A South Carolina man was arrested earlier this month in Kentucky for allegedly removing a horse from property in Breathitt County.

Breathitt County, along with other eastern Kentucky counties, is home to a group of horses that reside and graze on coal reclamation properties. Some of those horses are abandoned while others are put out to graze and later reclaimed by their owners.

“In general, most people would not know which is which,” said Ginny Grulke, executive director of the Appalachian Horse Center, a nonprofit organization that works with Eastern Kentucky counties on concerns connected to the free-roaming horses.

Curtis Bostic said he was arrested Dec. 18 near Jackson, Kentucky, and charged with the unlawful taking of livestock. Bostic said he is a lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina, who represents a client who has business interests in Breathitt County