THE owner of a horse who was poisoned after someone threw potatoes into their field has warned people of the dangers of giving the animals food.

Laura Willcocks, of Steeple, has issued the warning after her three-year-old horse Zorrita began suffering symptoms of colic (abdominal pains) on Sunday.

After treating Zorrita, Ms Willcocks, 29, went back to her field near Canning Road in the village to discover the grass and wall littered with vegetables including potatoes and peppers.

Zorrita was rolling around trying to alleviate the pain in her body, most likely caused by her eating one of the potatoes.

Whilst she has now shown signs of improvement and digesting food again, Zorrita will require more blood tests in three weeks’ time to determine whether she will recover or have to be put down.

Ms Willcocks said: “It was a huge shock really, Zorrita is only three, a young and energetic horse, but she was clearly suffering severe pain on Sunday.

“The field was just covered in vegetables that people had put in there, it’s adjacent to a public footpath so the three horses that live there do get a lot of attention.

“The people leaving the food may well have had good intentions and didn’t mean to poison Zorrita, but it must be stressed how important it is to not feed a horse when passing by.

“Many horses could be on different medications and are required to eat specific things and react badly to others. It is far safer for everyone to not give them anything.”

She added: “I really don’t want to lose Zorrita over this, so any awareness we can raise about the dangers of feeding them the better.”