A Poolesville man has pleaded guilty to neglecting three of his horses, according to his attorney.
Montgomery County Police officers found an emaciated dead horse and three injured horses owned by Robert Watson Curry Jr. in a pasture in Dickerson in October, police said. Five of the 31 horses were taken to a facility in Woodbine to recover.
The horses were in critical condition when police intervened, according to Emily White, a county State's Attorney's Office spokeswoman.
Prosecutors charged Curry, 31, of the 17500 block of Kohlhoss Road, with six counts of aggravated animal cruelty and four counts of animal abuse or neglect in January, according to the Maryland Judiciary Case Search database. He pleaded guilty to three counts of animal abuse or neglect on May 4, according to the database.
Curry provided inadequate veterinary care to three of the horses that were taken to the Woodbine horse rescue facility— two that were euthanized and another that survived, according to his Rockville-based attorney Rene Sandler. Their hooves had gone an extended period of time without being trimmed, she said.
Curry is a farrier and could have done the trimming himself, White said. Some horses had medical problems such as ringworm and joint injuries, and one had an abscessed hoof, she said.
Curry admitted he had not fed the horses in several days, and there was not enough pasture to support the large herd, White said.
Curry is scheduled to be sentenced in Montgomery County Circuit Court on June 22.