I am going to put my neck on the line here....

Fii

Fii

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and say, if you were a horse theif marking out horses for theft, would'nt you put a mark on them that stood out a bit clearer than a tangle that would take a lot longer to do than an ordinary plait.
At this time of year it must be very confusing for these theives to tell the difference between a marked horse and one with wind tangles.
I understand that people are very worried for their horses but i feel that we are creating an urban myth and causing undue panick.
I intend to find out if plaits or other identification are used in this way ... watch this space.
 
I've responded on another post saying that if someone was going to steal a horse they would be in and out of the field like a shot - not going round running their fingers through manes to find the right ones to nick!

There are some very gullable people around I'm afraid and they are just adding fuel to the scaremongering fire.

And where are all these hundreds of plaited ponies being sold? Really.... stop and think before spreading this rumour.... (not you OP, all the people who are posting!).
 
I'm not sure I buy in to the theft thing either - Im a skeptic anyway. But a few years back a horse that was in a field with others also came in from field with a plaited tail of all things. The owner was stupified and claimed that the horse was not prone to allowing strangers touch him, let alone braid his tail. So we chalked it up (jokingly) to field faeries.
 
I've seen two photos now, in one case the owner had alerted the owner as a result. They were just the tangles that horses get all the time in the wind, not plaits at all.
 
I think its all scaremongering tbh - I can tell you one thing for certain , these "stolen" horses (of which there seem to be few) certainly arent being shipped to Ireland as people presume - you'd have to pay someone to take them off your hands over thre, good horses are selling for meat money.
 
I hope the thieves don't come wandering down our yard - my lad has his mane plaited to one side at the moment in an effort to train his mane! Perhaps they might think he has been marked and take him out the field....

I do know of cases where gateways have been marked, say, with a plastic carrier bag that just looks like highway rubbish blowing about. I think this is more so they can pick out the gateway in the dark though! I agree that thieves messing about "marking" horses with inconspicuous plaits is pretty far fetched and a bit silly - I mean, they may as well walk into the yard banging dustbin lids and waving a flashlight!
 
A friends TB was found in her field with a definate plait in, she wasn't going to take any risks, he's now stabled at home for a while, she was telling me last week and I didnt even know what all this plaiting business meant until she told me then saw the posts on here.

She said there was no way it was one of those tangles, it was proper plait that had been knotted at the end....so who knows.
 
I may have a feeling that my post last night may have something to do with this one. It was not intended to scare monger but attempted thefts have happend down my lane this year. One gentleman had an attempt on his 3 ponies in the summer and it was only for the fact that they wouldnt load in to the trailer that they werent actually stolen. The were walked through 8 fields to a back dead end road that lead to the last field before being attempted to load, when the wouldnt they just got dumped there. Thankfully they stayed where they were and didnt wander otherwise they would have got on to the main road. So then to have another possible attempt with a definitive plait in the mane not just a tangle, sorry but i'm going to be on my guard. If you lot want to think its hockum, scare mongering ect thats fine, but i'm not going to risk losing my horses.
 
Hmmm..............I'm not doubting that some horses have been found with plaits. However, the increase in plaiting seems to have coincided with all the press about it.

Is it possible that mischievous kids (of which I know many!) could be reading the hysteria and then going out to plait manes? I know it sounds silly but IMO no more silly than thieves going round in the night plaiting the manes of horses they can't even see.
 
I posted about this on here a couple of weeks ago, stating that I believed many people could easily mistake a tangle for a plait. My field-kept horses have been seen many a time with "plaited" tangles that look really convincing. In my post, I said that I thought a lot of people were worrying unnecessarily. At the time, no-one agreed with me!

I am NOT saying that plaiting for ID by thieves is not going on - I couldn't prove or disprove that. And certainly, yes, if it leads to us all being extra vigilant, then great - no problem there. But like others above, I do believe that this is now being hyped up out of all proportion and that many people may be having sleepless nights and worrying unnecessarily simply because their horse has got a tangle in its mane.
 
If I was going to steal a horse I would put a head collar on it and take it from the field.... I would not spend ages fannying about putting a tangle in its mane, taking the same amount of time as it would to catch and load it up.

Admittedly if a strange man can catch mine he can have it (horse is very un-trusting of new people & sometimes people he knows lol)
 
I brought the highland in the other week....in the dark he appeared to have been tagged with a plait.....but the field he is in is right on the yard, next to the farm shop...so no-one other than kids messing would have been able to do it without YO going at them with a broom...

