Trainer Gordon Shenkin said today that it was believed the three-year-old bay gelding had a serious form of colic – a condition the horse had experienced in a milder form earlier in the year.
In such cases, a horse’s gut can become twisted and cause constipation, as a result of which there had been no traces of faeces to indicate the direction in which the startled horse galloped, he said.
The farmer who owns adjacent fields contacted Mr Shenkin on Saturday after his dog picked up the scent of the missing horse.
The animal was lying in deep foliage close to water and a field.
It was obvious it had been dead for some time.
