A Bradford woman has been cleared of charges relating to the fates of three horses which starved to death in snowy conditions last winter.

Kim Broadbent, 52, rented land at Moss House Farm, Roper Lane, Queensbury, on which she had at one stage kept 13 horses, Bradford magistrates were told during a trial yesterday.

On January 7 this year an RSPCA inspector found two dead horses there, the court was told. Another horse, which had collapsed, later died.

Four other horses were described as being “thin”.

Magistrates were told Mrs Broadbent, of Barnstaple Way, Holme Wood, was unable to continue making rent payments to land owner Richard Woodhead and had given the horses to him.

She told the court: “I said you might as well keep them, I can’t afford to pay you. And it was just left at that.”

Prosecutor Nigel Monaghan said however no “concrete evidence” existed proving transfer of ownership.

The nine charges she faced related to the deaths of the three horses and the conditions in which all seven horses were kept, between December 7 last year and January 7, when the inspector attended. She had denied all the counts.

Mr Woodhead was spoken to by the RSPCA at the time but has not been charged with any offences relating to the horses’ deaths, the court heard.

Giving evidence, RSPCA inspector Emma Ellis described the conditions in which she found the horses as “appalling”.

She said: “All the horses were thin. Both that were dead were very, very thin, all their bones were visible.

“There was no food available, all the ground was covered in snow. The trough of water was frozen solid and covered in snow, there was no other water available.”

She said there were four to five inches of excrement on the floor of the stable.

Mrs Broadbent told the court she had continued to see the horses after she said she no longer owned them, because she “loved them”. She was also continuing to care for other horses which were being kept nearby.

The last time she saw the seven horses at Moss House Farm was two weeks before the RSPCA attended, the court heard.

Acquitting her of all charges she was facing, chairman of the bench Brian Outlaw said: “She did continue to look after the other horses nearby in another field.

“We believe this is not the action of someone who does not care for animals.”

The court heard Mrs Broadbent now has 26 horses, which she keeps in Fagley and Dick Lane, Thornbury.