Animal cruelty: Whanganui disabled kids miss out on riding favourite horse after dart injury

Staff at Riding for the Disabled Whanganui are calling for information from members of the public who may know how a dart ended up stuck in one of their horses. Photo / Supplied

Staff and riders at Riding for the Disabled (RDA) Whanganui have been left upset after finding a dart stuck in the thigh of a much-loved horse.

RDA horse manager Carla Anne Benson said she and the staff found the dart in a horse named Tinks, after bringing her to the stable on Tuesday morning after she became stressed and appeared to be uncomfortable.

Benson removed the dart out before contacting a vet to treat the wound and give Tinks painkillers and a tetanus injection.

It is the second suspicious incident this year affecting the horses, after they were buzzed by a low flying drone in June.

Tinks is now recovering, but Benson and RDA co-ordinator and coach Robyn Mann said the biggest issue the incident caused was riders could not ride Tinks while she recovered.

"We had a rider yesterday that was very upset that Tinks was away because we can't operate with her because she's sore so she's out of the programme, so we've had to use other horses," Benson said.

Mann said the horses at RDA were all assigned to certain riders by their body types, meaning the riders scheduled for Tinks on Wednesday had to be assigned to a different horse.

That change was not always easy for some kids, she said.

"Something as simple as a dart going into a horse, it's changed a few lives because they can't ride their horse so now we have to explain and redirect that, and for a child who doesn't understand what's happened it's really hard, and it's like a domino effect because it affected their day," Mann said.

The two RDA staff said the dart incident had made Tinks more apprehensive towards humans.

"She [used to] go up to anybody in a loving way, and to have someone do that, it does kind of make them a little wary, so today she was a little wary of us coming near her, so it's affected her," Mann said.

RDA doesn't know who was responsible for injuring Tinks, as it happened either on Tuesday night or the early hours of Wednesday morning when the grounds were unattended.

"We're going to be looking at doing some fundraising to get some additional cameras, maybe in some blindspots, we didn't think we'd ever need them but now, maybe," Mann said.

Benson said they had contacted the police about the incident.

Between April and June, the horses at RDA were disturbed by a drone flying at a low level over their grounds, sometimes when children were riding them.