....turned out to be a 'sticky-bud' tangle from him going adventuring down by the stream........
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Well seeing as no horses have been reported as stolen that had been plaited previously I'll take all these rumours with a pinch of salt!

It is scaremongering and nothing more.
 
It all seems to be to be along the same lines of the white van with suspicious looking men that was seen in umpteen places at the same time.

However we did have two retired ponies stolen a couple of years ago. They were in a field besides a road away from the yard. The gate was padlocked but had been taken off its hinges and by following te hoofprints we could see that they had been taken through another gate and led up a track to a layby. We think they must have had a trailer parked there but as neither pony would load they were abandoned and found a couple of 100 metres away wandering in the road. No way could they have got the gate off its hinges and jumped a five bar gate when they could have just gone up the path to the yard.
 
When I lived in Ireland I worked very closely with a travelling community and their liaison officer. They were loads of horses stolen and appearing round our area. I can assure you that people who are responsible are incredibly well organised and they DO go on scouting missions in cars and on motorbikes ahead of the horse box and 'mark' areas. Mainly cause people can be very conscious of a horse box / trailer than a car driving around the roads.

I completely agree with something like tangles in the mane doesn't sound at all plausible but one of the young lads we were trying to engage with admitted his dad did this and would go around tying a Dunnes plastic bag onto the gate of a field - having phoned his mates to tell him which road it was on, they would wait till dark and go back for it.

Gits.

Disclaimer: I actually loved every minute working with the travelers and I don't mean by any way that they are responsible for all horse thefts. I think it was just a specific 'gang' who were staying at the unofficial holding site beside our stables who were responsible.
 
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i've even read that a man was seen in a hedge!!

i mean, come on, get a grip, eh?

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I saw a man in a hedge once..... I think he was having a wee, I did see a whole family practically in a hedge on a separate occasion they were picking sloes and or brambles
 
JM didnt you say in one of your previous posts that you spoke to an Irish man?
Thats what made me realise its a myth
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Mind you they'd have to catch my lot 1st
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A few of them, (bear, Gimley and Dinks) will go up to strangers but the other 8
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They need to know you 1st
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Im sorry....but I can totally understand both points of view..Yes it is quite possible for stupid kids to go round plaiting manes thinking its funny but lets be serious, horses have been taken like people have said on here, and has anyone ever heard of a torch...I dont mean to be rude but its not hard to go in a field, use a torch and plait a mane, if they want a horse that bad, its no biggie, really. Yes I think some people believe whatever they read and it probably has been made bigger than it should of but hey youd be monaing if your horse got nicked and no one had warned you!
 
Nope....Obviously in some cases, like Ive said before on here, down in the South East (where I live) there were two coloured men that were photographed in a white van in fields etc, various different people had pictures. So that one is true. And we have known people that horses have been stolen via mane plaiting so unless you know the facts I wouldnt start saying its a load of rubbish!!! Yes it is being over dramatised but it has happened.
 
Do you think if I left a plait in mine's mane someone would come and take him off my hands? Worth a shot?

I haven't seen the dodgy bloke in the transit van who parks outside our stables since I posted about him (typically) - perhaps I missed my chance
 
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And we have known people that horses have been stolen via mane plaiting so unless you know the facts I wouldnt start saying its a load of rubbish!!! Yes it is being over dramatised but it has happened.

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I'm sure it has happened, but I'm also quite sure that it's not happening at the moment, and that people (chavs, kids etc) are seeing this in the media and plaiting horses for sh*ts and giggles to scare snooty horsey owners.

If I was into plaiting horses to mark them for stealing, and it then hit the media in the way this has, I'm thinking I might come up with a new idea...
 
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Well its patently obvious that we all need to do just one thing to put an end to horse theft once and for all.

Hog.

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No, that won't work - the latest I've heard on my local forum is that they're now cutting manes and tails off as a sign!!
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So if you're offered a pony with a hacked off mane and tail in a dark layby by a suspicious person you met in a pub, don't buy it, it's been stolen!!
 
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and that is how it really happens..no warning nothing..no tags/plaits/bags in the hedge/ashtrays emptied outside gates/no white van man/eastern europeans...etc etc..the horses/ponies just dissapear!! END OF.

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You seem absolutely certain of this fact - despite people obviously having personal experience to the contrary. I'm really interested to know how you can say with such certain conviction that everyone else is clearly dellusional or blatantly lying.

Im not having a go I'm just interested in what makes you so adamant there isn't scope for the possibility that some thieves are clearly smarter than your giving them credit for.
 
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