A devastated owner is appealing for witnesses after a perverted thug carried out a horrific sexual assault on her pony.

Three horses were released from their stables at a farm near Ashton-under-Lyne during Saturday night.

One of them, a two-year-old Miniature Shetland called Laurell, was found badly injured, shivering, dehydrated, distressed and laying down in a nearby field the next day.

A vet confirmed the animal had suffered two separate internal injuries.

Owner Ashleigh Butterworth, 20, told the M.E.N: “They have sexually abused her with something. I was absolutely heart-broken when the vet told me about the injuries.

"She’s just so small. It’s just disgusting. What sick, twisted person would do that a small animal that’s completely helpless?”

One of the two other horses released was an adult male but was incapable of inflicting the injuries suffered by Laurell, who is just 29 inches tall, and nor could the baby pony have inflicted the injuries herself.

“She’s coming around but she’s still traumatised. It’s not something she’s going to forget for a while,” said Ashleigh, who works for a law firm.

“We think it happened during the early hours of Sunday morning. One of the ladies that does the feeding went to the yard and she wasn’t in the stable.

“She’s too tall to get out by herself. She’s tiny.

"They found her in a field about half-an-hour later. She was ringing wet through. Her fleece was soaked. She was really shaking and shivering.”

A vet was called who confirmed the injuries and administered pain-killers.

Ashleigh, who has another Miniature Shetland pony called Lego at the stables, added: “The damage that’s been caused is very obvious and the vet has said something has been used to cause it.

"If the damage was on the outside, I could say she has been kicked but the damage is in the inside.

“Someone has been to the farm and released her. She would have thought she was going for a play. It’s impossible for her to let herself out.

"Everybody at the farm is disgusted. We all love that farm. I’ve grown up there. I’ve been going for years and years.”

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed it was called from the farm with a report that a Miniature Shetland pony had been injured.

In March the M.E.N. reported how 12 cattle were slaughtered and a barn and two tractors were destroyed in an arson attack at another farm in Ashton-under-Lyne.