Who Shot Kenny Dixson's Horse?

It's a crime that doesn't happen often, but when it does it gets an entire community talking. Someone shot Kenny Dixson's horse and now police in Englewood are tracking down the shooter.

Wednesday morning a neighbor came by his house with some bad news. One of his mares, a Tennessee walking horse named Lady, was laying lifeless on the ground.

"So when I went up there I noticed blood on the side she was laying on, so I got the tractor and turned her over and she had a hole about the size of your thumb," Dixson said.

Englewood Police pictures show the wound from what appears to be a large caliber weapon. Lady was shot late Tuesday night.

"Everyone within a block radius on all sides of the field had said they heard a gunshot between midnight and one in the morning," according to Englewood Police Sergeant Daniel Watson.

Lady was one of 16 Tennessee walking horses that Dixson kept behind his house. Raising horses has been a part of his life for more than 50 years.

"I started when I got out of the service in '55, but I've always ridden and I started when I was four years old, my mother and daddy lived right over there," Dixson said.

Police say the shot came from McMinn County Road 414 that runs along the back of Dixson's farm.

"It's either kids playing, messing around where they shouldn't be, or someone was hunting and got upset that they didn't get anything their self," Sgt. Watson said.

Dixson is now offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the person who shot Lady.

"If, you know, we can find out who it is, why they said they'd prosecute them and I want them prosecuted," Dixson said.

Englewood Police Chief Darrell Wright said he will do whatever it takes to find the shooter. He is using a bomb sniffing dog and a metal detector to scour the area for spent shell casings and evidence.

Horse shootings are very rare, and the chief wants to keep it that way.