Young horse kept in dark, cramped pen his whole life runs laps with joyful abandon after he’s freed: video

He got his thunder back.

A heartwarming video shows the elated moment a young stallion who had spent most of his short, miserable life in a cramped pen in Florida tastes freedom for the first time.

The horse named Thunder was rescued Sunday from horrific and neglectful conditions at a farm in Lake Wales, about 60 miles east of Tampa.

Officers from the Polk County Animal Cruelty Investigations Unit took him and brought him to an open stable and pasture, where the clip was filmed.

In the footage, Thunder zooms around the fenced-in area, doing laps and happily prancing from one corner to the other.

The 2-year-old Paso Fino leaps in the air and scampers and sprints in excited circles in the open pasture at the ranch where he is being rehabilitated by authorities, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

“This is his first time ever experiencing a pasture and being able to run free (well somewhat free) and he is loving it,” the Polk County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a June 3 Facebook post. “He was kept in a very small stall in a dark barn and never turned out to pasture.”

Thunder was seized by law enforcement as part of a sweeping animal cruelty investigation after cops received a tip that two horses were starving at the farm, according to a press release. 

Investigators found Thunder and another horse living in abject squalor. 

“One was extremely skinny, with its rib and hip bones visible; another was laying on the ground in its own feces, unable to lift its head, and barely breathing,” the sheriff’s office said in the press release. “This horse succumbed to its severe neglect and was deceased by the time detectives arrived.” 

Thunder and the dead horse were living in wretched conditions along with seven other horses, 11 goats and two sheep.

The animals and humans, some children, were living together amid rotting garbage, scrap metal, discarded tires, swarms of flies and broken appliances scattered around the property, according to the release. 

“Detectives also located a trough filled with a mixture of antifreeze and gasoline, leaking into water that the animals were then drinking,” according to the sheriff’s office. 

The owner of the farm, Joemanuel Nunez-Suarez, 40, told detectives that he was taking care of the animals for a friend and that they were too expensive to feed.

He said he told the friend to collect the animals months ago but the friend ignored him, according to the press release.  

Nunez-Suarez was charged with felony animal cruelty and three counts of confining animals without proper food, care, and sustenance. 

Barbara Suarez, Thunder’s owner, was charged with animal neglect and resisting arrest. 

Jorge Almeida Rodriguez and Idanys Queveto were charged with environmental crimes; Hennycha Rosa Rosa was charged with resisting arrest. 

Sheriff Grady Judd said happy endings like Thunder’s are only possible with the help of a vigilant public who reports animal cruelty to the proper authorities. 

“It’s a shame we were unable to save one of the abused horses,” Judd said. “But we will make it our mission to rehabilitate all of the animals that were subjected to this filth and neglect, and ensure these suspects are never again allowed to own animals.”