A horse owner has been fined thousands of pounds after leaving a colt starving and collapsed in a field with an extremely painful condition.

The horse was in such a bad state a vet had to put it down.

RSPCA experts said the two-year-old suffered from penile trauma - an extremely painful condition - and was so weak it couldn't stand up when help arrived.

Its owner, Susan Savage, 51, formerly of Benenden but now living in Bow Common in London, was banned from keeping horses for three years after admitting failing to address the fact her animal was underweight, and not seeking veterinary care for the condition.

She has since appealed against the sentence at Maidstone Crown Court, where the ban on keeping horses was removed.

Her costs were also reduced from £8,000 to £500, and she was granted £75 travel costs - but a three-year conditional discharge imposed by Sevenoaks magistrates was unaltered.

The initial court case heard animal charity the RSPCA was called in January last year, amid concerns for the chestnut colt, which was kept in a field at Standen Barn in Biddenden.

He was extremely thin and suffering from paraphimosis, or penile trauma.

RSPCA inspector Dave Grant said: “This poor young colt was in a terrible way and suffering a great deal. I just can’t understand how anyone could have just left him like that.

“There was just no flesh at all on his body - he was so so skinny.

“This poor young colt was in a terrible way and suffering a great deal. I just can’t understand how anyone could have just left him like that" - Insp Dave Grant

“We tried to get him to stand several times but he was just too weak and the vet said there was nothing really he could do to alleviate his pain.

"He said he thought this suffering would have been going on for at least four weeks - perhaps longer.”

It comes as the charity says it is in the grip of a horse crisis.

It has spaces for 125 spaces at its four specialist horse centres, but it is caring for more than 800 of the country's most neglected and abused horses and ponies.

To help the RSPCA investigate cases like this text HELP to 78866 to give £3 (Text costs £3 + one standard network rate message).