Sick thugs pulled out the whiskers, hacked manes and tails and burned the faces of a herd of horses in the Dean.

Owner Kay Coleman was devastated to find her four horses, five ponies and a mule cowering in hedges at their field last Friday morning.

"It was quite a brutal attack," said Kay, from Drybrook.

"They systematically caught each one and roped them around the head to restrain them.

"They then hacked off bits of their manes and tails and literally pulled out their whiskers by the roots."

She said some of the horses suffered more than others.

For more on this story get a copy of The Forester this week.