An Oklahoma racing Quarter Horse trainer is facing multiple animal cruelty charges after two horses allegedly died and another was injured while under his care.

Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, Sheriff Ron Lockhart said an agent for Edward Leslie, MD, a Kentucky-based racehorse owner, was instructed to pick up two of three horses in the care of trainer Robert Dimmitt in July. Upon contacting Dimmitt, the agent was told that one of the horses had died; the second horse also allegedly died on Dimmit’s Sallisaw property, Lockhart said. Gold Digging Ashley, a third horse belonging to Leslie, was taken to a veterinary clinic where she remains under veterinary care, Lockhart said.

Leslie declined to comment on the animals’ combined value except to say that they were all royally bred. The Oklahoma Horsemen’s Association website indicates that Gold Digging Ashley won the association’s Mystery Futurity in 2014.

Leslie said he hired Dimmitt after receiving a recommendation, but that his horses ended up “mutilated.”

On Aug. 3, Dimmitt was arrested and charged with three counts of animal cruelty, “but we may find more (horse) remains and there may be more charges,” Lockhart said.

Dimmitt was unavailable for comment.

Lockhart said the horses were injured after Dimmitt removed the frog from the animals’ hooves.

“He said he did this to increase the blood flow (to the horses’ feet) to make them run faster,” Lockhart said.

Veteran farrier Hesse Liephart, said the frog aids in a horse’s circulation because it helps pump blood up the horse’s leg e