Police investigate suspicious deaths of two horses

Police are investigating the sudden deaths of two horses in a field near Kelso on Boxing Day.

The horses belong to local people and were part of the nearby Nenthorn Equestrian Centre's stables, which uses the field beside the town's Hunter Bridge.

Veterinary tests have not yet confirmed the cause of death but stables owner Jennifer Wilson believes the horses were either deliberately or accidentally poisoned.

"We've been in business for over 50 years and have about 70 horses, and we've never seen anything like what we came across last Friday morning," she said.

Mrs Wilson says she checked the five horses staying in the field on Christmas Day but grew concerned when she received a series of calls on Boxing Day telling her people were in the field.

"We were inundated by people on Boxing Day telling us that there were a lot of people in our fields petting the horses, and going round them," she said.

"The field is padlocked, and so they shouldn't be in there. There are signs to say don't go in and don't feed the horses, but we've heard that people were lifting their dogs over the gate and letting them run off the lead."

When Jennifer returned to the field on Boxing Day, she was stunned to find two horses lying dead on the ground with blood around their eyes, nose and mouth.

"We knew instantly they had been poisoned. Horses don't just die in the field for no reason, and not in such a horrific way," she said.

"It's heartbreaking for all involved. One of the owners had just come down to see their horse, Ronan, at Christmas, and the other, Buttons, was owned by an 11-year-old child, so to tell her that was, just heartbreaking."

Mrs Wilson says they are unable to tell whether the poisoning was deliberate or accidental.

"I don't think people understand how you can kill horses, simply by feeding them the wrong thing, or from them eating something toxic in dog poo. We found bags of dog poo left lying in the field," she said.

Police Scotland confirmed that they are investigating the deaths and so far veterinary tests have been unable to determine the exact cause of poisoning.

The vets, however, are sure the horses ingested something poisonous to them.

"We may never know what caused it," Mrs Wilson said.

"It's holiday season and whether someone has been quite innocently clearing out in their garden and put something over the fence into the field, or it's more sinister we don't really know.

"And the reason we think it's likely to be something they've been fed is that Ronan and Buttons were friendly horses, who would have come to people and taken something off their hand, whereas the other three in the field that survived are more wary and won't come to people easily."

She believes more needs to be done to educate people in what food and other substances can be dangerous to horses.

"Things like human food and chocolate can make them ill and give them colic - and many people don't realise that horses can't actually be sick - but it would have to be something stronger to kill them outright like this," she said.

"One of the more common culprits is yew tree, and so sometimes you find someone is clearing up a garden or has picked up some leaves and fed the horses through a fence.

"No-one wants to see what I saw on Boxing Day, so, hopefully, by raising awareness of this we can try to prevent this happening again."