Do horses really get stolen?

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canteron

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Am moving fields where I can't see my horses (both coloured cobs) and am having to refence.

Question is, how much of the fencing should be aimed at keeping people out as well as keeping my horses in??

Having argument with neighbouring farmer (friend who would like to keep access over the land), who says horses being stolen is an urban myth and in reality it never happens.

Does anyone have any facts and figures - or knowledge on what the situation really is?

Or does anyone have any hints on 'people deterring' measures! If you were refencing a field, how would you do it!

Thanks x
 
I heard there were a couple taken from not too far away from us (Herts) recently, so I have been worried. Mine is stabled and the owner lives on the yard but I've still worried as a couple of other liveries and I are often there late at night so if thieves came she might just hear them and think it was us. Or hopefully she'd hear the lorry.
My horse is microchipped and freezemarked which I think is the most I can do short of padlocking her into her stable which seems dangerous. If yours are freezemarked Farmkey will get you patches to sew onto rugs and signs for the fence to advertise the fact that 'These horses are freezemarked and can be identified by the police'.
Could your local police give you statistics of thefts in your area? I think that now we all have passports it must at least be a lot safer than it used to be.
 
Of course they do, let him have a look at Horsewatch. Not as many get stolen as people often think, but it does happen.
Are your horses freezemarked? That is the best deterent. Gates need to be padlocked, and hung "upside down" to prevent them just being lifted off. Let your neighbour have a key, but don't leave your gates unlocked. Apart from anything else, the gate could be left open by walkers.
 
They most certainly do. My friends IDX got stolen. Freeze mark 92VB. He has never been recovered. They got him out by taking down the fencing.
 
Sorry to say but our coloured cobs are at the top of the list for being stolen. 'They' take them to Ireland and use them for breeding/driving racing ect.
Is there a house overlooking the new field? If so it maybe worth wile asking them to keep an eye every now an then, we have an elderly lady who likes to sit in her bedroom all day watching the ponies! If not maybe get a camera?
 
When we kept our horses in Ireland a couple of years ago (out in he field at day and always in at night in a locked barn) we thought someone thought about stealing our mare. My Mum who was looking after her had thought our neighbours neice had tried to plait her mane (as she only had one single plait, unrolled in it which had become pretty tatted by the time my Mum noticed it)! We asked our neighbour and she said her neice hadn't been up for ages. Later, we found out thats how theives in the area had been marking horses to be stolen. If she hadn't been kept in at night she would have probably been stolen!
 
madirish said:
When we kept our horses in Ireland a couple of years ago (out in he field at day and always in at night in a locked barn) we thought someone thought about stealing our mare. My Mum who was looking after her had thought our neighbours neice had tried to plait her mane (as she only had one single plait, unrolled in it which had become pretty tatted by the time my Mum noticed it)! We asked our neighbour and she said her neice hadn't been up for ages. Later, we found out thats how theives in the area had been marking horses to be stolen. If she hadn't been kept in at night she would have probably been stolen!
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This plaiting thing is a myth
 
There are on average reports of about 2 horses stolen per month. nationwide.
They are mainly stolen at night from fields.
Coloured cobs, Shetlands and Cobs are the ones most commonly stolen in that order.
Mares are stolen more than Geldings or Stallions because they can be bred from.
Stolen horses tend to move vast distances when first stolen.
Your best chance of recovering a horse after being stolen is by having it freezemarked on it's shoulder (so that the freezemark can be seen when being ridden). A freezemark can be seen and read by anyone making identification easier.
Sadly all fencing can be cut but to make things as difficult as possible always make sure that fields are well fenced (post and rail fencing with equi-fencing) and that the hinges on all gates are reversed so that the gates can not simply be lifted off it's hinges. Ensure that the padlocks on gates are within a metal box to make it less easy to angle grind them or a chain off.
 
My horse was stolen last year at 5.30pm out of her stable. She is kept at my sisters and she was riding at the time on the school.

Luckily Dolly escaped and ran home. She was stolen by a 'care in the Community' lady who decided in her madness that headcollars are overated and to instead tie lead reins around her neck.

I think being freezemarked in this case would not have made a blind bit of difference.

Dolly was really lucky as she ran home through rush hour traffic in the centre of Bath in the dark and although she is black and was wearing a black rug she missed hitting a car.

