Suspected arson attack causes £25k damage at Welsh yard
A Welsh yard is counting the cost after a suspected arson attack razed two stables, two barns and a horse lorry to the ground.
Welsh Section B breeder Laura Marsh, of the Jula Stud in Beddau, Mid Glamorgan, was called to the yard at 8pm on 19 October after a friend saw flames.
“Our lorry was on fire,” said Laura. “My friend had tried to get all the ponies out of their stables but a thoroughbred mare was refusing to come out into the flames.”
Eventually they used a sledgehammer to break down the back wall of the stable and the mare — Lily of the Nile — was led to safety.
She had lost her mane, her rug had melted onto her back and she had inhaled a lot of smoke.
In all eight Welsh ponies and two thoroughbreds were saved and £25,000 damage was done to the yard.
Arsonists are thought to have set fire to rugs which they had piled between the hay barn and horse box.
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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.