A man has been sentenced to six months in prison, fined $1500 and banned from owning a horse for five years after letting his racehorse starve to death.

He had earlier been found guilty of five charges relating to horses he kept and appeared in Palmerston North District Court today for sentencing.

It comes years after the SPCA were first alerted to the man, being sent a photo of the horse, named Ginger Jane, dead in an Ohakune field.

Two other of the man’s horses, Mad About You and Angeca, were found “in very poor body condition, without adequate shelter and covers”, SPCA said.

When questioned by the animal welfare organisation, the man told an inspector to “back off”, saying he has ordered a tonne of carrots and 800kg of sileage.

Angeca was underweight and had festering scabs and a skin infection causing discomfort and irritation, SPCA said, while Mad About You was thin.

Surviving horse Mad About You, surrounded by carrots. Photo / SPCA

“Insufficient shelter meant the horses were exposed to cold Ohakune winter temperatures with frequent showers and snow,” the organisation said.

The inspector confiscated the horses.

The state of the horses “illustrates a lack of thought for basic animal welfare”, SPCA CEO Todd Westwood said.

A vet said the photo of Ginger Jane’s body showed she had likely starved to death and would have got to a point where she could no longer stand.

“No animal should experience this kind of unnecessary and heartless suffering,” Westwood said.

“Everyone at SPCA is heartbroken over the senseless loss of Ginger Jane, but so grateful that our inspectors were called before it was too late for the other two horses on the property.”

The man said he did not realise the ill health of his animals and he had assumed the feed and trees in the paddock was sufficient.