A man hired to train and care for a woman’s horse was caught on video punching and kicking the animal, leading to his arrest, Florida deputies said.
The horse’s owner shared footage of Benito Cotto Colon abusing her Bay Paso Fino horse with an agriculture investigator with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, January 15, according to deputies.
She told the investigator, Justin McClure, in an email that she’d hired Cotto Colon, 34, as a horse trainer more than a year and a half earlier, the sheriff’s office said in a Tuesday, January 20, news release.
When McClure watched the video she shared, he saw Cotto Colon “kicking the horse in the abdomen four times as the horse was showing obvious signs of distress and fear during the incident,” the office said.
The video, which has been shared online, also shows Cotto Colon roughly yanking on the horse’s reins and bridle, according to WESH 2 News, which published footage of the December incident.
While investigating Cotto Colon, McClure discovered that he confessed to kicking and punching the horse in a Facebook post, according to deputies.
Olympic Equestrian Suspended After Whipping Horse 42 Times
Cotto Colon also acknowledged that he was the person seen in the abuse video in his Facebook post, the sheriff’s office said.
A detective with the sheriff’s office arrested Cotto Colon on an animal cruelty charge on Friday, January 16, according to the agency.
An attorney for Cotto Colon was not immediately listed in court records viewed by Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 21.
When Cotto Colon addressed the video of him and the horse in his Facebook post, he wrote that the horse nearly threw him off and that he could have been “seriously injured” or “killed,” WESH 2 News reported.
“Because of that, I dismounted and continued working the horse from the ground,” Cotto Colon said, according to the TV station.
“Yes, that is me in the video, and I take full responsibility for my actions,” Cotto Colon added. “I acknowledge that the way I was handling the horse at that moment was not appropriate, and I sincerely apologize for it.”
May Marroquín, the owner of the horse named El Secreto de Besilu, said in a statement shared with WESH 2 News that “What my horse went through was heartbreaking, and no animal should ever be subjected to abuse or cruelty.”
“The existence of a video allows the truth to be seen and helps create awareness about who people are trusting with their animals,” Marroquín added. “Silence only protects the abuser.”
Animal Control Is Now Involved in ‘RHOC’ Star Shannon Beador’s DUI Drama
After Marroquín reported Cotto Colon to the authorities, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office’s Agriculture Unit and a veterinarian went to check on her horse, according to deputies.
The horse was discovered “healthy as a horse,” according to the veterinarian, the sheriff’s office said.
A video shared by the sheriff’s office of Cotto Colon’s arrest shows him handcuffed behind his back as a detective walks him to a patrol car.
Cotto Colon was detained in the Marion County Jail, according to deputies.
Marion County is about an 85-mile drive northwest from Orlando.
