Sixty-four-year-old Jack Mark Ziniuk was charged with felony animal cruelty in April.
Officials said he hit the horse over the head with a sledgehammer - which couldn't have killed it immediately, decapitated it with a chainshaw, then fed the head to his dogs on his property in the remote mountainous community of Anza.
A judge on Friday said psychiatric analysis showed Ziniuk, who has pleaded not guilty, was mentally fit to stand trial.
Ziniuk had called authorities to his property, telling them his horse was having seizures after being attacked by dogs and needed to be put down.
Prosecutors have said he neglected the horse before killing it.
(Ventura County Star - June 13, 2009)
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