The owners of a registered Quarter Horse stallion who was shot dead in his Mt Surprise paddock in July want to see justice done and have offered a $20,000 reward to encourage it.
The Wolf of Wall Street, who carried bloodlines of Acres and Freckles Oak, was in a paddock close to the Burlington Station homestead with four mares when he was shot through the lungs sometime between 8pm on Tuesday, June 16 and 3.30pm on Thursday, June 18.
Detectives from Major Organised Crime Squad Rural have been investigating the shooting and had called for witnesses.
However, the owners of the much-loved stallion, Ray Heslin and Kelli Thomas have decided to offer a sizeable reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
They purchased him for $65,000 at the 2015 Landmark Classic sale at Tamworth and say he was worth $150,000 to them but more than that, he was one of the family.
"We could have sold him many times," Ms Thomas said.
"He was a pure gentleman, easy to have around and easy to ride.
"It's a pretty lowlife act to shoot an innocent animal - the person might as well have shot someone in our family.
"We just want justice for that."
Wolf of Wall Street and the four mares he was with were in the property's airstrip paddock that fronts the public road between Mt Surprise and Chillagoe, 53km from Mt Surprise.
Ms Thomas said they had been checking on the horses every day, except the day before they found the stallion dead, when they'd gone to Atherton three hours away for supplies.
"The next morning we'd organised a helicopter to check our back boundary and cattle and were flying back over the airstrip paddock when we noticed him missing," she said. "Anything can happen with mares and stallions, but then we found him, lung shot."
She believes the shooting was deliberate, particularly as none of the other horses in the paddock were targeted, and she said it was very unlikely to have been an accident.
"Roo shooters, pig hunters - they know what they're looking at," she said. "He had a clipped mane, a shiny coat, branded - he was a magnificent animal, a long way from looking like a brumby."
Ms Thomas also said they didn't have the stallion insured.
Police are urging anyone with information in relation to the offence to contact Policelink and use the online suspicious activity form, quoting QP2001269328.
Information can also be reported anonymously to Crime Stoppers 24 hours a day.