The owner of a wedding carriage hire business has been left devastated by the theft of two of his horses.

John Myles, who runs Any Occasion Carriages from his stables near Warmley, woke up on Tuesday morning to discover his working horses Max and Major missing, along with their head collars and food.

Mr Myles, 63, says the culprits climbed 15ft to reposition the CCTV cameras monitoring the stable block at Brook Farm before they stole the two "irreplaceable" horses.

He planned to use the horses, which are both black with white faces, to fulfil bookings made by his customers for horse drawn Victorian carriage rides.

He hires horses and hooded carriages for parades, television and film work, birthdays and weddings.

Mr Myles has offered a "substantial" reward for the horses' safe return.

He said: "I can't describe how I feel.

"If it were the olden days, someone would be swinging in the trees for this.

"The people who did this were uncouth rotters and I couldn't care less who they are."

Mr Myles has been running his business for six years and keeps three other horses on his livery yard.

He said 14-year-old Major was marked with the initials DEB6 and nine-year-old Max was marked with JJM1.

Grandfather Mr Myles said: "Whoever did this bypassed my other three horses and went straight for the matching pair of driving cobs.

"They weren't insured – cover was too expensive."

Police spokeswoman Cath Foster said it was thought the horses were tempted out of the stables with a bucket of feed. She said each were worth about £3,000.

Police have asked anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area at about 10.30pm on Monday to contact 0845 456 7000.