A HORSE owner found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a pony has lodged an appeal against her conviction and sentence, it emerged today.Mary Jo Kowalski, 52, was convicted of the offence by district judge David Cooper at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court in Ipswich earlier this year and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £10,000 of costs.

A HORSE owner found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a pony has lodged an appeal against her conviction and sentence, it emerged today.

Mary Jo Kowalski, 52, was convicted of the offence by district judge David Cooper at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court in Ipswich earlier this year and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £10,000 of costs.

She was also banned from keeping horses for a year.

Officials from the RSPCA allege the Baylham woman used the techniques of German vet Hiltrud Strasser to treat a pony's laminitis by rasping and trimming its hooves.

They claim Kowalski should have called a vet instead of attempting the holistic method of treatment herself.

Brambles, an adult mare, was seized by the animal welfare charity and eventually put down due to her lameness.

Officers allege the pony was walking with a gait, crossing her front legs in an attempt to transfer her weight from the soles of her feet to her hoof walls.

Kowalski, of Lower Street, Baylham, bought the pony in 2004 with the arrangement she would treat it and sell it back to the previous owner if it recovered.

She was charged with two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to a pony between June 3 and July 20, 2004 and was convicted in July this year.

The judge in the case recognised Kowalski was a horse lover and accepted her remorse. He also said he recognised she had “suffered a great deal of strain” because of the trial.

The case will be mentioned at Ipswich Crown Court on October 17 but a date for the appeal has not yet been fixed and is not likely to take place until some time in 2007.