TWO grey horses used to pull wedding carriages were found to be emaciated when they were seized by a horse protection society from a field in Mellor, a court heard.

Blackburn magistrates were told that the two Hungarian trotting horses and a third horse were lice-ridden and had bald patches.

The owner David Collinge, 52, of Ramsgreave Drive, Blackburn, was convicted after a trial of three offences of failing to act and therefore causing unnecessary suffering.

He was fined £300 with £300 prosecution costs and ordered to pay £1,500 towards the costs incurred by the Horse and Pony Protection Association in looking after the horses since they were seized in April.

One of the animals has since died of a heart attack unrelated to the charges and the two remaining horses were handed into the ownership of HAPPA.

But stipendiary magistrate Jonathon Finestein refused to make an order prohibiting Collinge from keeping horses in the future, saying the offences were at the lower end of the scale.

The court heard how HAPPA field officer Philip Smith, a former Merseyside mounted policeman, had gone to a field in Showley Lane, Mellor, where the three animals were kept. He found the two greys to be in poor bodily condition and all three horses had bald patches.

Mr Smith left a note attached to a gate asking the owner to phone him. He said when Collinge phoned two days later he said there was nothing wrong with them and that Mr Smith did not know what he was talking about.

Mr Smith suggested getting a vet to examine the animals, at HAPPA's expense, but Collinge said he would get his own vet to attend. Nine days later, having heard nothing more from Collinge, Mr Smith returned to the field with a vet, James Walmsley, and a police officer.

Mr Walmsley described the two greys as "skeletal" and said there were areas of complete hair loss on all three animals. On close examination, he could see large numbers of adult lice on the animals.

Michael Rimmer, the vet who had attended Collinge's horses previously, said he had prescribed an anti-bacterial shampoo and told Collinge to contact him again in two weeks if there was no improvement.

Collinge maintained that the greys were not emaciated but their condition had deteriorated slightly due to the long wet winter and pointed out that they were both over 20 and no longer in their prime.

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