A savage dog "latched" onto a horse's shoulder during a ride which ultimately killed him.
Heartbroken Sarah Lord was enjoying stroll in the country on March 7 when her 11-year-old gelding, Frank, suffered a terrifying attack.
She says that despite a passing border collie still being on a lead, it managed to jump up at Sarah's horse and leave 'blood trickling down his leg'.
Unbelievably the dog's owner just walked off without a care in the world for what just happened, Sarah claims.
Sarah from Bury, Greater Manchester told magazine Horse and Hound: “It was completely unexpected, the dog seemed very controlled and didn’t show signs he was going to attack.
“Blood was trickling down Frank’s leg and the man just stood there. When I said his dog had bitten Frank and to come and look, he said ‘I’m not coming near that thing’ and walked off.”
Sarah was not alone on the ride as her partner Liam and friend Summer also saw what happened.
Cleaning Frank's wound soon after was not enough to stop his whole shoulder swelling up overnight which led to Sarah calling a vet who gave the horse antibiotics.
Sarah said: “We thought the wound was healing but then he developed an infection and pus started oozing out at the back of his knees, which the vet said was the infection trying to come out at the weakest point.
Heartbreaking video shows dog so abused he lost two legs finally walking again
"This went on for the next two to three weeks and he had three courses of antibiotics to try and get on top of the infection. Some days it would look like it was healing, but then it would come back.”
After almost a month of treatment, the vet said the kindest thing to do for Frank, who could no longer walk, was to put him down on April 4.
“It’s devastating," Sarah said. "He was our family horse and he was everything to us.
"I lost a mare five years ago and I wasn’t going to get another one, I came across Frank through a friend and he wasn’t for sale at the time but they sold him to me and he helped me get over my mare. He’s helped all of us over the years,” she continued.
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Sarah is now trying to find the killer dog's owner who she feels should at least contribute to the £1,000 of vet bills their pet landed her with.
She also wants to raise awareness that dogs being on leads does not mean they are under control and that more space should be left by on bridleways.
Sarah said: "I hope by sharing this it might prevent this from happening to another horse."
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