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Horse left injured in ditch after failed theft attempt

The horse was left injured and stuck in the ditch after would-be thieves abandoned the animal.

A horse was left for dead in a muddy ditch after an attempt to steal the animal by thieves failed.

The 34-year-old animal suffered wire cuts to its heels, eyelids and eyeballs when it became tangled in the wire fence during the burglary.

Owner, Lisa Parrish, 38, of Wrexham, was terrified that her beloved pet, Kori, wouldn’t be able to get up from the ditch and would have to be put down there and then.

The horse was taken out of his stable by the would-be thieves at Legacy Riding Centre in Wrexham, where it had lived for the last 27 years, sometime between late Saturday and early Sunday morning.

Riding instructor Lisa said the thieves cut the site's electric fences and were attempting to leave through the adjacent field when Kori must have slipped in a muck heap.

Kori was abandoned and wasn't found until around 8am on Sunday. His body temperature had dropped and the vet feared his muscles might not recover from the shock.

My gut instinct was that he wouldn’t get up and we would have to put him down where he was.

It was heartbreaking. We got to work cutting the wires to free him and even got him to stand.

When the vet arrived he said Kori was very, very lucky.

We were worried, given his age, that his muscles wouldn’t recover from the shock. But so far he is doing remarkably well and we are hopeful he will make a full recovery.

– Lisa Parrish, horse owner

A spokesman for North Wales Police said: “We received a call at 9:38 on Sunday, January 5 for the attempted theft of a horse who had become stuck in a ditch.

The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information should get in touch via 111.