Huge tack theft in Surrey

[RobinHood]

Our yard in Chessington was broken into last night and nearly all the tack has been stolen. The value has been estimated at over £30,000. All the the tack was kept in 6x4 sheds some of which you wouldn't know were there unless you had had a look round the yard before so this was a local job.

The thieves drove through gate and then through 3 lines of electric fencing to get into the yard rather than go through the main yard gates. To begin with they took saddles and bridles but then halfway round they started taking only bridles.

I got a new bates saddle 2 months ago and a new dressage saddle 2 days ago, both of whihc I was going to bring home last night to clean but decided against it at the last minute.

We will compile a list of everything that has been taken and I beg people to please keep a look out for it. We will check ebay, tack sales etc and maybe some of it will be recovered.

None of my families tack was insured and we have lost about £4000 worth of tack. All the horses are absolutely fine but I hate to think what could have happened.

Obviously nobody is going to keep tack on site anymore which will be annooying but how on earth are we going to buy new tack when most of the stolen tack is still on my mother's credit card unpaid?

Please be extra vigilant and report anything suspicious to the police.

 

[fizzer]

oh dear shame you didnt take them home, yhere have been lots of yards being done over recently, hope you have kuck in getting it back:

 

[lillie07]

Really sorry for you. I hope they recover your things and the bastards are caught!

 

[Parkranger]

God not another one! we were burgled in Banstead

 

[fizzer]

meant to say LUCK. my typing getting worse

 

[SSM]

Really sorry to hear that

I keep my good saddle and bridles at home and keep only my 'ebay' tack on the yard - all £60's worth - the good stuff is then covered under home insurance and hopefull I don't have to go through the stress of replacing it

 

[JustKickOn]

ooh dear. shame you didn't take it home but nobody knew what was going to happen. good luck in recovering all the missing tack, just be glad the horses were harmed or stolen!!

 

[flying_change]

I've suddently gone all alliterative..... burgled in Banstead... maybe people are robbed in Redhill.... or mugged in Midglamorgan.... Swindled in Swindon.... just hope nothing much ever happens in Faversham.....

Sorry, it's a slow afternoon and I can concentrate on real work....

 

[SSM]

Nobbled in Nottingham?

Ripped of in Ripon?

 

[siennamum]

Is there any chance that you can get insurance from the credit card companies for your saddles./ Really bad luck. I bet it's all on a ferry going overseas

I leave my tack at the yard out of laziness and because I haven't room to keep all my saddles at home, it's so frustrating to not be able to due to the thieving ******

 

[Macha]

if your mum has insurance on her credit card the new saddles may be cover by that

 

[scs]

might be worth checking your house insurance if you haven't already, to see if the tack would be covered on that. Ours was when it was stolen - up to £3000 as long as kept in locked place - just an idea. So sorry anyway, having had all our tack taken twice within 9 months, I know how awful it is!

 

[lucemoose]

Oh no, your just down the road from me i assume by your location?Poor you..
Not Manor Farm by any chance? Heard about them this morn now all my tack is next to 'puter! Reading sales are this friday ..3 yards in as many weeks have been done locally, and ours was attempted a few months ago.
Ditto on the house insurance tho.

 

[henryhorn]

I am so sorry for you, years ago my riding school tack was stolen when uninsured and it was a real blow. After that I took it all home every night for two years before eventually buying a caravan and sleeping on site with a GSD guard dog.
You may be lucky, sometimes stuff does appear on ebay, obscure sites or adtrader.. Other stuff goes by container abroad and is never seen again.
Can you put a list up on H and H (I don't think they would object) so we can all kee an eye out?

 

[JessPickle]

Our yard has a guard dog, the owners living only about 3-5 metre from the tackroom. And a burglar alaram and a heavy duty lock

 

[clipertyplop]

reports of theft of tack and rugs are getting all too common..when you think average saddle can cost anything of £500 upwards, plus rugs £100 plus bridles ect....these items can become easy pickings to some low lifes.....how many people keep things like this in a tack room with a £3 padlock on the door..????????most of these incidents get blamed on pikey looking people driving transit vans .....but to be honest i think we have to worry more about more desperate type of people...i my self even though it is a pain at times always without fail take my tack home and have done so for years...

 

[Allykat]

So sorry to hear that...I'm only in Kent/Se london so not far away really. We were cleared out 3 years ago to the day, I lost 2 saddles and a old bridle that had extreme senitmental value. Its a horrible feeling that it is out there somewhere being used...probably by an innocent person who has no idea of its origins.

