BRITAIN’S bravest racehorse has amazingly recovered from life-threatening injuries sustained in a senseless drone attack, and come home a winner.
Hard man, Brian Eckley, unashamedly shed a tear when Libberty Hunter, the “best horse” he’s ever trained, cruised past the post at Hereford last week.
Two patient years of specialist veterinary treatment had kept the four-year-old gelding alive, and beaten off a deadly infection.
A mystery man was spotted controlling the drone behind a large blackberry bush on a hill 150 yards from the stables in the Brecon National Park.
The drone swept down in mid-afternoon and chased the terrified horse out of the yard and across a field until it stumbled and fell with a severely damaged right foot that quickly turned into a deadly abscess.
Trembling with emotion, a relieved Eckley, 67, is convinced he knows the man who guided the drone into his stable.
He added: “To see ‘Libby’ win meant so much to me. He’s going to be a very good horse.
“Lots of interested buyers have been on the phone to me after seeing him win, but he’s going nowhere.
“Libby and I have come a long way together, and I couldn’t bare to see him go into someone else’s hands.
“He’s shown great courage. His foot was so numb after the accident that the vet had to drill a hole in it to treat the abscess, which could have killed him.
“My vet said it was touch-and-go, but he got through it, and now he’s rewarded us all.
“When you’ve got a horse that comes through so much shock and pain, it makes you feel just great.
“I think he’s earned a winter’s rest, and be ready to come back in the spring. I’m expecting a lot from him.”
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