A STRAPPED for cash equine sanctuary has rescued two horses from Bradford streets within just days of each other - including one found dumped in a garden and fastened to a gatepost.

Trustees at Roleystone Horse Sanctuary in Wrose managed to squeeze the animals in to its already full to the brim stables after discovering the animals' plight.

Yesterday sanctuary volunteers went to Ellen Hodgkiss's home in Binns Lane, Lidget Green, to pick up the grey cob someone had tied up in her garden on Monday.

She said: "I've no idea where it came from. I came home on Monday and there it was. A neighbour said she'd seen two men tie it up then drive off in a van."

Ms Hodgkiss, 53, said she rang the police and the RSPCA but got no help before getting advice from the World Horse Welfare charity to report it to her landlord Incommunities so it could take responsibility.

"The RSPCA wouldn't come and get it because it was physically okay then Incommunities didn't get back to me so I tried Facebooking Roleystone Horse Sanctuary. Luckily they agreed to help. The horse has gone now but it's left me with a boggy, sludgy garden filled with its poo."

Sanctuary trustee Gillian Greenwood said with winter costs of £1,500 a month to keep Roleystone open, it was a struggle to take in the Cob and the other bedraggled young pony, which a member of the public had seen dragged round the streets of Buttershaw, being ridden and driven too young for its developing bones, riddled with Ringworm and full of cold.

"We had to do something. We managed to clear some room for them and they will be looked after but it will hit our costs even more. The situation of horses being abandoned in Bradford isn't getting any better. It costs too much to get male ones castrated so people are just throwing them out on the streets for other people to take responsibility."

An Incommunities spokesman said a housing manager had tried to contact Ms Hodgkiss after receiving a call about the matter and added: “We are pleased that the horse has been safely removed. Where the horse is on our land we would seek to trace the animal’s owner to arrange its removal and if necessary take appropriate action against the owner.”

Figures from Bradford Council last February revealed it spent more than £310,000 seizing stray horses across the district in the previous four years.

Seized horses are put into a secret-location livery by a council contractor who determines what happens to any ones that are unclaimed, whether they are rehomed or sold at a reputable livestock market. The animals are destroyed as a last resort.

In May, the Control of Horses Act 2015 came into force across England in a bid to give landowners more rights to tackle fly-grazing. A landowner can now put up an abandonment notice and if the horse is not claimed in four days, has the right to sell it, re-home it or get it put down.

Anyone wanting to help Roleystone Horse & Pony Sanctuary can either donate to Roleystone Horse & Pony Sanctuary at Barclays Bank, sort code 20-11-88, account number 20838098 or send a cheque to Roleystone Horse & Pony Sanctuary c/o Joanne Metcalfe, 12 Farlea Drive, Eccleshill, Bradford, BD2 3RJ.