CONVICTED | Victoria Louise Hart, born August 1987, and Gary Hart, born July 1958, both of Six Ashes, Bridgnorth WV15 6EP, Mark Walklate, born 16 July 1972, of Bromley Lane, Kingswinford DY6, and Steven Morgan, born c. 1970, of Foxdale Drive, Brierley Hill DY5 – neglected dozens of horses and kept them in poor conditions.

The RSPCA attended Six Ashes horse farm in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, on January 27, 2021 after receiving a call from police about concerns for horses kept there.

Officers from the charity attended alongside local horse veterinarians, and found three horses to be in a state of suffering: an Appaloosa mare, a skewbald filly and a Palomino.

Both the Palomino and Appaloosa mare were lame with the latter struggling to walk even after being given pain medication. Vets considered euthanising the mare immediately on welfare grounds but decided instead to remove her for further assessment. Unfortunately there was no improvement in her condition and she was euthanised the following day.

In a written statement provided to the court, RSPCA inspector Thea Kerrison said the Appaloosa mare was found in one of the stables.

She said: “I was in the barn when the Appaloosa mare from stable two was led out. I hadn’t realised when she was in the stable how bad she was; she could hardly walk and she seemed to stumble across the barn floor as she was led out.”

The inspector also noted the conditions the horses were kept in.

“The ground on both fields was very boggy and on entering to assess the ponies it was extremely difficult to not get our wellies stuck in the mud, even when staying to the fence line,” she said.

“As with the first stable, stables two to four had wet slushy floors and no dry bedding. On the opposite side were the remaining four stables.

“Stable five had a group of five yearlings. The stable was of average size and so was very crowded with the five horses and hardly any room for them to move around.

“The floor was covered in faeces and urine and I could not see any evidence of bedding. Stable six contained four yearlings, again with a covering of faeces and urine on the floor. Some of the horses had rugs but it was clear all four were of lean body condition.”

An independent expert vet said in his report that it was his opinion that “all three horses were suffering”.

The report said: “The suffering of all three horses could have been easily avoided by provision of veterinary assessment and treatment to them.

“It is my expert opinion that the reasonable needs of the horses were not met and that the standards of animal husbandry at the location fell woefully below the most basic of standards.

“The fundamental problem is that the horses were severely overstocked in comparison to the facilities and space available at the property and this was compounded by a lack of effort to ensure that necessary daily tasks such as feeding, mucking out and checking on the welfare of the horses for signs of injury or ill health were carried out to an appropriate level.”

Sentencing |

Steven Morgan, Gary Hart, and Victoria Hart were all sentenced on November 28, 2022.

Morgan and Victoria Hart were convicted of six offences – four of causing the unnecessary suffering of the skewbald filly, the Appaloosa mare and the Palomino, and two relating to the conditions of 36 horses kept at Six Ashes.

Gary Hart was found guilty of six offences, the first four of causing unnecessary suffering to the filly, the mare and the Palomino, and two related to the conditions of three horses in total.

Gary Hart and Steven Morgan were jailed for 26 weeks each, serving half on licence, and banned from keeping animals for life, with no recourse to appeal for 10 years.

Gary Hart was ordered to pay prosecution costs of £22,684 and Morgan must pay £1,000 towards costs, with both men also to pay a £128 victim surcharge.

Victoria Hart also received a 26-week custodial sentence which was suspended for one year, and was banned from keeping all animals for life. She was also ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a victim surcharge of £128.

Mark Walklate pleaded guilty to four offences under the Animal Welfare Act in that he caused unnecessary suffering to the filly and the mare and he did not take steps to ensure their needs were met.

He admitted a litany of failings including keeping the horses in muddy, filthy conditions with “negligible” room to graze, not providing veterinary care when needed and failing to protect them from pain, suffering, injury or disease.

In March 2023 he was sentenced to 14 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to pay a surcharge of £128 and costs of £850, plus carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. He is banned from keeping animals for life.

Shropshire Star

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Update | December 2023

Gary Hart and Victoria Hart had their lifetime bans from keeping animals modified to only cover horses, donkeys and ponies after winning a court appeal.

An appeal hearing at Worcestershire Crown Court was told that the lifetime ban which prohibited the Harts and co-defendant Steven Morgan from keeping any animals whatsoever was “excessive”.

Danae Larham, representing the Harts, said: “In relation to the breadth of the ban for both defendants… the blanket ban on all animals is somewhat excessive and unnecessary. This case dealt with one particular type of animal, namely equines.”

She added: “It is right in the course of the inspection [in 2021] that it was noted several dogs were present. They were inspected by RSPCA. They thoroughly investigated the property. There was more than one representative there and vets were in attendance. Should there have been any issue or concern with those animals there is no doubt the RSPCA would have taken action.”

Representing Morgan, Laura Rowe told the court her client’s appeal was was for similar reasons.

She said: “The order should only apply to equines. Mr Morgan worked with animals for a number of years before the prosecution was brought.

“It is clear these dogs were looked at. Both dogs they saw were in kennels, they had bed, water and straw on the floor and area reasonably clean.”

However Miss Sara Pratt, for the prosecution, told the court that there were 30 dogs on the premises when the RSPCA visited in January 2021 and that the animals, who are now in the possession of Victoria Hart’s niece, had been bred as a “commercial venture”.

She said: “In terms of the dogs, that was also a commercial venture in the same way horses were used as a commercial money-making venture.

“I invite the court to take an inference in how the horses were kept. The defendants indicated they were experienced horsemen and horsewomen and knew how to look after horses. That resulted in a wholesale disregard to animals that were in effect a commodity for making money.”

She added: “It is not simply in this case it is a desire to keep one or two, to keep family pets, but in this case it was accepted there was dog breeding. It appears to have been a commercial enterprise as the horses were – similar amount of horses.”

She also reminded the court that both Gary and Victoria Hart had been convicted in 2018 in relation to the neglect of a horse.

Meanwhile, Morgan had been banned from keeping dogs for ten years in 2015 following a prosecution for neglect, for which he was jailed for four months.

Judge Seanin Gilmore told the court that the purpose of the ban was not “not a punitive order” but one to protect animals, but , she conceded in the original trial, no evidence was presented to suggest animals other than horses were mistreated.

She said: “It is safe to say the levels of neglect and poor management was simply staggering. In my view, the defendants were jointly responsible for numerous and highly serious failings. The horses were not given even the most basic of care but left to fester in muddy fields or crowded stables. The defendants acknowledge this and that a disqualification of horses was inevitable.

“It would a permissible for this court to draw inference that the neglect of horses may mean they may treat any animal in the same way,” she said.

But the judge added: “However, I have seen a witness statement from an RSPCA inspection of the premises in relation to dogs. There were found to be about 30 dogs in premises in various locations. And I understand the defendants engaged in a commercial breeding enterprise.

“While the inspector paints a rather chaotic scene, for the most part the dogs’ basic needs were appearing to be met.”

She added: “These two individuals are clearly more capable of looking after dogs more than horses.”

She decreed that in the case of the Harts, the order disqualifying them from keeping any animals should be reworded to “horses, donkeys and ponies” only.

However, the judge said as Morgan had previously been disqualified from keeping dogs, the order banning him from owning any animals for life would remain in place.

Shropshire Star