I was also uninsured at the time, but we did claim on the house insurance. I had to state that the items taken were not always stored at the yard and were usually kept at home and that they were locked away.

 

[RobinHood]

prittstick, no we're not at manor farm but they had their tack stolen in the summer.

Here is a list but it is by no means complete.

Stolen on Tuesday 9th January after 10pm from Chessington, Surrey

16.5" light brown Bates Caprilli close contact jump saddle currently fitted with a blue medium wide gullet, it has a bates cair keyring and was stolen with a black roma saddlecloth, brown stubben leathers with stirrups and a synthetic girth still attached. This saddle is only 2 months old and is in immaculate condition.

17" brown Ideal Jessica dressage saddle fitted with flair. This saddle has the letter m stamped on the stirrup bar and it had a suede seat and knee rolls. This saddle was stolen with the red albion cover still on it but the saddcloth was removed and left. I bought this saddle 2 days ago and have ridden in it once so I am distraught about its theft.

16.5" black medium wide Albion GP. This saddle is very unique because it has point straps both sides but a balance strap on the right hand side only. At the time of theft it had a "Sparrow" tag on the D-ring. It was stolen along with a black jeffries gel-filled girth.

16" black wide Ideal vsd. The stirrups on it are unusual because they have a different shaped buckle to reduce bulk under the rider's leg.

16" black Ideal GP. This saddle is very distinctive because the Ideal studs have been replaced with Martin Wilkinson ones.

Extra wide brown GFS saddle. Probably 16 or 16.5"

17" black leather Bates dressage saddle with a green medium narrow gullet

17.5 " black Hastilow GP with a square cantle probably medium wide

17" brown GFS fieldhouse GP with scuff marks from a fall on concrete

18" brown medium wide Albion legend

17.5" brown GFS probably medium

17.5" wide brown Ideal Grandee jump saddle with brown Amerigo stirrup leathers and the irons had white treads

Liveryman whisper cordless clippers

Heineger clippers (which actually don't clip) taken out of the box

Black cob size Stubben bridle with split headpiece and flash noseband. Was fitted with a single jointed hanging cheek snaffle and rubber reins

Brown full size GFS flash bridle with either a happy mouth dutch gag or happy mouth loose ring snaffle

Black collegiate bridle with mark todd V-check attached

Black pony size bridle with hanging cheek snaffle

Crime reference number: CRIS 0400 425 / 07

If you have any information or see anything suspicious please contact the police immediately.

Fingers crossed h&h might be running a news story on it.

 

[WishfulThinker]

God, poor u what a bunch od Bar sTEWARDS!! I only recently started insuring my tack, I was put of before as upon closer inspection of my last policy I realised that there was no point as it stated that tack was not insured if kept in a place where 5 or more horses were stabled/sharing the tack room !!! How ridiculous!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

RH - Have posted your list on the TDS website too as thought it might help (hope you don't mind). Good luck getting your tack back.

http://www.tds-saddlers.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1098

 

[Bri]

We're just down the road from you - had all our tack stolen twice about a year ago! Looks like its time to start lugging my tack around in the back of my car again

 

[RobinHood]

piebaldsparkle, thankyou very much for doing that, the more people that know the better.

B_G yes at the moment we are keeping our one remaining saddle (which was at the saddlers at the time) at home and taking it to the yard in the car every day. The problem with this is that I regularly have to cycle or get the train to the yard (with 3 dogs) so transporting the tack becomes a bit tricky. At the moment we are looking into hiring a security guard with a dog because things have been stolen from the farm estate 4 days in a row and the residents are worried their houses will be next.

Thankyou everyone for your words of support.

 

[pfarrugia]

I'm only just down the road from you and when I heard I was sickened. We don't leave anything at our yard as the number of thefts is increasing. One night they came in and because we leave nothing apart from the rugs the horses are wearing - that's what they took!!! Went down to find my newly clipped boy freezing. Makes me mad - will be on the lookout for your bits though. GOOD LUCK

 

[RobinHood]

dressagedivaz I have had 4 rugs stolen from fully clipped horses out in the field overnight, all on different occasions, and all the rugs are splattered with our postcode in white gloss paint which could can even read from the A3 as you drive past! Thankyou very much for keeping a look out, I hope your horses and your tack stays safe xx