Horses and ponies attacked at riding centre

By Paul Reilly

Eight horses and ponies have been left traumatised after they were beaten and chased during a late night attack at a riding centre for the disabled in Co Londonderry.

The Fort Centre near Maghera was targeted on Saturday evening.

A group of people broke into a field and chased some of the animals into a small lane where they were goaded and beaten.

The animals are still recovering from their ordeal.

Martin O'Hagan from the centre said: “It just makes you feel awful, it just makes you feel rotten that someone would come and do that, you can’t understand why.”

The eight horses and ponies which were targeted are invaluable to the centre and the incident is putting some lessons scheduled for the coming day in doubt.

Martin continued: “If you have a pony out of use, it means you have to cancel the riders and it could be more than one rider that rides that pony, there could be seven or eight riders in one night, so that means you have to cancel them riders until that pony is safe again to use.”

There have been similar attack on horses at the centre in recent years - with one of the horses previously being hit with a bottle.

“The message would be to stop it right away, “ said Martin. “The ponies are used for very special children and adults and they should stop and think what they’re doing.

“It’s not only us they’re annoying, they’re annoying all them children that come to ride the ponies - you can’t explain it to them that’s there’s no pony tonight, they don’t understand.”

They now want the community's help to catch those responsible and to deter any future acts of cruelty on these much-loved animals.