The surviving animals were quickly taken to an animal clinic to receive urgent care; one of which had to be put down due to its poor state of health. 

Spanish Civil Guard officers found some of the horses that had perished in an advanced state of decomposition.

They received a tip-off from local police in the small Madrid village of El Molar informing them of the awful conditions in which the horses were being kept.  

The only animal cruelty case in Spain which has resulted in a jail sentence took place in June 2013 when a man who kicked his dog to death was handed three months in prison. 

SEE ALSO: "An animal is abandoned in Spain every two minutes, 300,000 a year"