Rare foal stolen from Scotland in 2018 found in Bradford

Urquart discovered Polo was missing after her farm was targeted by thieves and the stud horse, who was then just a foal, had vanished.

Over the next eight years she heard almost nothing about his whereabouts, then last week she received a call “out of the blue” from the police.

“I did get the odd message from people who have looked out for him and thought they’d seen him, but no confirmed sightings at all,” she said.

He was in a “really poor” condition after years of being neglected, she said, with a tumour on his undercarriage and sore eyes.

“His veterinary and rehabilitation care will span into thousands of pounds, if they had several foals a year from him, they’d have made tens of hundreds of pounds, but neglected his health,” she said.

“He has quite a large sarcoid which is a form of tumour that will need to be removed by the bow.”