A Fort Pierre man is now charged with abusing Dually the Rodeo Horse.  The Stanley County State's Attorney issued an arrest warrant for 22-year-old Flint Dahl.  He faces two counts of grand theft and one count of inhumane treatment of an animal.

According to court papers, Dahl admits he took the horse on July 5 from the County Fairgrounds and witnesses saw what happened next.

Dually the horse has been at the center of an intense criminal investigation ever since.

According to the court papers, several witnesses saw Dahl riding the horse around Fort Pierre early in the morning on July 5 and saw he appeared drunk.

Dahl tied the horse to a tree next to a car. That's when the horse started "freaking out."  It had kicked out the window of the vehicle. And according to several witnesses, seriously hurt itself. The back leg and hoof were torn up and bleeding.

But witnesses say Dahl continued riding Dually around Ft. Pierre. He then tied Dually to the hitch of a pickup, in which the horse kicked the truck.

Later that morning, Dahl took the horse to his dad's saddle shop. Seeing the horse was injured, Dave Dahl told his son to take the animal to a holding pen behind the city utility shop.

At 9:00 a.m., the sheriff's office contacted Dually's owner, Wendy Halweg, and told her where to find her horse.

That's when she saw Dually for the first time since reporting him missing. Halweg says Dually had cuts, rope burns mainly in the leg areas and an injury above or near his right eye. The right rear foot appeared to be badly injured and he wouldn't put pressure on it.

The Sheriff's office also investigated a text message it received about Dually's abuse. It read, "They roped it and strung it out like a steer and drug it across the pavement cause they tore the hind shoes off."  But it turned out to be hearsay.

According to the sheriff, Dahl plans to turn himself in Tuesday night.  A court date hasn't been set yet. As for Dually, he's still recovering from his injuries.