A terrified schoolgirl was left screaming and clinging to her horse as a pack of English Bull Terriers launched a vicious.
Now her mum has slammed irresponsible dog owners after a pack of out-of-control English Bull Terriers attacked her horse at a Scots country park.
Elisa Lanzai, 16, had been out riding her horse Smithy when the dogs at Mugdock Country Park in Milngavie “appeared from nowhere” on Sunday, October 1 and began biting her horse’s nose and legs.
She was left petrified as as her horse began bucking and rearing in an attempt to escape the dogs, reports the Daily Record.
Elisa’s mum, Eilidh, 45, said: “Elisa was riding over a bridge at the park and out of nowhere three dogs came running towards them.
“When Smithy saw them coming, he turned round and ran across the bridge but the three dogs surrounded him. That’s when Smithy began bucking and rearing.
“Elisa was screaming: ‘Recall your dogs, they’re attacking, they’re attacking!’ but they were nowhere to be seen.”
Eilidh, from Milngavie, said when the owners approached they had no leashes for the dogs and dragged them away by their collars, refusing to give over their names.
She added: “They didn’t once ask them to come back and there was no apology, they just got their dogs and left. Elisa escaped with a sore throat from screaming and painful muscles. She is lucky she wasn’t thrown off the horse.
“There are bite marks all over Smithy’s bridal and the nose band has snapped. To be able to break a bridal takes a massive amount of force.”
The mum-of-two is now warning others to keep animals on a lead around horses and livestock.
She said: “It was a scary incident for Elisa, dogs have predatory instincts so it can be really dangerous if your dog is off a leash.
“I would like people to understand that no matter how well trained or socialised your dog is, they can be unpredictable.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “We received a report of a horse having been injured by dogs in Mugdock Country Park on Sunday, 1 October, 2023. Appropriate advice was given.”
