Teen Stabs Prize-Winning Horse 20 Times After Sneaking Into Farm, Jailed For 2 Months

A teen was sentenced to two months in prison Tuesday for mutilating a horse by stabbing it 20 times.

A U.K. court heard that on a morning in April 2018, a man rushed to his farm after being alerted by a burglar alarm only to find 19-year-old Reece Reed with a kitchen knife.

"He ran to the summer house to investigate. There he found a shovel, and saw one window had been pried open and another had been smashed. He peered through the window. There, he saw a man with a six-inch kitchen knife inside the chicken coop,” a prosecutor told the court.

The unidentified farm owner then scared Reed off and went around the stables to check if any of the animals were hurt. He then noticed that his daughter's prize-winning miniature show horse, named Sol, was heavily bleeding. Upon a closer look, he realized that the horse was stabbed 20 times. The animal underwent treatment but was rendered unfit to compete in races ever again. The court heard that Reed had also cut off the wings of three chickens.

“After I learned that Sol had been hurt I was devastated and heartbroken. Sol was and is my best friend and he will always be part of the family,” the horse’s owner said in a victim impact statement.

On Tuesday, the teen was only sentenced to two months in prison as the attack was counted as “criminal damage.” He was, however, given additional six months sentence for carrying a knife.

During the sentencing, Judge Michael Fowler said, "This episode can only be described as wholly despicable. The charges that you face today do not reflect the wickedness of your behavior. This has been treated as if it were criminal damage against two inanimate objects. It isn't. And it is in my view and error that ought to be corrected."