This woman it turned out had also stolen other horses in Bath and taken them for walks.
 
The shetland stallion stolen last night is from a very nearby village, and over the recent years there have been a number of local horses stolen! All the local thefts I have heard of have been of coloured horses, shetlands or falabella's. It is obvious what the type of people who do it are, but we are not allowed to say the word on here! It seems much rarer to have a TB or warmblood stolen.

I think all you can do is be vigilant. Have your horse freezemarked, and microchipped. Have a sign on the field saying that the horses are chipped and freezemarked. There is a yard near us who breed falabellas, who are known to the thieves, and they have installed special fencing. If it is cut through, it trigers off a siren, and this worked brilliantly - I think that would only be practical if you live nearby though.
 
Yes of course they get stolen, farmers eh :rolleyes: anything that is not fixed to the ground will get stolen if wrong person takes a like to it.

I've know a field full of well bred registered ponies go in one night, all your brood mares, foals, stallion....all taken, years of breeding and history gone in one night.

But if they want something that badly they will get it no matter what, all you can do it make it more difficult for them and use as much security as you can afford.

Obvioulsy if your fencing is totally naff (as in just about keeps the ponies in) your just inviting them to browse, if a place looks well kept, it reduces the risk I suppose.
 
Thanks everyone, food for thought.

Agh, adore my coloured cobs, but maybe I should paint them all one colour, that seems to be the best idea??

Alternatively, love the idea of the security fencing. Anyone have any ideas where I can get more information on that?? Also am looking into CCTV. Does anyone have any experience of that?
 
Yes they do get stolen, this is my Toby stolen 1/6/06 - they cut through the fence to get him as the gates were padlocked.

He wasnt freezemarked, just microchipped - something i will always regret not doing!


Toby11-2.jpg


Contact Horeswatch for useful tips on field safety and please get your horses freezemarked.x
 
As everyone has said, yes it happens.

Someone I know had a miniature shetland foal , only a few days old, stolen from her paddock opposite her house at night. Luckily after many appeals, someone found it dumped a few miles away. Foal was in a bad state but has made a full recovery. As said the ones normally targeted are gypsy cobs, shetlands and cobs, mainly mares before geldings.

The only things I can think of is good fencing, get your horse freeze marked, micro chipped, Horsewatch signs on the gate that say your horse is marked, if you have a gate then padlock it at both ends. You could look into cctv too.
 
I am surprised as I though Ireland had a problem with more horses than they know what to do with and they are dumping them in fields etc so I don't know why they would go to all the effort to steal one and then pay to export it back to ireland when they can't even give away horses there?

As to why people would want to steal a shetland when their resale value is so low - you can buy shetlands for about £250.

GypsyTheCob said:
Sorry to say but our coloured cobs are at the top of the list for being stolen. 'They' take them to Ireland and use them for breeding/driving racing ect.
Is there a house overlooking the new field? If so it maybe worth wile asking them to keep an eye every now an then, we have an elderly lady who likes to sit in her bedroom all day watching the ponies! If not maybe get a camera?
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LynnWalker said:
Yes they do get stolen, this is my Toby stolen 1/6/06 - they cut through the fence to get him as the gates were padlocked.

He wasnt freezemarked, just microchipped - something i will always regret not doing!


Toby11-2.jpg


Contact Horeswatch for useful tips on field safety and please get your horses freezemarked.x
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Lynn, that is one beautiful horse. I can't imagine how horrible it is having such a gourgeous person taken.

Mine are freezemarked and microchipped, thanks.
 
Thankyou canteron, I still get upset now when I look through his photos. But if it helps to make some one else aware that these scum will take our precious horses and ponies and dont care if they are old or lame ( Toby was lame and aroud 16 years) - then I will keep posting about him.
I havent given up hope of finding him - one day I'll get him home.

Im glad yours are fm'd.xx
 
Yes it does happen - we have had certain 'unsavoury' (lets say) people on our yard asking about our horses - ages, what they do etc - luckily my friend had the sense to say hers was old and knackered and was nothing more than a field ornament (he's not!) but it does make me worry about leaving them out at night (ours never are)
Also at our uni yard they found a guy quite late at night getting the horses out and taking pictures of them - very odd.
You only have to look at the lost, stolen and tracing forum on here to see that yes, it does happen :(
K x
 
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