Miniature Shetland dumped dead 8 months after going missing
A miniature Shetland was found dumped dead on the side of the road eight months after he originally went missing.
Skewbald stallion Alfie disappeared from his field in the West Midlands on 28 May.
The seven-year-old’s owner, Amy Adshead received a call on 5 January that Alfie had been found thanks to his microchip, but he was dead.
Alfie had been dumped on the side of Hazel Lane, Great Wyrley, around four miles from his field.
Ms Adshead was not able to establish how Alfie died.
“It’s just terrible what happened,” she told H&H.
“We spent weeks on end looking for him. He was so small he could have been kept in someone’s back garden.
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“There were no sightings of him — nothing at all. We started thinking he had been taken out of the area.
“It’s unbelievable that he turned up there. He was dead when a walker found him.
“A vet thinks he had not been dead long as he hadn’t frosted over. It’s dreadful.”
Ms Adshead had owned Alfie for a year and had bought him for her three-year-old daughter, Tina-Marie.
She contacted the police who are reviewing CCTV of the area.
Ms Adshead hopes someone will be able to help provide more information.
“Somebody might recognise him — he might have been kept in a field next to them,” she said.
“He was a lovely pony and was lovely with my daughter.
“When he went missing she was traumatised. I haven’t told her too much about him being found — it’s a nightmare.”
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said they received a report of Alfie being found on 5 January.
“It is unknown how the pony came to be there,” he told H&H.
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Rachael joined Horse & Hound in 2014, initially as a digital sub editor then became part of the news team as a writer in 2015. The philosophy graduate studied journalism at the Press Association before working as a local reporter at the Brentwood Gazette. Rachael is now a mum of two and still loves all things equestrian, including hacking, dressage and jumping with her cob Bert. Rachael left the H&H staff to go freelance in June 2019, but still contributes to our magazine and website, as well as our sister magazine Country Life, among others.