One pony was found injured and had to be put down, with the owners believing the animals had been deliberately released from their North Albury lot in Carcoola Street.

Lynette Hargrave and Brent Berry said various reports indicated the ponies were safe in their paddock at 9.10pm last Wednesday but wandering by 10.30pm.

“We had a huge lock on the gate and it went missing and it’s never been seen,” Ms Hargrave said. “Someone’s cut the chain and lock off.

“They wouldn’t have got through a padlock and chain without some bit of pre-meditation.”

The couple, who help run Albury mini-trots, also believed the ponies might have been chased out, as they were found as far away as Mate Street and East Albury.

“They could have all got killed, who knows, they could have got hit by cars,” Mr Berry said.

“They could have caused accidents.”

Ms Hargrave said they didn’t know how Speckles, a pony they hadn’t owned very long, received a broken leg.

“She would have been terrified, she’s blind in one eye, she’d only had minimal handling,” she said.

An Albury Council spokesman said two rangers handled the overall incident.

“It took about five hours for the rangers and police to get the situation under control,” he said. “Two (ponies) were put back in their yard, seven were rounded up, contained and transported to the pound and one had to be euthanised.”

The council could not verify whether or not the animals were deliberately let out.

“Our role was to address the problem of the ponies running loose around the streets, creating traffic safety issues,” the spokesman said.

Ms Hargrave and Mr Berry, who collected their ponies the next day, said people criticised the paddock as bare, but there was shade and water and the couple fed the ponies twice a day.

“You’ve only got to look at the condition of them, they’re not skin and bones,” Ms Hargrave said.

Mr Berry said if whoever let them out did so because of the paddock, they did the ponies no favours.

“Letting them out on the road’s not going to help them, there’s no feed on the roads,” he said.