The owner of a badly wounded horse who had to be treated at the roadside as utilities workers, she claims, would not let the vet through says she wants an explanation for the situation.
Kelly D’Angelo called the vet as an emergency on 22 February, as her 15-year-old former polo pony Rio had sustained an injury in the field. But the men working in the private road, in Maidenhead, Berkshire, she claims, refused to move their vans to allow the vet through.
She told H&H Rio had to be walked through the roadworks to get to the vet, lame and bleeding profusely.
“When the vet rang to say the road was closed, I didn’t believe it,” she said. “The workmen said they couldn’t move, but they were just sitting there eating their lunch.
“They kept saying ‘One hour, one hour’ and the vet said ‘I haven’t got an hour’. We had to walk Rio down there and she was treated at the roadside.”
Rio was sedated, owing to her location and the presence of a number of other people, Kelly said.
“It was awful,” she added. “There was blood everywhere — we had to use water from the river to clean it up off the ground — and the workmen were just laughing and saying ‘Look at all that blood’.
“They weren’t digging up the road, as we walked her through it all, and when the vet started taking photos, they jumped into their vans and drove off, so why couldn’t they have let her through?”
Kelly said Rio is recovering well; the injury was superficial, although at the time, she did not know the extent of the damage, only that her “hobbling” mare needed treatment.
“I’m so confused; I think I just need to know why they wouldn’t move,” Kelly said. “The main thing is that she’s all right but I can’t get out of my head those men saying ‘One hour’ and laughing at the blood. I think that’s what upset me the most; that mare has been through a lot and they looked at her as if she was nothing.”
A spokesman for Newpoint Group UK Limited told H&H the firm was unable to comment as the investigation is ongoing.
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