Man arrested following horse abuse case in El Paso County
Update: Brain Holloway turned himself in in Elbert County and as of Friday morning, Holloway is out on bond.
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The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is waiting for a 53-year-old man who is wanted for cruelty animal charges to turn himself in.
Brian Holloway is facing two counts of felony cruelty to animals and 10 counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals. Jackie Kirby with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office says Holloway has until Friday morning to turn himself in or they will go arrest him themselves.
Officials were first led to the 3200 block of Slocum Road after receiving a neglect complaint.
Officers obtained a search warrant and searched the property on March 10.
Ten horses were located in various stages of emaciation (photos below). There were also two deceased horses inside of stalls in a large barn.
We spoke to Kylee Soulka who says she used to work for Holloway as a horse trainer. She says starting in August, she started to notice the horses not getting fed. “They started getting leaner and leaner. And then you could see ribs and their backbones would start to show up,” Soulka says.
She claims it was because the suspect was running out of money from a lawsuit he was involved in. She kept asking him to buy more hay for the horses but he wouldn’t. While working there, she says one of the horses died.
Soulka says, “It made me sick to my stomach because it felt like they were my horses too because I cared for them every day.”
She then reported Holloway for the alleged abuse to the State Director of the National Barrel Horse Association. When Holloway found out, he fired her.
Now months later, she says she is not surprised by the charges brought against him.
All living horses were seized and were transported to an approved boarding facility.
KRDO talked to neighbors in the area on April 8, click here for the story.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office thanked the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region and the Dumb Friends League Harmony Equine Center for their assistance with this case.
