A huntswoman who was caught on camera punching and kicking a horse is a primary school teacher and a local Pony Club leader.

Sarah Moulds, 37, is being investigated by the RSPCA over the video, which was filmed by a hunt-saboteur group.

The footage shows a white horse trotting away from the back of a trailer before being stopped by a young rider.

A woman wearing cream breeches and a navy jacket then grabs the reins, kicks the horse in its torso, slaps it repeatedly in the face, then drags it back to the trailer.

The Hertfordshire Hunt Saboteurs said it filmed the incident on Saturday while observing the Cottesmore Hunt, which is based in Rutland, East Midlands.

The sabs said the footage showed the hunt – one of the oldest in Britain – has ‘violence running through their veins’.

But Cottesmore Hunt has responded to the video, saying it does not condone the actions shown ‘under any circumstances’.

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Now it has emerged that Moulds from Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, is a teacher at Somerby Primary School and a director of the Knossington & Somerby Pre-School.

Social media listings show the mum-of-two is also a team leader of the Cottesmore branch of the Pony Club – a voluntary riding organisation for young people.

Saturday’s footage prompted widespread outrage on social media, including from naturalist Chris Packahm, who called on the RSPCA to ‘urgently investigate and definitively prosecute this appalling abuse’.

Zoologist and BBC Springwatch presenter Megan McCubbin said: ‘Yet another ugly side of an activity some call “sport”.’

Describing the footage as ‘really upsetting’, the RSPCA said: ‘We will always look into complaints made to us about animal welfare.

‘We would urge anyone with first-hand information about this incident to contact us.’

The Hunting Office – a governing body which oversees hunting with hounds in the UK – also condemned the footage.

It told ITV News it ‘expects the highest level of animal welfare at all times – both on and off the hunting field – and condemns the actions taken by this individual, who is not a member of the hunting associations’.

Fox hunting was outlawed in 2004, but under current rules, horseback riders with dogs can legally follow trails laid with scent, instead of chasing a live animal.

However, if hounds were to pick up the scent of a real fox and chase it during the hunt, there would be no legal repercussions.

Animal rights groups including the League Against Cruel Sports have long argued that this is a ‘smokescreen’, allowing fox hunting to continue under the radar.

Last month director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, Mark Hankinson, was found guilty of encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence and was ordered to pay £3,500.

He was charged after footage from two webinars held in August last year were obtained and leaked by anti-hunting activists.

In one of them, he said: ‘It’s effectively illegal to intentionally hunt a wild mammal with more than two dogs but you will see there’s quite a few exemptions.

‘So obviously trail hunting, which is our main card, is a critical one, but that trail hunting needs to be visible and credible and those involved need to be robust when questioned.’

He added: ‘Some people say, “What’s the point in laying trails?” But I think it’s fairly self-explanatory.

‘If you haven’t laid a trail you won’t be covered by insurance… Don’t forget it’s a much more serious offence to commit perjury in court than commit offences under the Hunting Act.’

Hankinson, 60, said it is ‘a lot easier to portray a smokescreen if you’ve got more than one trail layer operating’.

He added that the act of laying a trail ‘needs to be as plausible as possible…just in case it goes to court’.

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