Army denies whistleblower claims horses are stuck in 'dark, rat-infested' barracks

The British army has denied claims they only exercise their Household Cavalry horses for "one hour a day" after two horses embarked on a six-mile bloody rampage through central London.

- BARNEY DAVIS

An alleged whistleblower, who said they worked with horses Quaker and Vida for two years, claimed barracks were dark and rat-infested and that dirty water was regularly given to the horses.

Giving her name as Kate, she claimed she had worked with horses at the barracks for two years, before leaving earlier this year. “Those horses are so nervous. They are ready to explode. I don’t think it’s a healthy environment. It doesn’t provide what a horse needs, and space,” she told LBC.

Kate said the horses lived in cramped stalls where rats were roaming around loose cables, and said that they were often given “dirty water”, making the mammals sick. The whistleblower also told the radio station it meant they would sometimes “only have exercise for an hour a day, and very little sunlight, often stuck inside”.