Food Colouring - Is it horse safe? (Catching the yard thief)

[Backtoblack]

Nothing changes this reminds me of my days on livery yards many years ago. Thankfully I have my own place now. I have never got over having a leather headcollar stolen off my pony when I was 12. It was a girl at the yard who used to hang around helping,she brazenly turned up after the theft. Everyone knew it was Sharon who was the thief but I never did get it back. I remember her name though.

 

[criso]

Very frustrating, I'd be tempted to lock up the main store of supplements and leave out enough for each day measured out in small pots. A chain and a padlock on a feedbin is quick and easy.

However no matter how annoying it is, I wouldn't do anything that affects her horse. Even if food colouring is safe, it's not necessarily good for you, may be an issue with horses reacting generally or an allergic reaction in an individual horse.

 

[Birker2020]

I understand what you are saying and I have a friend who is a kleptomaniac. It's fascinating to covertly watch her steal things she has absolutely no use for, she just can't help herself.

But most people who nick supplements or food in livery yards, in my experience, want that stuff without paying for it and it isn't the duty of the victim they stole from to help them.
.

I agree. There's an unwritten code which says that you don't steal from your own.
Yes I will have scissors, mugs or the odd post it note from work but I'd never ever steal from a fellow livery. Scissors are bought in bulk for pence, mugs are given away by reps anyway and a post it note is very small.
When I had my own horse If I've been out of carrots (very rare) I would borrow a friends but always repay it double and if I saw her tell her I had done so. She knew she could do the same with me too.

 

[Jambarissa]

Another livery on my yard uses sugar beet and used to posts photos of the bucket. Obviously the surface is usually smooth after you've soaked it and she posted photos of it with a very obvious scoopfull out of the middle. You have to lock up bloody soaking sugar beet on my yard.

 

[nikkimariet]

We had a livery - years and years ago - who did this. Haylage, bedding, feed, supps, shampoos and sprays. She wasn’t a bit sorry only annoyed she’d been caught out.

Me and PS always knew exactly how long things lasted on the yard so funny we were suddenly getting through triple the amount since a new arrival!

My only recommendation is providing pre made feeds for the yard BUT I’ve also taught at a yard where one of the liveries was stealing hay and feed out some of the stables (with no care for the fact a pony was going hungry / losing weight / developing ulcers let alone the cost implication for the owner etc). People are unreal sometimes.

 

[ROMANY 1959]

Before I sold my horses and gave up, I had a good friend on the yard in next door stable. She had a horse that needed expensive deet fly spray, as he would be driven crazy by flies. But it was disappearing at a quick rate. Whereas a bottle of spray would last a few weeks, she was now having to buy it every week.. but we did notice a new livery with a grey horse, was always spraying fly spray from same bottle on the grey. But never seemed to buy new. Always same old tatty bottle . So my friend , put few drops purple spray in one of her nearly used up deet sprays. And bingo. Next morning her grey had a streak of purple down his neck. Culprit found.

 

[HobleytheTB]

You guys are no fun! Fair enough, I won't put food dye in the supplement I'm well aware I'm petty and childish!! It's just irritating that a number of liveries have had things disappear but can't prove it's her doing it.

No supplement stolen today anyway (doesn't tend to happen if she's here during the day when yard staff are about anyway), but I'm going to keep a very close eye on how I've left the tub and scoop when it's my days to make feed. If it happens again I will coat the scoop only in food dye and she can have blue hands for a bit. Then I will resort to a note and/ or keeping the tub in my car on days yard staff don't need it. There's limited storage space so not straight forward to buy a lockable box that will fit on my allocated supplement cubby hole!

I can't really put up a camera as the feed room is a communal area and I don't want to record other liveries without their consent.

Yard staff are aware that other liveries suspect her, but there isn't concrete evidence so they won't say or do anything at the moment. Funnily enough they did ask her not to take scoops of their beet pulp they'd pre-soaked that was also circumstantial evidence that pointed to her!

