Dog owners need to make sure they have control of their pets when they’re around horses and other animals to prevent injuries.

The call for people to keep their dogs under closer control comes from the yard manager at HW Equestrian in Berkshire Hailey Weston, who recently highlighted an incident where one of the horses being kept in their yard was attacked by a dog overnight.

Speaking to Horse & Hound she said that former racehorse Silver was left with puncture wounds and teeth marks either side of his hock joint.

“It’s going to be a while before he can be ridden again because of the open wound to the front, and they [the vets] have kept him in as there is a chance of abscesses forming from dog bites, but they hope he will recover,” she explained.

Ms Weston added that as he’s been trained to be around hounds, it’s unlikely that he’d have run away when the dog approached. She noted that this is the first time they’ve had this kind of incident in the yard, but said that it’s common to be chased by dogs when they’re out hacking.

As a horse owner, all you can do is make sure you invest in the appropriate fencing and possibly consider equestrian netting to help keep your animals safe when they’re in the fields alone.

This isn’t the only such incident of dogs chasing horses that has resulted in tragedy. Horse & Hound also recently reported that Fuzz, a 12-year-old pony at Bluefaulds Equestrian Centre in South Lanarkshire, had to be put down after being severely injured when two dogs chased him into a fence.