A former top-class show horse has been stabbed while in a Holbeach field.
It’s believed Joe, a 19-year-old stallion, was cut with a pocket knife or penknife in a random attack.
It left the pie-bald horse so traumatised that a vet gave him only hours to live.
Fortunately distraught owner Chelsea Richardson has seen Joe pull through and hopes there will be no lasting effects.
She said: “At first the vet said the stress and trauma had led Joe’s heart valves to start failing.
“We were told to make the most of our time within him over the next 24 hours.”
She added: “It was a massive shock – I just cannot understand why someone would want to stab a horse.”
Chelsea’s dad Brian discovered blood trickling from the 1.5inch wound when he went to tend to Joe in a field between Foxes Low Road and Battlesfield Lane.
It’s believed the attack probably happened at about 4pm on Sunday, June 29. Two other horses had been collected from the field the previous day and Joe was the sole occupant.
Chelsea said: “We thought he’d either been stabbed or shot but two vets have confirmed it was a stab wound.”
Joe was taken to see a heart specialist at Oakham the following day and, with antiobiotics, began a steady improvement.
“The next morning he was on my front garden and whinnying at me, which was lovely to see,” said Chelsea, mum to one-year-old Brioney.
Police are investigating the incident.
A statement said: “An examination of the field has been carried out and there appears to be no alternative explanation for the injury other than that it was deliberately inflicted.”
Chelsea, of Holbeach St Marks, said: “Both Foxes Low Road and Battlefields Lane are busy roads and I can’t believe that no one has seen anything.
Chelsea, who has owned Joe for 15 years, rode the 13.2 hands horse at Hickstead in 2010 after a tough qualification process.
Joe and her other seven horses are now kept at another location.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Pc Tim Newell, quoting incident 181 of July 1.
