A horse that set out on a midnight canter after escaping from its pen slipped on the grass in Pembroke and died when it fell onto the rocks at the bottom of a slope.

The Animal Welfare Department received a call at about 7.45 a.m. yesterday from a man who, while walking in the area, saw a horse lying on the rocks along the road leading to the Institute of Tourism Studies. He had no idea whether the animal was still alive.

A rescue team was immediately on site in the hope of saving the horse but it had been dead for a while.

It turned out the horse had escaped through a hole in the fence of its pen, where it was kept as a pet with two other horses in the vicinity, and set out on its own.

“The owner had tears in his eyes as he saw the horse being hauled up and taken away,” department officer Godric Marston said.