Suspect arrested after B.C. woman says horses ‘sexually assaulted’

Horses are seen at Abigail Equestrian in Vernon, B.C., in a surveillance image. (Facebook/Erica Van Meenen)

Warning: This story contains disturbing details.

Authorities have arrested a suspect after the owner of an equestrian centre in B.C.’s Okanagan alleged someone “sexually assaulted” her horses.

Erica Van Meenen, owner of Abigail Equestrian in Vernon, shared black-and-white surveillance images on social media over the weekend showing a man in her horse paddock after dark.

“Does anyone recognize this person?” she wrote on Sunday. “Last night he was in with my horses in the middle of the night and assaulted some horses.”

Van Meenen told CTV News she was home with her son around midnight Friday when her security system started sending notifications to her phone.

“At first I ignored them because the horses are always moving around, and it’s very common that the cameras obviously catch that movement,” Van Meenen said.

Then she spotted a man walking on her property.

Van Meenen said she ran outside with her guard dog, then called 911 and waited for officers from the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP to arrive.

After the officers confirmed the area was safe, Van Meenen reviewed her surveillance videos with them more closely—and was horrified by what she saw.

She said a suspect can be seen checking one of her horses, she believes to determine if it was a gelding or mare, then fetching a step stool and bringing it to the paddock.

“It is extremely graphic,” she said. “The officer and I were both just like, ‘Oh my god.’”

She later discovered two of her other horses had their blankets undone and folded up, leaving her concerned that they might have been assaulted as well.

Vernon North Okanagan RCMP confirmed members responded to a report of trespassing at a rural property shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday, and that the suspect fled before they arrived at the scene.

The detachment only referred to the matter as a “trespassing incident,” and declined to provide further comment on Van Meenen’s allegations for CTV News.

In a statement describing the business owner’s surveillance video, the RCMP said the recording “revealed a criminal offence had occurred within an enclosed animal pen.”

Const. Chris Terleski also said authorities have identified a suspect in the days since Van Meenen’s social media post went viral online, and that the individual was taken into custody then released pending further investigation.

Van Meenen’s post, which has been shared more than 1,100 times, led to a “large volume of information being provided to police,” which investigators are still wading through, Terleski said in a statement.

Van Meenen told CTV News she’s grateful for the RCMP’s help, but she’s also nervous knowing the suspect was released.

“I’m trying to be hopeful that he would not be stupid enough to come back again,” she said.

Van Meenen said she’d never heard of an incident like this happening before, and that it’s been traumatic for her and her clients—including the families who come to Abigail Equestrian for riding lessons. The horses themselves have not been acting differently since the weekend, however.

“They are innocent creatures,” she said. “They don’t understand the trauma behind this.”