A woman from St Day has been disqualified from keeping horses for ten years after being found guilty of four counts of causing unnecessary suffering under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

Roberta Cleere, aged 39, of Scorrier Street, appeared before Truro Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. She was also handed a 24 week suspended prison sentence, 100 hours unpaid work, fined £1,250 and ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge.

She is not allowed to appeal her conviction for five years. A deprivation order was placed on two of the four horses which had not been previously signed over to the RSPCA.

One of the horses, known as Prince, had an injury to his leg that exposed the bone and a corneal ulcer in his eye. Cleere was convicted of two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to Prince for failing to provide adequate veterinary care.

She was also found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to two Shetland cob-type horses, called Beau and Jess, by failing to investigate and adequately treat the cause of their poor body condition, and causing unnecessary suffering to a piebald cob-type horse, called Sampson, by failing to adequately investigate his weight loss.

She committed the offences between December 2015 and February 2016 in Carn Arthen, Wheal Uny in Redruth and Grenville Gardens in Troon.

RSPCA inspector Jon Phipps said: “There are no excuses at all for Ms Cleere’s actions. She is not a pony-mad teenager who was in above her head, she has more than 18 years' experience as an equestrian and should have known better.

“Despite our help and advice she allowed the ponies to suffer and as a result found herself before the courts, where she was convicted and sentenced for four offences."

He added: “Beau and Jess were both signed over to the RSPCA. Unfortunately Beau died of an infection - the tiny horse’s poor body condition made it impossible for him to fight it off.

“I’m pleased to say that Jess has been successfully rehomed, and as a result of the deprivation order we’ll now be able to find new homes for Sampson and Prince as well.”