Kildare animal charity rubbishes 'strange' claim it 'steals' horses from Travellers

A Kildare-based animal rescue centre has responded to what it calls "strange" claims it steals horses from fields to sell in Europe. 

The busy My Lovely Horse is an animal welfare organisation that rescues, rehabilitate and rehomes unwanted, neglected and abused animals with the aim of giving them a life worth living.  

They have been forced to respond to an anonymous X account's wild claim that they steal horses from Travellers. 

The 'aney stokes' account posted in response to a rescue involving My Lovely Horse which saw a badly treated horse ridden by youths during the recent Citywest protest was saved from a housing estate in Dublin.

The account said: "This charity is the most corrupt you will ever see. They have broken into travellers' fields at night time and stolen horses and loaded them in to horse boxes. The thing that people don't know about them is they ship the horses they take out if ireland and sell them for massive profits in Europe. The people they sell them to are not vetted and involved in illegal breeding and racing."

My Lovely Horse immediately responded and rubbished the claims by saying: "Firstly you have us mixed up with another Irish horse rescue! We have only ever sent 8 horses abroad so that’s a strange comment to make! We do not STEAL horses. You are more than welcome to message us and visit, put an end to this type of nastiness."

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The anonymous account replied: "Prove they didn't. It's been a long known fact with this crowd. It's illegal as a registered charity what they are doing."

My Lovely Horse once again hit back: "You are absolutely nuts! This horrible need to make us look like horrible humans who don’t care is eating through you. We love and adore every single animal in our care. We work with travelling communities and respect anyone no matter from where once they treat their animals with the love they deserve. Cut the nastiness…you are not worth the time. Only saddos listening to you…cruel saddos…we feel sorry for you."

My Lovely Horse were called to Dublin by gardaí to save the horse in question and posted a heartbreaking update on X. 

They said: "Today we had a call from An Garda Síochána Tallaght, this poor horse was lying on the ground and could not get up, suspected colic.

"Garda Kate moved fast, she has horse experience and was eventually able to get the poor thing up of the ground, he was totally exhausted and struggled to walk.

"We arrived and he was very lethargic but moving so we called our vet making sure he’d be ready once we got him loaded.
When waiting on transport we discovered this is the horse in the video on the trap with a child on the drivers lap that was ridden into the riots at Citywest last week.

"The poor soul has severe cuts on his legs from ill-fitted straps and sores on his mouth from the bit. No wonder he was weak.

"Gardaí are now investigating. This lovely boy is safe and getting the veterinary treatment he so deserves."

POOR HORSE ….ONE OF THE RIOT HORSES

Today we had a call from An Garda Síochána Tallaght, this poor horse was lying on the ground and could not get up, suspected colic.
Garda Kate moved fast, she has horse experience and was eventually able to get the poor… pic.twitter.com/sPsBXROfrw

— My Lovely Horse Rescue (@MyLovelyHorseR) October 27, 2025

My Lovely Horse are asking for donations to support their work. You can donate here.