A YOUNG woman has been banned from keeping horses for 10 years after a court heard she left two of her animals with untreated injuries.

Sarah Devall, 24, was found guilty of two counts of causing unnecessary suffering when she appeared before Maidstone magistrates at the end of January. The court adjourned sentencing until last Thursday.

Devall, of Simpson Road, Snodland, had pleaded not guilty to both counts and to a charge of abandoning the two animals. That charge was dropped.

Vincent Yip, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said that on January 15 last year RSPCA inspectors were called to Well Street, East Malling, to investigate after reports that five ponies had strayed on to land at nearby Broadwater Farm. They found nothing at the time but three days later, west Kent chief inspector Steve Dockery went back to the area, visiting a caravan site in Teston Road, to try to locate the owners. There he found a Shetland pony that needed its head collar loosening.

He said: "We then went back to Broadwater Farm, and free-running were five ponies who could only be approached at about 60 yards. They were all very skittish and were running as a herd."

Inspectors saw two of the animals with tethers tied tightly around their necks.

On January 21, Inspector Dockery said he returned to Well Street and found the same horses confined to a field, where one - a dark haired cob - had an infected wound on its neck from a cutting head collar.

Nichols Wilson, defending, said: "This was not a case of deliberate cruelty, but culpable neglect." No costs or fines were imposed on Devall. The horses have since been re-homed.