A TAMWORTH horse owner is desperately seeking answers after her beloved pet was killed at a Scott Rd property.
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Mel Pryor found Teipan dead on Sunday, June 1, when she visited the property to feed her ponies.
A local vet believes he may have been shot.
It follows a rash of thefts, opened gates and the “terrorising” of the animals in recent times.
Vicki Brown told The Leader she fed the horses on the Saturday at 4pm and Teipan was in his stable “all lovey-dovey like the spoilt horse is”.
“I knew nothing was wrong with him and saw nothing out of the ordinary,” she said.
When Mrs Pryor came to feed her ponies in an adjoining paddock the next day, Teipan was lying on his side with his head in a pool of blood.
She rang the police and the vet, who said Teipan had a fractured skull caused by a possible bullet to the head. Mrs Pryor said she was with Teipan’s 13-year-old original owner when she found him, and she was traumatised by his death.
“The vet thought it was a small calibre if it was a gun, but the only way to prove that was to remove his head and I wouldn’t let that happen,” she said.
“There were massive footprints around the farm and gates were opened.”
She said it appeared someone had been “terrorising” the horses and it had spooked her horses – her children’s special-needs ponies.
“This was a low act,” Mrs Pryor said.
Ms Brown said they had heard “drunk” people walking along Scott Rd sometimes rode the horses at night in the dark.
She said they often found horses had been moved, with gates opened and then closed, and they’d had thefts of tractor parts and a horse rug over the years.
Ms Brown said security was upgraded at the farm with police and security doing random checks at night.
Mrs Pryor said they were trying to keep the farm as a positive legacy for its former owner, the late Allan Brown, who was Vicki’s father, and now June Brown, his widow, was considering selling up.
“Without the farm my kids wouldn’t be able to ride their horses or see them because they would have to be kept out of town,” she said.
Teipan has been buried underneath a tree on the property.
Anyone who saw anything suspicious around the time of the horse’s death is urged to contact Tamworth police.