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PARKER COUNTY - Animal cruelty investigators are searching for answers after 11 valuable horses were apparently allowed to die of thirst in a parched North Texas pasture.

Workers buried the bodies in a mass grave Thursday.

Eleven out of 29 horses died in the heat, including one a veterinarian euthanized. The horses are recipient mares, which are used to carry the implanted embryos of expensive cutting horses. They're owned by a well-known Weatherford horse breeder who did not respond to News requests for an interview.

Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said the owner paid a worker to tend the pasture.

"It was his job to feed, water and care for these horses," he said. "For whatever reason, it wasn't done ... The troughs were dry. Dirt at the bottom of the troughs was dry. There was no hay out there."

WFAA-TV

A passerby noticed the horses in the field.

Sheriff Fowler said the well that fed the troughs had stopped pumping. Investigators said they still aren't sure exactly when it happened. A highway worker noticed some horses down Wednesday in the field off FM 730 north of Weatherford. A concerned citizen stopped and took photos.

"An equine veterinarian tells me horses can die within 24 hours if they don't have water," Sheriff Fowler said. "And in this weather, she says they need to be checked twice a day to make sure they have water."

The sheriff said he is turning the case over to the county attorney to decide who could be charged. Potentially, the deaths could lead to 11 counts of animal cruelty.

E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com