In Maarheeze, seven horses were killed by lightning yesterday afternoon. The animals were standing in a meadow when they were hit. “It’s unbelievable how fast it went.”
The horses were in a pasture belonging to Jack Ogier, who runs a horse rest home. Ogier was busy hauling in the winter fodder when the weather turned. “Suddenly it started to rain and blow. It hailed so violently that the tractor could not even be heard,” he tells. Broadcasting Brabant.
It took no more than two minutes, he says. One moment he saw the fire hanging in the air “as big as if a house were on fire”. Lightning bolts shot in all directions from a red conflagration above him. He immediately realized that the horses he saw lined up in the distance had been struck by lightning. “I’ve never experienced this,” said Ogier.
Skipped
He suspects that one of the horses was struck by lightning and then spread to the other horses. “I think I was lucky that it stayed with seven horses.”
Ogier has informed the owners of the horses of the news. Today some of them came to Maarheeze to say goodbye. “At first I thought he was joking,” says Rosalin Taormina, one of the owners. “Yesterday was a very black day. The only consolation we have is that the horses didn’t suffer. It went so fast.”
Tomorrow the horses will be picked up by a rendering company.
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