[Batpuff]

Two Pike County high school students were charged yesterday with killing three horses and wounding several others last week at an Eastern Kentucky strip mine, investigators said.

One of the horses was shot more than 50 times, police said.

The horses, among 29 animals owned by Virginia resident Trish Hayes for trail rides in Breaks Interstate Park, were grazing on a strip mine when the boys, both 17, arrived in a Toyota pickup about 4 p.m. on Jan. 25, said Pike County Chief Deputy Sheriff Melvin Sayers.

The two suspects told Sayers and Detective Richard Ray that they drove to the site to shoot rabbits. "But one of the juveniles jumped out and said, 'I don't like these horses,'" Sayers said, "and they just went to shooting horses."

Ray said one suspect dislikes the animals because he was once injured by a horse.

Drugs might have been involved in the incident, Sayers said. "They said they took a couple pills, but didn't know what kind," he said. "But one of these kids had a 3.4 grade-point average, so you're not dealing with little dummies."

The students told police they were armed with two .22-caliber rifles and a .22-caliber pistol. "They shot and killed three and wounded several others," Sayers said.

After the shooting started, the other horses fled, but the suspects apparently returned to their truck and chased them for about 7 miles on the strip mine, officials said. Hayes said one horse was shot six times, but survived.

Each of the suspects was charged with criminal mischief and cruelty to animals. The two were lodged in the Breathitt County Juvenile Detention Center and were scheduled for a hearing at 11 a.m. today in Pike juvenile court.

Pike District Judge Darrel Mullins "told us to charge both of them as juveniles and not to release their names" Sayers said.

One of the students turned 18 on Sunday, after the shooting.

Hayes said she hopes both are prosecuted as adults. "That's because, under juvenile laws in Kentucky, all they'll get is a slap on the wrists," she said.

Hayes, who has owned Breaks Stable in Breaks, Va., for 14 years, said she released most of the horses on the mountaintop strip mine next to her father's home in October after the riding season ended.

"You've got miles and miles of flat land where these horses graze and just stay," she said.

There are no fences, but the horses rarely strayed from the strip mine, Hayes said.

"When they're up there, they look like a band of wild horses, but when you drive up, they'll come right up to your window," Hayes said.

Sayers said area residents were able to identify both the suspects and the vehicle. "We just put the vehicle and names together and tracked them down," he said.