'Suspicious' horse death at travellers' fair
ADAM VAUGHAN/EPA/ShutterstockA horse has died at one of the biggest events in the UK's Gypsy, Roma and traveller calendar.
Animal welfare charity the RSPCA said the piebald gelding was between five and seven years old.
Vets, Cumbria Police and fire brigade officers were called to a grass verge on a road into the village of Brampton, about 1.5 miles (2.4km) from the main Appleby Horse Fair, shortly after 12:30 BST on Saturday.
RSPCA chief inspector Lyndsey Taylor warned that the horse, which had not been shod and appeared to have been recently gelded, "may have died in suspicious circumstances".
Taylor said: "We are looking for evidence of him being worked, handled or traded and want to hear from the person responsible for him, or anyone who can help us to identify them."
The animal was described as having "distinctive markings, being mostly white with black patches, all-white legs with feathers and a black tail".
A trader's mark sprayed on the horse's body in blue or green paint appeared to have been altered in an effort to disguise it, according to the RSPCA.
The annual fair, now in its 250th year, got under way on Thursday and runs until 10 June.
It draws about 10,000 people from the Gypsy, Roma and traveller community with a further 30,000 or so people visiting the event.
In 2024, the RSPCA said a horse was "worked to death" in an "inexcusable act of cruelty".
The three-year-old stallion collapsed after having a "very high temperature" and was "covered in rub sores".
