A HAMPSHIRE couple have been banned from keeping horses for ten years after being found guilty of neglecting their own animals.

Anthony Ward and Sarah Moore of Oaklea Farm, Agars Lane, Sway, were charged after a neighbour spotted the poor condition of two of their ponies and called the RSPCA.

When inspectors arrived at the farm in Sway in the New Forest, they found the ponies thin from malnutrition and suffering from worms.

Magistrates heard how the animals were first discovered on grazing land last February and taken back to the couple's farm.

But the neglect continued for a further two months before animal welfare officers were tipped off and took the ponies into care.

New Forest magistrates were told how Ward, 55, had a long history of animal neglect stretching back more than ten years.

He and Moore, 40, both denied four charges of causing unnecessary suffering but failed to turn up at a trial earlier this year and were found guilty in their absence.

Magistrate Colin Bell barred the pair from keeping horses for a decade and ordered them to pay more than £3,000 each in fines and costs.

Mr Bell said: "They were given the opportunity to rectify the situation because we have been told that the ponies were returned to the farm. At the end of February they were told that the animals were in a poor condition - two-and-a-half months later they were in a far worse state than they had been in the open forest."

He told Ward and Moore: "You will be deprived of the ownership of the two ponies and they will not be returned to you as you do not have the willingness or the competence to look after them appropriately."

Outside the court, RSPCA inspector Clare Crowther said she was satisfied with the latest verdict.

She said: "Mr Ward has previous convictions for neglecting animals.

"I am sure that he and Miss Moore would have continued to neglect their horses if they had not received this ban."

The conviction comes just a month after the Daily Echo printed harrowing pictures of sick animals left in mud and excrement on land in West Wellow.

On that occasion Debra Green, 41, and her daughter Michelle, 19, denied the offences but were found guilty after a four-day trial.