Equine herpes virus 1 (EHV-1) strains are associated with respiratory disease, abortion and myeloencephalopathy. Worldwide outbreaks of EHV-1-associated myeloencephalopathy (EHM) occur rarely but cause disproportionately damage to the equine industry. The percentage of horses with neurological disease during natural outbreaks of EHM in horse operations is usually 10–20%. This study aims to elucidate why four minor outbreaks became a massive media hype and raised great concerns in the general public opinion. Two EHM outbreaks occurred in two premises in the same period (February 2012). There appeared to be a connection between both premises (horses stabled in premise A were visiting premise B weekly for indoor riding lessons). A third case of EHM (C) was confirmed in a geographically divergent location, with a history of indirect contact with one of the diseased horses of premises B. Some weeks later a fourth individual case of EHM was confirmed in another premise without an apparent connection to premises A, B or C. In premises A and B most of the horses developed fever, and in the course of the outbreak about 25% of the horses developed neurological signs consistent with EHM. In both premises several horses had to be euthanized. Case C had to be euthanized within a few days but no other horses on this premise became febrile or showed neurology. Premise D was already closed for 3 weeks before the first horse became febrile and here one horse showed ataxia (recovered) and one other aborted. During the onset of the outbreaks nasal swabs and EDTA blood samples were scored EHV-1 positive by real-time PCR. The EHV-1 strain responsible for these outbreaks was characterised by allele-specific PCR as a classical N752 strain. Although the limited number of outbreaks was not significantly different from the normal EHM incidence in the Netherlands, a media hype developed on radio, television, Facebook, twitter, and several website discussion platforms. Even in parliament the question was raised whether EHM should become a notifiable disease. The Dutch National Equestrian Federation advised to transport horses only for emergencies, and regional and national competitions were cancelled. The impact of social media was enormous e.g. the topic ‘herpes virus neurology’ on the largest equine websites of the Netherlands was visited >90,000 times/day. Retrospectively only a limited number of horses on four premises were involved. However, as result of the ‘voluntary’ standstill and the cancellation of horse shows and meetings the additional costs of the outbreak were very high. For future outbreak management the role of social media platforms for knowledge sharing and demystification should be considered as an important component of a communication strategy.