Pictured: Blondie the 10-year-old pony who was stabbed 40 times and left to die by sick knife thugs

Blondie was knifed more than 40 times in what is thought to be a random attack.

The 10-year-old pony was grazing in her field when she was brutally slashed in the neck, side and legs.

The quiet-natured family pet needs skin grafts and may never be able to go outdoors into direct sunlight again.

Sickening: Blondie now needs skin grafts and can't go out in direct sunlight

Owner David Lowery found his wife’s beloved Blondie covered in blood when he went up to feed her as normal last week.

It’s thought the attack happened between 9am on July 9 and noon on July 12 at a field in Seaton Burn, North Tyneside,

‘She was standing up and shaking,’ said David, who has owned horses all his life and bought Blondie for wife Alison at the Appleby Horse Fair last year.

‘There was blood everywhere. It was caked on her and running off her side.

‘There were maggots in everything and the smell was terrible,’ said the grandfather of eight.  ‘I felt violently sick when I first saw it.

‘I managed to get her in the horse box to go to the vets. She walked straight in to the box. She is a very quiet horse, and she hasn’t changed at all.

‘You would think she might have been kicking and biting, but she is still her same quiet self.’

Shocked: Blondie's owner David Lowery found her in a pool of blood

He believes there must have been more than one attacker to hold Blondie down and keep the stallions in the field preoccupied.

There are usually about eight other horses in the field, including mares and foals.

‘It was someone sick and cowardly,’ said Mr Lowery, 54,  ‘They would have had to hold her down to do what they have done.

‘She is just a small thing. She was the smallest of all the horses in the field. She goes off on her own a lot.

‘If they had something against us, I wish they had just attacked the pick-up truck, or even me. But Blondie is completely defenceless.’

The Lowery's eight grandchildren ride Blondie most out of everyone in the family and they are devastated by the attack.

Mrs Lowery said: ‘They all go on her, she is like a family pet.

‘We are keeping Blondie in stables which only the police have the address for as we are worried about the people coming back.

Happier: Blondie in her field before the appalling attack

‘We are taking her back to the vets on Monday to see about skin grafts.

‘It looked like they tried to write letters in her backside. We can’t make them out, but it looks like a P and an E, but we can’t tell.

‘I went to the vets to pick her up. I was so shocked when I saw what had happened.

‘They don’t know what was used in the attack, it could have been a Stanley knife or a sharp bit of metal.

‘They are deep cuts, and the hole in her neck is the worst. She will not be able to go out in the sun. She will have to stay in stables for the rest of her life.

‘I can’t believe she survived,’ said Alison.