A HORSE which was shot three times in the head has remarkably recovered and secured a spot in a national championship final.

Danielle Remblance is celebrating after her horse Davada, Billy the Kid, qualified for the “Search for a Star Mountain and Moorland championships”.

The horse was left fighting for his life two years ago after being brutally shot in the head three times with an air rifle while grazing in his field in Wickford.

Danielle, from Wickford, has nursed this much-loved Welsh section D gelding, known as Terra, back to full health following this senseless attack.

Danielle said: “We have worked so hard to get here.

“We came to Search for a Star to give it a go and I was thrilled when we were pulled up to second in the final line up.

“When I first started riding Terra four-years-ago, both he and I were complete novices and I learned to ride on him. We began from the absolute bottom together. That day when I went out into the field and saw he had terrible puncture wounds in his face we couldn’t work out what had happened.

“Several times we very nearly lost him from his injuries.

“It took us two days after the incident to piece together the fact that he had been shot twice near his eye and once in the cheek. We took him for x-rays and he still has all three bullets in his head.”

The SEIB Search for a Star Mountain and Moorland series is in its second year and the series has developed from one class for all breeds in 2018, to two separate classes divided into large and small breeds this year.

Danielle and her horse will compete in the final, to be held at Your Horse Live in Warwickshire in November.