A HORSE loved by a suburb's children for two decades and described by his owner as an “absolute character” has died of natural causes.

Children and adults have left cards and a toy horse at the field where Dillon, a gelding, was enclosed by the Stockton Arms pub and Lustrum Beck in Hartburn, Stockton.

The owner, Samantha Nugent, a 33-year-old civil servant from Newton, Stockton, said Dillon was 21, a respectable age for a horse, and had died after suffering from a strangulated melanoma, a tumour associated with skin cancer.

Miss Nugent said news of Dillon's death has spread around the community after a pensioner who lives nearby left a note where Dillon lived.

The note said: "Dillon gave enormous please to hundreds, if not thousands, of passers-by. The community has suffered a great loss and he will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace."

Others have left cards and flowers and one child has even left a toy horse. Many children would go and see the horse on their way to nearby Ropner Park.

Miss Nugent said: “He was just so lovable; he was my baby. He used to pull at your clothes looking for sweets. People used to come from miles around to see him.”

Commenting on all of the floral tributes left commemorating Dillon’s life, Miss Nugent added: “It’s been so lovely to see everything. He will be really missed.”

Dillon had been living on the same site since he was nine months old and had had his fair share of scrapes.

In 2008, he was seriously injured when he suffered facial injuries and was left for dead in an unprovoked attack by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier-type dog. The horse, who was 14 at the time, needed 25 stitches to his nose and further facial surgery. Thankfully, Dillon survived.

Describing the incident as “horrific”, Miss Nugent said: “His nostril was ripped off and he was covered in blood. The vet had to stitch his face and he [was left with] a scar down his nose.”

In March this year, Dillon’s stables, also on the same site, were burned down twice on the same day in a similarly unprovoked attack. The gelding was not in the stables at the time.

Paying tribute to Dillon, Miss Nugent said, “I will remember his cheekiness. He was just so funny. He used to claw at your clothes. We used to tell him off for sticking his tongue out [and] he had the most beautiful face and eyes.”