 

[ycbm]

Timer or password.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lockable-P...ock+box+with+timer&qid=1709146857&sr=8-7&th=1

 

[HobleytheTB]

Timer or password.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lockable-Password-Medicine-Storage-Organiser/dp/B0BWRKVB5K/ref=sr_1_7?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OIiPhePdl1KJaBDbMI2HDyeX3OCstnQlcWs4DGvzw2ZjkNrVMG82UYbqlUG6dv1uMj0dwcJADbMG1ySLqsOjde9WNiVBHNH5vCsk2Xu6jto40bp5kFxpqvVDQdhQC4c161XSTN6LCmNr6ynaSXVJn6tDahicy-Vb1fWfq1yvvlKWd7yKS248QgD6ViPwOSjgf10mAWtVdnXzAhSDAtg0jgl1BefqHQ5SYHdwyLsXdhk0rntYf2JBcepx3Uv5Cn1LV0dt9N-Mh6pXk8Rh_9y73_Rdlj1WxNTc2OeE14nCKNA.CwNQQ8OoIC9onahYIX3Y-GhrjN3X2McdS_igKDd6qTQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=lock+box+with+timer&qid=1709146857&sr=8-7&th=1

She can see the goods, but she can't get the goods.. unless she steals the whole box

Thank you, I will measure the dimensions of my shelf tomorrow. I will protect my vitamins until the end!

 

[GypsGal1718]

Print out an image of the Ten Commandments, highlight do not steal and hopefully she will get the message if you put it in the pot/bag. If you do want to use the dye idea use something horse safe yet staining such as turmeric if you want

 

[GypsGal1718]

At an old yard I had many issues with my stuff being taken, headcollar and ropes, grooming stuff , towels you name it. But the worst was when I left that yard, I had given correct notice and everything but the my decided to take one of my rugs, a rambo! And it was especially saddening as it was sentimental as my girl came with it. I know it was her as one of my yard friends saw it on her stash and asked about it and supposedly it came with a new horse’ I was very sad about that

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

I once went to add my globalvite (decent sized heavy tub) to my feed, to discover it would appear to have gone down by half!

Following similar threads on here, I left a note in the tub, and swiftly invested in a lockable box, into which all my supplements went.

I suspected at the time one livery in particular, but also wonder about another, who was very vocal about who they suspected and how all their stuff was getting taken too..

Another time I went up to discover my flash on one of the rs bridles. I took my bridle home after that.

 

[Lois Lame]

Rubber snake. Attached to the lid with thread. When they lift the lid the snake goes up!

I had the perfect rubber/plastic snake for this. It was so awful, so ugly and so frightening that I chucked it away though. (I had sort of inherited it.) Thief would have screamed in shock for sure

 

[LeneHorse]

Get a fake severed hand from Amazon and stick it in your tub

Amazon.com : severed hand

 

[cauda equina]

Or a mousetrap

 

[Highmileagecob]

One thing that might work, although you need to inform the yard owner and make sure someone is on site - Hide a personal attack alarm near the box with the cord secured to the lid. Enough to scare the bejazus out of anyone. Make sure someone knows how to put the connector back in and stop the noise!

 

[MissMay]

You can buy small little tubs on amazon for weaning babies and they take a scoop of supplement.
I would just buy these little tubs and leave out what you need for the yard staff. Takes up way less space as well.
They have secure lids and usually come in packs of 6 or 10

 

[HobleytheTB]

One thing that might work, although you need to inform the yard owner and make sure someone is on site - Hide a personal attack alarm near the box with the cord secured to the lid. Enough to scare the bejazus out of anyone. Make sure someone knows how to put the connector back in and stop the noise!

That's a great idea

Unfortunately my own horse is quite noise reactive and would probably manage to cut a leg off or something if he was in his stable at the time

 

[marmalade76]

We had similar problems almost every time a new person moved onto the yard. Eventually, one of the long term liveries packed up and left, and her 'friend' admitted that she had been the one to do the stealing to make it look like the new person was to blame, so that new person would leave, thus maintaining the status quo on the yard. Person who left was a strange, angry woman who no-one really got on with.

I have been the victim of similar, it started with very subtle attempts to cause trouble between me & others and did escalate when the subtle little things didn't work. She was far too crafty to get angry, though.

Same person was nicking my fly repellent until I replaced the contents with iodine.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Print out an image of the Ten Commandments, highlight do not steal and hopefully she will get the message if you put it in the pot/bag. If you do want to use the dye idea use something horse safe yet staining such as turmeric if you want

Amend the commandments...

If thou shall not steal, then I shall not kill.