Former teacher ‘repeatedly punched pony in face’ after it ran into road
Sarah Moulds kicked her pony Bruce Almighty in the chest after he walked into the road, her trial was told
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A former teacher caused “fear, harm and psychological suffering” to a pony by repeatedly punching him in the face after he wandered into the road, a court has heard.
Sarah Moulds, 39, was charged with animal cruelty by the RSPCA after a video emerged of her appearing to strike her grey pony, named Bruce Almighty, on a country lane in Lincolnshire.
The incident occurred on 6 November 2021 following a Cottesmore Hunt meet in an area known as ‘The Drift’ in Gunby.
A video played to jurors at Lincoln Crown Court showed the pony moving from the rear end of a trailer into the road, with a child holding on to his ropes.
Within seconds, Ms Moulds has advanced on the pony and can be seen “grabbing the lead rope, kicking the horse, slapping, punching and administering blows to the horse’s face”.
A woman filming the incident can be heard exclaiming “She’s just kicked that horse,” and shouting “Oi!”.
After the video was widely circulated online by anti-hunt group Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteurs, it was spotted by Keith Hogben, an RSPCA Inspector, who began to investigate.
Ms Moulds was interviewed by the RSPCA before being charged with causing unnecessary suffering to her horse. She was also charged with failing to take reasonable steps to protect the pony from pain, suffering or injury.
She claimed that her reaction was “appropriate chastising to stop bad behaviour” from Bruce, who was a child’s pony, and “didn’t agree it was unnecessary and didn’t believe Bruce had suffered”.
She added: “If I hadn’t chastised him and he continued to behave in this manner, it would not be appropriate for him to be handled by children.”
Jurors heard that the pony had suffered no external physical injuries and was found to be in good health upon inspection. However, equine expert Dr Suzanne Green prepared a report which found that Ms Moulds had caused the animal “unnecessary suffering”.
Her expert opinion was that the pony had been subjected to “fear and distress” and was “unable to move away from a harmful situation” as Ms Moulds continued to hold the lead rope in a tight grasp.
This would have caused Bruce “fear, harm and psychological suffering as well as pain from the physical blows”.
She told jurors: “The overall conclusion I have reached was that Bruce was caused unnecessary suffering by the actions of Sarah Moulds in that video.
“The actions she gave to Bruce were not proportionate, not appropriate and not in response to anything.
“The horse has gone to where the child is stood. It is a happy horse and it stops to allow the girl to catch the horse by the lead rope. It is not being evasive. It is not trying to run away.
“By physically kicking a horse that hard, it is obviously inciting fear into that horse as it is an unpleasant experience.
“You have only kicked a horse like that to deliver pain because it will hurt it.”
“The prosecution’s case is that there was no risk to the horse from other road users and no real attempt by the horse to evade capture and the horse is coming towards his owner at the time he is grabbed, kicked and disciplined in that way,” prosecutor Hazel Stevens said.
“Of course, once Bruce broke free he needed to be caught. That was easily done and once he was caught there was no further risk to him and as there was no risk of harm, chastisement was unnecessary.”
Following the incident, Ms Moulds was suspended from her teaching role at Mowbray Education Trust. After the incident, Cottesmore Hunt organisers said they “strongly disapprove” of the video of “one of our followers mistreating a pony”, while the RSPCA said the incident was “really upsetting”.
Ms Moulds, from Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, has denied both charges.
The case continues.