--- description: The barn in Palmetto, Fla., seems to have been visited by an expert butcher title: Prized Show Horse Taken From Stall and Slaughtered image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Prized Show Horse Taken From Stall and Slaughtered by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 26, 2015 9:18 PM CUT by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 26, 2015 9:18 PM CUT A prized show jumping horse was taken from its barn in Palmetto, Fla. and led to a pasture where it was killed and butchered, apparently by someone with expert skill. Phedras de Blondel, a 12-year-old chestnut gelding, had recently been purchased by Deborah Stephens from a French breeder, the New York _Times_ reports. Stephens, a celebrated show jumping competitor, planned to bring Phedras to the Grand Prix next month. But when she arrived at the barn on Sunday, an employee told her something was amiss with the lock on Phedras’s stall, and that the 1,500-pound horse was missing. After searching the 31-acre property, Stephens and her assistant found the animal killed and expertly butchered. The slaughter of horses is illegal in the state of Florida, and investigators are also treating the crime as grand theft and occupied burglary. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/sports/prized-horse-is-led-out-of-stall-and-butchered-in-florida.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4087933/show-horse-slaughtered/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4087933/show-horse-slaughtered/"},"headline":"Prized Show Horse Taken From Stall and Slaughtered","datePublished":"2015-10-26T21:18:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:05:22.903Z","description":"The barn in Palmetto, Fla., seems to have been visited by an expert butcher","url":"https://time.com/4087933/show-horse-slaughtered/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4087933/show-horse-slaughtered/","name":"Prized Show Horse Taken From Stall and Slaughtered"}}]}] ```