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'People feeding my horse killed her - don't do it'

Alice Cunningham
BBC News, Suffolk
Contributed Poppy Bell holds Bess by the reins and stands next to her. Poppy wears an equestrian green blazer with a white shirt and tie. Bess is a white horse and has a black bridle on.Contributed
Poppy Bell believes her horse Bess died after she was potentially fed some sort of cabbage or cauliflower-like vegetable by a stranger

A horse owner is urging people not to feed animals that are not theirs after she found her mare dead in her field.

Poppy Bell, 28, keeps horses at a yard in Brandon, Suffolk, and on Wednesday received a call her healthy horse, Bess, had died.

When she arrived she found "cabbage or cauliflower-like leaves" in the field which are highly toxic to the animals.

She feared someone had fed Bess the vegetables and said it was not the first time she had experienced the issue.

A neighbouring yard told Miss Bell that Bess had died at about 13:30 GMT on Wednesday, and when she checked her CCTV, she could see the horse lying down.

Due to working an hour away, she asked a friend to check Bess and the other two mares in the field, and they confirmed Bess had died.

"She was fit and well at eight o'clock that morning. By 12 o'clock, she was dead," Miss Bell said.

"She was only 10 so she should have had another 12 years in her. It was hard to listen to."

Contributed Bess is a white coloured horse with a white mane. She is pictured standing in a grass field with her head hanging over a metal fence.Contributed
Bess was kept in a field at a Brandon yard with two other mares with her

Bess was an Irish Draught - an endangered species - and Miss Bell bought her from a close friend about four years ago.

A public byway lines the front of the field, but over the years walkers have been making their way around the entirety of the field, Miss Bell said.

"Along the fence line, in the fields with them, there were loads of cabbage leave or the green leaves you get off the cauliflowers when you cut them fresh which horses can't eat," Miss Bell continued.

"They are highly toxic to them, but she obviously ate what [someone] gave them."

Contributed Bess is pictured being lead by the reins by a person out of shot. She wears just a black bridle. Contributed
Miss Bell said the fact that Bess was from an endangered breed made the loss even worse

However, she said it was not the first time she has found food items in her fields before, having previously found onions.

She has signs around the field warning people not to feed her horses and she regularly posts on social media urging the same, but she has now removed her two other mares from the field over fears it could happen again.

"I don't understand how people can walk past someone else's animal and go, 'I'm going to feed them whatever I want'," she said.

"That to me completely is ignorant in my eyes. You don't know what that horse needs; if they've got a special diet.

"Stop feeding other people's animals. Whether it be a horse, pig, goat, donkey, if it's not yours and you don't have permission, don't feed them."

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