The Society for the Welfare of Horses and Ponies recently dealt with one of the saddest and most distressing cases it has encountered in its 50-year history.

The story of a one-time winning thoroughbred racehorse called Hope, attracted more than 90,000 Facebook followers from as far afield as Florida.

The starting point was a call from a concerned member of the public who had noticed a ‘very thin’ horse in a field near Crickhowell.

SWHP, which is based in Monmouth and takes in abused and neglected equines, responded immediately and staff were horrified at what they found.

Barely standing and with a badly-injured foot was an emaciated thoroughbred mare - with a body score of zero. She was covered in raw infected sores from ‘rain scald’.

SWHP staff managed, with support, to walk her to the horse ambulance after which she was taken straight to Abbey Vets near Abergavenny for emergency treatment.

She spent the next 72 hours in the intensive care stable at The MacGregor Centre where she was constantly monitored. Her raw infected sores were treated and her foot poulticed, she tucked into top quality hay as she had obviously been starved and for the first time in a long while she was in warm and comfortable surroundings receiving all the care she desperately needed.

Sadly, after a valiant effort from the staff and the little mare herself, she was so weak that her system broken down and there was no alternative but to put her to sleep.

The staff who had named her Hope and nursed her day and night were devastated by the loss - as were her Facebook followers across the world who had all been urging her to make a recovery.

What also upset staff greatly was that on checking her microchip they found she was a well bred racehorse registered at Weatherby’s as Out of Nothing.

She ran 43 races in Ireland and the UK with three wins and eight placings before retiring from racing in October 2014

She had even been ridden by a very well known jockey in her time.

Having obviously given much pleasure to racegoers, her owner and trainer SWHP staff found it hard to accept that she had ended up near death from malnutrition and neglect in a field outside Crickhowell, where she had no food and was so lame she couldn’t walk to the water supply.

Yard Manager Ann Walker who supervised her care said, “She was barely 13 years of age. Hope could have gone on to have a happy retirement in a loving home, if only we had found her sooner we might have been able to save her but take some consolation in that those last days she was shown love, compassion and the best of treatment.”

Founder and Chairman of SWHP Mrs Jenny MacGregor MBE added, “In almost 50 years of equine welfare this has to be one of the most appalling and saddest cases we have come across.

“It just shows how easily horses, including family pets, that have been previously well cared for can end up like Hope.”

The owner, according to SWHP, still hasn’t noticed that the mare is no longer in her field…