Ga. men convicted of horse abuse

Two Georgia men were convicted Friday, for a second time, of abusing their horses during a two month trek into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in western Montana.

Craig Heydon, 72, and his 38-year-old son, Curtis Heydon, of Woodstock, Ga., had been found guilty last year in Justice Court of 21 counts of misdemeanor animal abuse, sentenced to nearly a year in jail and fines of more than $5,000 each. They were also ordered to forfeit the horses and pay restitution for their care.

The men appealed in District Court, where they were convicted again.

This time, the men were each found guilty of nine counts of animal cruelty to three different horses during their trip in 2008. The son was convicted an additional charge for abandoning a dying horse tied up without water on a trail.

The Heydons left their horse on the side of the trail after he refused to get up. (Ravalli Republic)

The case came to light when two women on horseback found “the emaciated horse lying in the sun, covered in biting insects and tied tight to nearby log,” according to the Ravalli Republic. They had the horse brought to a veterinary hospital for treatment.

Right from the beginning, Heydon said things happened they hadn’t expected, the Ravalli Republic reported:

The cot and tents they planned to sleep in were too bulky and banged into trees and rocks along the trail. The horse named Preacher would lie down for no good reason. Bay Baby – later named Able – kept falling.

And the trail over Pack Horse Pass was covered in snow.

Heydon said that was his oversight.

“I did not check with the wilderness service for what trails would be open and what ones would not be open,” he said.

The worst surprise came more than month into the trip when a small withers sore turned into something much bigger on the back of the elder Heydon’s riding horse he called Morgan.

That discovery marked the beginning of the end for the men’s trip.

In an effort to pull up their camp, the younger Heydon would attempt a 19-mile ride from deep in the Idaho wilderness to the Montana side. Along the way, he’d be forced to abandon a shoeless Bay Baby on the Big Creek Trail.

The discovery of the emaciated horse and the story of its rescue would end in the confiscation of the Heydons’ horses and the abuse charges being filed.

The elder Heydon remained adamant the men did nothing but care for the horses the best way they could.

“When we saw the withers sore, we knew we had problems that I had never seen before,” Heydon testified. “At this point, we’re not in a position to do much. We were way out in the middle of nowhere. We did everything we could.”