A HORSE breeder said "acts of self-centred sentimentality" are leaving the countryside littered with potentially dangerous debris after a thoroughbred mare was killed by a helium balloon.

Jennifer Birtwhistle, of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said people who let off lanterns and balloons to mark weddings or deaths can have no idea of the damage they are causing in rural England.

She was speaking after Espoiro, a three-year-old chestnut mare from an impressive show-jumping dynasty, died after swallowing the string from a helium balloon.

The panic-stricken horse bolted through two gates, breaking two legs and eventually her neck.

Her heartbroken owner, a senior figure in the equestrian world, said: "These are self-centred acts of sentimentality with no true purpose which are littering the countryside with helium balloons and lanterns.

"Aside from the mess and inconvenience people in the countryside face it has now cost the life of a beautiful horse which died the most agonising death imaginable."

Mrs Birtwhistle, 77, a British Showjumping Association judge and a former chief examiner with the British Horse Society, was devastated by the death of the horse which was born on her farm.

She and her family nicknamed the £15,000 animal Feisty because of her bold nature and had high hopes she would follow her father Ramiro B into the world of equestrian eventing.

Mrs Birtwhistle said: "She was in her field next to our home with her mother and she should have been safe from harm.

"Her life was snuffed out before it had properly begun and that is absolutely heartbreaking. She was quite a valuable horse at around £15,000 but her financial value is entirely secondary to the pain we have felt at her truly awful death."

Mrs Birtwhistle blames "airborne littering," mostly from towns and cities, in what she says is becoming a peril for livestock in the countryside.

She added: "God isn't sitting in his heaven gathering up all this airborne litter that is sent up with messages attached to it on pieces of string. It doesn't reach anyone, it is entirely self serving.

"Why is it no longer good enough to go to a church and say a prayer or lay flowers on a grave to commemorate a person's passing? It has been good enough for many generations but no longer it seems."

Local vet John Millar backed Mrs Birtwhistle's warnings.

He said: "People think these balloons and lanterns are just a bit of fun but they can cause devastation. When horses are panicked they will run through anything."

Councils in Oxford, Brighton, Plymouth and Shetland have already banned balloon releases and last year the Marine Conservation Society also called for a ban.