LAST week, a prize-winning, two-year-old, Clydesdale colt was found lying down in his paddock at home in Northern Ireland and was experiencing difficulty standing up.

The paddock was adjacent to a field with a sycamore tree (the tree was a distance of over 30m away) and this particular paddock had been grazed for over a decade with no problems ever noted. However, the owners suspected that the horse was suffering from sycamore seed poisoning and acted quickly – the horse was transported to Troytown GreyAbbey Equine Veterinary Hospital for intensive veterinary treatment.