FEARS horses would die due to a council ruling which prevents a breeder from living at her stud have come true, she claims.

Lyn Phillips, who owns Honeybrook Stud, Kidderminster, insists she may have been able to save the mare - who died of toxic shock as a result of a foal dying in her uterus - had she been there earlier. Lyn Phillips is desperate to be able to spend more time with her mares, including showjumper Honeybrook Lauranda.

Miss Phillips suffers from sciatica and epilepsy, which prevents her from driving, but has been consistently denied permission to build a house on the site of the Honeybrook Lane stud by Wyre Forest District Council planners as it is in the green belt.

She lives at her parents' home in Park Gate Road and has to rely on lifts to get to the stud. Her father suffers from Parkinson's Disease - and to complete the worst day of her life, Miss Phillips' mother, who had Alzheimer's, died the same day she lost the mare and foal.

Miss Phillips said of the mare: "She had started foaling before I got there. If I had been there earlier I would have realised that her waters had broken. I didn't realise that the foal had died inside her."

Vets were left with no option other than to put the mare down later that night.

Miss Phillips, who has been breeding horses for 30 years, first predicted this when speaking to the Shuttle/Times & News in March last year after plans to build a house on the site were turned down by the council's planning (development control) committee for the fourth time.

She says not being able to live on the site puts her three remaining mares in danger and prevents her from making a proper living from the business. She now plans to make one final bid to the council.

"When I'm on my way down to the field I don't know what I'm going to find when I get there - a mare could have died or escaped or anything," Miss Phillips added.