Val, the faithful 14-year-old haflinger horse that was reported missing in late July from a farm above Renfrew in Penn Township has been found dead by its owner, Brian Gratzer.

Gratzer found Val on Tuesday at the bottom of a 20-foot ravine about an eighth-mile away from the pasture where she was last seen with eight other horses.

Gratzer surmises that Val jumped the fence after being chased by a pack of coyotes, who then attacked her.

“She was eaten up,” Gratzer said of his brood mare's remains, which he said appeared to have been in the ravine for some time. “It's a part of life.”

Gratzer said he hears coyotes yipping in the area of his farm, but has not had problems with them before.

But a neighbor told him a pack of the predators were captured on a trail camera not far from the Gratzer farm.

He also recalled that Val's pasture mates were behaving in an unusual, excited manner on the day she went missing.

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