JOSH the veteran hunting horse is recovering in his stable after surviving for ten days without water trapped in dense thickets, just 150 yards from his home.

His anxious owners had virtually given up hope of finding the 28 year-old “gentle giant” after he mysteriously went missing from his field at Sherston near Malmesbury on Wednesday, May 20.

But to the amazement and delight of his owners, along with the many people involved in the hunt, the dark bay gelding was found entangled in brambles on Saturday morning.

Local farmer’s wife Hayley Godwin, one of those who had never given up hope of finding Josh, was still keeping an eye out for the horse when heard a faint snort coming from some bushes.

She ventured into the thickets on the side of a steep bank and, “to her amazement and utter relief,” found herself peering at two of his huge feet.

She ran to the home of Guy and Lottie Bostock, who had been looking after Josh when he vanished, shouting: “I’ve found Josh, I’ve found Josh.”

Mr Bostock and local farmer local farmer Antony Tuck spent an hour patiently cutting a path through the thickets to the ensnared horse using garden sheers. A chainsaw, they felt, would have “freaked him out.”

The indomitable horse then clambered up a steep bank and trotted back to his stable, leaving his rescuers following in his wake.

“He drank three buckets of water as if to say ‘I feel so much better now’” said Josh’s relieved owner Nigel Maidment, Secretary of the Beaufort Hunt.

“It’s absolutely marvellous,” he went on. “You wouldn’t believe that a thicket could be so impenetrable.

“Literally, Josh had been standing up for ten days waiting for someone to find him.

“He was 150 yards from his field. The vet said that after three days without water he would be dead.”

Mr Maidment, who arrived at the scene as Josh was being released, said that horse had eaten all of the brambles around him, which must have helped keep him alive.

“I don’t know of any horse that has survived an ordeal like this for so long. It’s remarkable.”

The area where Josh was trapped was next to a spot where lawn mower clippings were often left. Mr Maidment said the horse may have been having a nibble from the clippings when he strayed into the thickets and became trapped.

Mr Maidment, of Cleverton near Chippenham had for years ridden Josh, distinctive looking horse who stands 17.2 hands, or nearly 6ft tall at the shoulder.

Now semi-retired, Josh been on permanent loan with the Bostocks as Mr Bostock was learning to ride.

The unflappable horse was checked over by a vet and, apart from a few scratches, was pronounced relatively unscathed.

Mrs Bostock: "I am absolutely elated. Josh had been trapped down a fairly precipitous bank. When I ran over with Hayley and saw his legs I just couldn’t believe it.

“It took an hour to reach him in the thickets. When we got to him and went straight up the bank and quickly back to the stable as if he was on parade in the Grand National.”

Josh’s disappearance sparked an extraordinary response with more than 3,000 Facebook “shares” in just a few days, along with a search involving more than 40 people.