A HORSE is lucky to be alive after cruel thugs dumped it in a field, leaving it without food and water in sub-zero temperatures.
Shockingly the horse was left with a rug on its back - in a poor attempt to keep it warm - which had frozen to its hair and skin.
The horse was dumped around three weeks ago in a field near an industrial estate in the borough of Castle Point.
The Echo has been asked not to reveal the exact location of where the horse was found due to an ongoing police and RSPCA investigation.
It had been left with a scrap of rug over its back, but the carpet was not weatherproof and had become waterloged by recent rains and frozen by plunging temperatures.
Nearby workers had been feeding it before it was rescued by Sue Allery from the Essex Horse and Pony Protection Society based in Pitsea Hall Lane, Pitsea.
The equine was taken back to the sanctuary where staff had to thaw out the rug before removing it from the horse’s skin.
Sue believes the horse was either dumped by an owner who could no longer afford to care for it or was stolen and dumped.
She said: “It’s just absolutely beyond words that someone could dump an animal so beautiful in freezing temperatures. The horse is lucky to be alive.
“Someone had left a scrap of a rug on the horse, but it wasn’t weatherproof so just froze and stuck to the horse’s hair and skin.
“Thankfully when we removed it the damage to his body was no too bad.
“He’s such a lovely horse, he’s really mild mannered and it’s such a shame. We are inundated with horses a the moment but we could not leave him there like that.”
The horse, which is currently being cared for by staff at the sanctuary, has been christined Artem. He is bay in colour.
The sanctuary have contacted both police and Essex Horse Watch - a website carrying photoraphs of stolen equines - and a probe into where the animal came from is now ongoing.
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