But when the horses were moved to other stables, Sykes refused to pay four invoices.

Sykes, 73, told the court he was advised not to pay because the horses had not been properly cared for.

Ishela, in particular, had been with Berry for 18 weeks and had not had her shoes changed in all that time, he claimed.

He said The Loose Screw was returned to him suffering from two displaced vertebrae.

In summing up, he said: “The evidence you heard started with Ishela. Up until that time, we had trusted Mr Berry looking after our horses.

“We never questioned any of the work he did. It’s easy to get on with Mr Berry, make no mistake about that.”

Sykes said the trainer had advised him to retire Ishela because she was bleeding. She had not performed well in two races.

He added: “But we found out that the reason she retired was not because she bled, but because she had not been properly shod. It was not the bleeding that stopped her, it was the poor shoeing.”

Paul Woodall looked after Ishela when she arrived at Stella Barclay’s paddocks in Garstang, Lancashire.

He told the court he recognised the horse’s shoes as ones he had made and put on before she was sent to the Berry yard.

He told the court there was an inch of foot growth on the hooves, suggesting the shoes had not been changed for many weeks.

Average foot growth was between a quarter and three eighths of an inch per month, he added.

Farrier Steve O’Sullivan, who was working for Berry, told the court he had shod Ishela. He added: “If the horse had been with us for 18 weeks and had not been shod, it would have had a foot like a flipper. It’s incomprehensible that she could stay at Mr Berry’s yard for those weeks and not be shod.”

He said he cared for the horses before they left the stables to return to Sykes.

“I did not see them on the morning they left, but before that, they were in a good state.”

Sykes had entered a counterclaim with the court for £799 (€1,200), saying he had paid previous invoices for farrier work that he did not believe had been carried out.

Deputy district judge Martin Bland dismissed the counterclaim and ordered Sykes to pay a total of £1,251.94 (€1,885.14), including travel costs, court costs and loss of earnings for O’Sullivan.

Following the case, Berry said: “I didn’t want to make any money out of a miserable situation, which is why I did not claim for loss of earnings.

“I’m relieved, not happy. It’s horrible when you have to come to court for things like this. It’s sad when people fall out.”

Sykes declined to comment.