ANIMAL inspectors seized a horse which they found living in a "sea of mud" a court heard yesterday.

The horse, a grey gelding, was discovered by RSPCA inspector Ian Jackson in an allotment near Horden's Sea View Industrial Estate, in February last year. The animal's enclosure was littered with broken glass and rubbish and had two metal spikes protruding from the ground. The wooden structure providing shelter for the horse was also in a bad state of repair.

The horse belonged to Linda Rushton, from Rothbury Avenue, Horden, Peterlee, who was brought before Durham Magistrates yesterday by the RSPCA, charged with causing unnecessary suffering to the horse. She denies the allegation.

Insp Jackson monitored the horse over several days in February last year.

He told the court he was not unduly concerned about its condition, but the conditions the animal was being kept in.

After several days, he called in a vet to check the horse as he thought it had lost weight. He then arranged for the horse to be confiscated.

He told the court: "It was very thin. It's ribs were quite clear and the spine was quite prominent."

When Rushton was interviewed by Insp Jackson last year, she told him that she only took her horse into the allotment during the winter.

During the interview, Rushton said she usually fed her horse 15 bales of hay every three weeks and provided hard feed such as barley.

She put the horse's weight loss down to the its age. She told the inspector she had looked after the 28-year-old horse for the past 26 years.

The trial continues.