Jury at trial of former school teacher Sarah Moulds at Lincoln Crown Court told to consider video of ‘horse kick’ carefully

A jury in the trial of a horse rider accused of causing unnecessary suffering to her pony have been urged to carefully consider footage of the incident.

Sarah Moulds, 39, lost her job as a teacher and said she received death threats after footage emerged of her allegedly kicking and slapping the pony at Gunby, Lincolnshire, in November 2021.

In a private prosecution brought by the RSPCA it is alleged the pony suffered physically and mentally, and was also caused fear and distress.

A clip taken by hunt saboteurs allegedly showed Mrs Moulds kicking the pony in the chest and then aiming four slaps at its head.

Lincoln Crown Court heard after a number of hours riding with the Cottesmore Hunt - one of Britain's oldest foxhound packs - on November 6, 2021, Mrs Moulds was starting to put three horses into her trailer

One, called Bruce Almighty, was being held by a child before the pony unexpectedly "took off" and moved about 25 metres down the road.

Giving evidence at Lincoln Crown Court, Mrs Moulds said the footage only caught part of the incident involving the pony.

Mrs Moulds insisted she only intended to "briefly shock" the childs' pony as an immediate punishment for running into the road, and only made minimal contact.

The mother-of-three, from Somerby near Melton Mowbray, denies causing unnecessary suffering to the grey pony, called Bruce Almighty, and not taking reasonable steps to protect the animal from pain, suffering, injury or disease.

Addressing jurors in her closing speech, Hazel Stevens, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said: "The starting point for you is your interpretation of the video."

Miss Stevens said the prosecution case was that the pony, Bruce, suffered through Mrs Moulds actions.

"Bruce was trying to get away from something really unpleasant for him, and he couldn't," Miss Stevens added.

"The prosecution case is that Bruce felt fear," Miss Stevens argued. "Bruce was caused to suffer, and that suffering was unnecessary."

In his closing speech on behalf of Mrs Moulds, defence barrister, Derek Duffy, said it was a case full of speculation.

"What pain does a horse feel?," Mr Duffy urged the jury to consider.

Mr Duffy said the video of the incident was also taken from a significant distance on an amateur camera.

"If you look at that video and can't be sure what is going on then that is it," Mr Duffy told jurors.

Mr Duffy argued: "The central issue in this case was as Mrs Moulds said in her interview, 'I was punishing that horse because it was walking off, because it was a childs' pony, and because it would be dangerous.' "

"After these four seconds there was no further animosity shown to this horse by Sarah Moulds," Mr Duffy added.

Mr Duffy told jurors there was no medical evidence of any injury to Bruce from the kick, and argued there was little force or contact from her swipes.

He concluded by arguing a "partial snippet" of footage posted on social media had caused hatred and prompted the RSPCA to launch a prosecution without sufficient evidence because they no doubt "felt they had to do something."

The trial continues.