An elderly horse at a Hertfordshire sanctuary is being treated for a suspected stab wound.
Former polo pony Lucky was found with the injury just above his shoulder after a night in the field at the Two Oaks Pony Sanctuary near Berkhamstead.
“We walked the field looking for something that might have caused it but both the vets and the police think it is a suspicious wound,” said Carol Buchorski, who runs the sanctuary.
“If he was a youngster you’d think it might be self inflicted but he’s an old boy of 31 and he doesn’t tend to roll or mess about.
“When you keep horses you see all kinds of wounds that they can cause themselves but he’s 15.2hh and it can’t have been fencing at that height and it doesn’t look like an injury from a branch.
“The wound is an inch wide and the vet could get his finger in about 2.5inches deep.”
Lucky was lame on the wounded limb and is awaiting investigation to see if there is any structural damage.
“The wound was cleaned out but there is a lot of damaged muscle, so we’ve had to wait to scan,” Carol added.
She said their fields backed on to houses and that as the “quiet old man” of the group, Lucky may have stood out as a target.
It is not the first recent incident to cause problems for Two Oaks, which was recently faced with vets’ bills after grass cuttings were tipped over the fence.
“I don’t think it was done maliciously but we do warn the neighbours and we have a strict ‘don’t feed the ponies’ policy in place,” Carol said. “Freckles, one of our ponies, had liver damage after eating it. We think the people who did it had put a chemical on their lawn, as well as the problem of the fermenting grass.”
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Two Oaks has set up a Paypal account for donations towards Lucky’s care.
Anyone with information on the incident, which occurred overnight between 20 and 21 August is asked to call Hertfordshire police on 101 and quote crime number D2/17/809.
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