JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ark. — The Jefferson’s County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an animal cruelty case after a woman found her horse shot by a crossbow off Bartlett Road in Redfield.

After returning home Sunday night, Jennifer McDonald noticed her horse Dusty bleeding above his right eye.  She rushed Dusty  to the vet where x-rays confirmed he was shot with an arrow.

“It fractured bones as it was going, and it just stuck in his skull.” she said.

The sense of security is on edge after someone shot the 13-year-old Palomino.

Vets were able to take the arrow out , now it’s evidence for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s disheartening just to hear that somebody, in my opinion, is purposely trying to kill a horse. By the nature and the location of the actual shot, right above the right eye, it could have been fatal,” said Maj. Lafayette Woods with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Given how private the pasture’s location is, deputies are narrowing down their search for whoever fired the arrow.

McDonald found the back part of the arrow in the pasture and investigators are hoping they can pull fingerprints off it..

Dusty is on the mend but McDonald says the next 10 days will be key to see if he’ll make a full recovery.

“I want whoever did this to have to look my horse in the face, and look me in the face because this was not necessary,” she said.

For McDonald it’s the scars you can’t see that will take the longest to heal.