10-year ban from keeping horses for Surrey man
Surrey man Edward Wray, who left a stallion confined in a shed for months, was banned from keeping horses for 10 years by magistrates at Staines on Friday (28 March).
RSPCA inspector Alan Ramsey, who brought the prosecution against Wray, said he was called to the field in Stanwell, Staines, in March 2007 after reports that a stallion was being kept in a small wooden shack.
The field surrounding the shack was littered with debris and had unsafe fencing, said Mr Ramsey.
The RSPCA removed the stallion and in May were called to the field again after insecure fencing allowed a second stallion to escape into a field and injure a gelding and a goat.
A further seven horses and ponies and the goat were taken by the RSPCA.
At court Wray pleaded guilty to unreasonably confining a stallion in a structure and to failing to move field hazards and provide proper fencing for his horses.
A charge of failing to prevent a lice infestation in the stallion was dropped and Wray was found not guilty of failing to treat the stallion’s worm and lice infestations.
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Wray was also ordered to pay £6,000 prosecution costs.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.