A MOTHER and daughter are today awaiting sentence for neglecting and starving six horses.

Phil Brown, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said the horses were kept in a field that was unsuitable for any animal.

When the charity's inspectors saw the horses, they found animals so infested with skin parasites they were scratching themselves against objects in the field to relieve itching, animals that hadn’t been wormed for months and animals that hadn’t been given adequate food and drink.

A lack of farrier care had led to hoof problems, one of the horses voided a ringworm and another had teeth problems.

Defence solicitor Kevin Blount said: “There is considerable personal mitigation” which included how the horses had come into the care of Lorraine and Toyah Potter.

He added: “Two of the horses had been well cared for until it reached the point where the offending starts because things had got out of control.”

The two women had had differing roles in the animals’ care.

He reserved his full mitigation for when the two women will be sentenced in October.

Mother Lorraine Potter, 62, and daughter Toyah Potter, 20, both of Regents Close, Easingwold, each pleaded guilty to four charges of animal neglect. Each charge related to a different form of neglect and involved a different number of horses.

The offences were committed between January 11, 2020, and March 11, 2020.

York magistrates sitting at Leeds Magistrates Court adjourned the case for probation officers to prepare pre-sentence reports.