A 13-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with an attack on three horses in a field.

One of the horses had to be put down and the two others left traumatised after their tails and manes were cut off. They were also fed food in a fatal form.

The boy, who lives in Maidstone, has been released on bail pending further police enquiries into the incident.

The horses were given dry sugar beet pellets that expand with liquid in the stomach. The attacks occurred in a field on the Coombe Farm Estate at Tovil, near Maidstone, earlier this month.

After the attack the horses' owner, Rosemary Humphreys, said: "I’m absolutely devastated. I am sick and horrified that people can be so cruel."

The horse that has had to be destroyed, named Chantine, was the dam of the two others.