A FOUR-YEAR-OLD mare was attacked in her field on Tuesday – possibly with an iron bar.

Retained Bridport firefighter Tanya Gibbs just moved her young horse Sunny to a field in Pymore to combine looking after her and being near enough to answer emergency 999 calls.

On Monday Tanya went to check the Warmblood x New Forest youngster and found her unaccountably and unusually nervous.

Tanya said: “I went up to the field and she came over to me rather nervous which isn’t like her.

“I pretty quickly realised she had a nasty gash across her hindquarters and wracked my brains as to how on earth she’d managed to cut herself quite that high up.

“It looked more like she’d been whipped and then I found she had a huge welt mark across her left shoulder.

“The one on her hindquarters is the worst, the one on her shoulder was more of a raised welt which didn’t actually break the skin whereas the one on her rump has actually broken the skin.

“The police are looking into it.

“The long and short of it is that somebody has gone into her field. There was aluminium bar that had been found snapped so whether somebody slapped her across the shoulder and it snapped then as she turned to run away they’ve whacked across the butt with it.

“She is not normally a shrinking violet my horse so I am very surprised somebody has managed to do that and got away uninjured because she will stand her ground.

“She has just turned four so she is only a baby.

Tanya has only had the horse for three months and only moved to Pymore two weeks ago. Sunny shres the paddock with a borrowed pony – but that is already very nervous.

Tanya added: “It is not a lovely welcome but I am a retained fire-fighter so I don’t have enough time to go out to Puncknowle.

“At the money Sunny has a little pony as a companion but she is very nervous and would not go near a person. She would have run as soon as she saw anyone but mine will go up and say hello being a bit more curious.”

Since the attack Tanya has spent a lot of time trying to repair the damage – physical and psychological.

She said: “I have spent a lot of time with her since just grooming and petting and tending to her wounds.

“I think she will be fine with me but I wouldn’t mind betting she will be a little bit nervous of strangers in the future.

“Depending on what exactly what it was if it was this aluminium bar she will be nervous of anybody using anything.

“The theory is either it is the jagged edge of this bar or they just hit her so hard that it has actually broken the skin.”

Tanya said it was too early to speculate but she had been sent private messages from other horse owners whose animals had puzzling marks.

She added: “Obviously I will be going back to the police with any pictures that I think look similar to her wounds but people ought to be aware and vigilant.

Although Tanya grew up with horse Sunny is the first horse she has owned as an adult.

The news went out on the firebrigade’s Facebook page and provoked a furious reaction.

And Bridport Insp Mike Darby said the police would be taking the incident seriously.

He said: “Clearly this is a very serious attack on a innocent animal we take crimes like this very seriously and we will be looking to prosecute anybody we find responsible for cruelty again animals in this nature.”