Four horses were starved and riddled with parasites after months of neglect by their owner, an animal welfare charity said.

The owner, a Dorset man, was banned from keeping horses for life after ‘prolonged neglect’ caused by months of malnutrition which left them emaciated, covered in parasites and without adequate hoof care.

A vet examined the horses and certified they were suffering neglect. They were then seized by police and placed into the care of the RSPCA.

RSPCA chief inspector Paul Williams said: "These horses would have been extremely uncomfortable from the excessive lice and worm burdens they were suffering with. Their feet were overgrown which would have made walking really painful, and their body conditions were just completely unacceptable.

"It is appalling that their previous owner thought it was appropriate to keep horses in this way. He told our inspector that because he was working, he only ever attended the horses in the dark in the winter, implying that he could not see if any were in poor condition or had injuries, but that he had given them food so in his opinion, this was acceptable care."

Two of the horses, Cookie and Oreo, have been found new homes through the RSPCA with Cloud helped to a new home through another charity. However the last horse, Skye, is still searching for a home.

The RSPCA says its officers are amid an ‘equine crisis’ according to new statistics which reveal the charity received around four complaints per week, about 189 separate horses, in Dorset in 2017.

The national horse crisis, which charities first highlighted in 2012, has since seen RSPCA officers routinely called out to abandoned horses every day up and down the country, with many of them sick, dead or dying on arrival. Statistics reveal that of the 980 horses rescued by the RSPCA from cruelty and neglect last year, 928 are still in the charity's care.

The RSPCA’s inspectorate national equine co-ordinator Christine McNeil said: “We’ve been talking about the horse crisis for several years now, but the truth is the situation is just as severe today as when it started. Last year we took in more horses than we have in the past four years, and with our inspectors being called to rescue more and more every week, we are stretched to the limits."

Nationally, convictions relating to horses accounted for 15 per cent of the total number of convictions secured by the RSPCA in 2017.

In other cases of animal cruelty in Dorset, two people were disqualified from keeping animals for 10 years after their dog was locked in a cage and left to starve. Another man from Dorset was disqualified from keeping all animals for five years after admitting cruelty towards a 12-year-old Shih Tzu who was left blind through neglect.