighbors as I search for peaceful wild camping park ups in the mountains.

These herds of horses living semi-wild in the mountains are able to enjoy a beautiful, species-appropriate life. In Spain, the horses are often of the Hispano-Breton breed or mixes of it. The herd’s stallion mates with the mares, and the foals sleep by their mothers’ legs and play together. The horses often wear loudly clanging bells around their necks, so that their owner, who visits the herd usually daily, can spot them more easily. In winter during heavy snowfalls the horses may be brought down from the mountains to graze near villages, but they are never kept in stables.

Free-roaming horse herds are remarkably calm and harmonious; I have perhaps only once seen a horse drive another away. Often it is the herd’s stallion who first approaches me, walking confidently towards me after first observing me from a safe distance. I have never seen stallions behave aggressively towards members of the herd.

The fate of these horses is sad, however, as Spain is the largest producer of horse meat in Europe. Over 70% of the horse meat ends up all over Europe, either transported in slaughter trucks or packaged in plastic.

Most of the time I admire the horses from afar, but every now and then a dream comes true and one of them dares to come close enough to be stroked.

Cantabria, Spain 2024

Valles Pasiegos

Above the clouds, in the lush Valles Pasiego valley, a black stallion lived with his herd.

The clouds embracing the mountain slopes sometimes covered the entire landscape and it could take days inside the clouds with drizzle. I woke up to one of the horses scratching its hindquarters on the side of my van in this almost treeless area. The horses did not come to be scratched, but curiously followed our activities from a safe distance. One donkey had also strayed into the herd! As the sun gilded the velvet slopes of the mountains, I sat quietly in the grass, admiring the herd’s calm wandering as they paused now and then to gently scratch one another.

Castile and León, Spain 2024

Montaña Leonesa

In the forested mountains of Montaña Leonesa, surrounded by turquoise lakes and crystal-clear mountain streams, live numerous herds of horses.

One bluish evening after sunset, I found a golden-haired mare lying on the ground, sweaty and tired, breathing heavily, her head resting on the ground, as if she had given up. She had gotten stuck in a bad position with her feet against the bank and could not get up on her own. The stallion was guarding the mare next to her while the rest of the herd wandered further away. I tried to help the mare up, but I realized that I had to get help from the nearby village.

I stroked the mare's sweaty neck and said that it was okay, I will go get help. I sped to the nearby village on my electric motor bike and managed to pass on the message, the farmer I met knew the owner of the horses and said that he would call him. About 15 minutes later I was back at the mare's side and she had gotten up on her own. At least in villages it is known that someone other than their owner is watching out for the horses.

Pyrenees, Spain 2021

Valley of Horses

One evening while hiking, I came across a small herd of a few horses that inhabited a valley at the top of the mountains.

On the rare occasions when one of the free-roaming horses approaches me, they come friendly and cautiously to make acquaintance. The horse in this herd was the only one that has ever behaved somewhat threateningly towards me and my dogs. It was primarily disturbed by my dogs, and approached them running, intending to scare the intruders away. I got up from my squatting position after the dogs ran to safety behind me and had to shout and wave at the horse to spook it away.

One of my dogs strongly reflects energies, both human and animal, and decided to help me take care of our pack by barking at the horse "with me". The message got through and we continued our evening hike, admiring the horses from a distance, and the herd continued to graze in the evening sun.

Sardinia, Italy 2023

Survivors of the Forest

In the pine forest lived a wild herd of horses, left to their own devices, whose survival had once been at a standstill.

Usually the free-roaming horse herds have owners who come once a day to check on the health of their herd. That was not the case this time, and interested in the story of this horse herd, I googled the name of the area + "cavallo" (horse in Italian) and found information about this herd in question. The horses had caused concern because they were starving after a harsh winter and some had already died of starvation. So the locals started taking hay for them a long way up the bumpy gravel road to the top of the mountain and the horses recovered from their ordeal. No one knew the owner of the horses, but luckily people cared about the herd and the horses were once again in really good shape and happy. Read the newspaper article about the horses.

Italy, 2019

The Grey Foal

In the arms of the misty mountains lived a herd of horses and a newborn foal, an encounter I will never forget.

One crisp November morning I was walking on the hills with my dogs when I saw a placenta on the ground, one of the mares in the herd had just given birth. The next day I heard a whinny and found the mare standing alone by a bush, her frail foal stuck in the bush. The herd had left the mare and foal behind, but the mother stayed with her foal. The grey foal was badly stuck and tired, having been there probably all night. A long and exhausting one-woman foal rescue operation began - the foal I named Drama.

First I had to gain the trust of the mare who was protecting her foal

After dodging ther mare's protective attacks a few times she luckily sensed that I was trying to help, and let me go to her foal. I got the foal's legs and neck out from under the branches and dragged the foal out of the bush. However, it was so tired that it could not get up on its own. We were on a steep slope, and for two hours I lifted and carried the foal, who kept falling and even rolling down the slope. At one point I ran down the slope, diving under a barbed wire fence ripping my jacket, while desperately trying to stop a passing car to help lift the foal, but without success.

Finally, I was able to lead and carry the foal to flatter ground, from where they continued down the mountain slope towards their herd. I followed the foal's frail progress, and it soon collapsed to the ground. I managed to lift the foal to its mother's breast for a moment; I still remember the smell of its cotton-soft, milk-soaked coat.

The next morning I found the mare and foal in the mist

The foal laid on the ground trembling and completely helpless while the mother stood beside it, her head hanging low in grief. A police car happened to drive by, and I managed to explain my concerns to the police, who at first simply stated that the foal was dying: "It's natural." However, they said they would call the owner of the horses, who finally arrived after dark and drove the mother and foal to an abandoned stone cottage, where he locked them up without food or drink. At night I took a woolen blanket to cover the foal, who laid helpless on the cold concrete. I even milked the mother, but I couldn't get the foal to drink milk without the proper equipment. I contacted the local animal welfare organization, who said that a vet could not be called because the horses had an owner! So I reluctantly left the mother and foal alone, after taking them water in a bucket and covering the foal under a blanket. The next morning the foal was dead, and I helped its careless owner lift it into the back of his pickup truck.

I got in touch with the local animal welfare organization and a English woman living in Italy came to my aid

They advised me to file a police report for animal welfare violations. In the morning the same police officers arrived and finally understood the seriousness of the situation: the foal had not been given the care it needed. They took photos of the stone house where the foal was confined, and we also met the angry, screaming owner, who thought he had done nothing wrong – after all, he had locked the horses inside to protect them from the weather. This experience left its mark. Although horses have a wonderful free life, nature can sometimes be cruel. Horses are meat cattle to their owners, and while many treat them well, to others they are just trash.

In my Instagram highlights there is a highlight called "Drama", which contains all the twists and turns of this story. 💔