New posters reporting plaits etc

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And please enlighten me as to what you already know???

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Insensitive to those people who natually worry. Easy to say 'it's paranoia, over-reaction' etc. etc. etc....

But you just carry on, who knows, you might be one of those lucky people who never gets anything happen to them....here's to hoping!

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No, believe me, I know what it feels like to have a tackroom full of saddles stolen. I am also VERY aware of suspicious goings on, in fact in work I often spot the shoplifter as they come through the door. My horses are freezemarked, my tack is now kept at home, rugs are marked with postcode (in fact I even had one stolen, washed and put back on the horse, not all travellers are bad!!) and all gates are well locked.
So I would be hardly burying my head in the sand, however, without any proof that ANY 'tagged' horse has been stolen, (the Guildford one is a myth) then I'm not going to enter into any frenzied txt and email sending.
All the photos that I've seen have been of perfectly normal tangled manes. If people want to get themselves in a state over that, then that's up to them but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
 
The photo, i have seen of these plaits dont look like they have been done by human hands to me. A while back i did read about proper plaits been used by thieves to let them no easily which horse was to be taken but have heard nothing for
a long time.
The pony that was stolen in the next field to me was just taken no signs at all that anyone had been near, just a smash and grab so to speak, it was not untill the next day bread bags were found all the way down the bridleway tied to fences and bushes. On closer inspection we found the ponies hoof prints and the trailer marks, only reason they tied bags was to show which way to take the pony as there were roads closer than this lane but the roads are exposed and this lane is very quiet. Every thief that intends to steal a pony will adapt to the area it,s stealing from, being visual freezemarking and chipping and checking horses regually at different times of the day and night is the only real deterrent.
 
2 horses in our area hade a big chunk of mane cut the one hade a fly fringe on that was also cut off clearly with sissors but we put it down to a local man who likes to assult our horses but the horses cant make a statment so police wont help rspca not intrested
 
One of ours was plaited, someone was seen in the field the night it happened and stow fair was on the following week.

Member of horsewatch - yes. reported to the police - yes. Worried yes we were so the horse in question was moved. Urban myth or not we weren't taking any chances.
 
Nobody is disputing that there may have been some truth in the initial instance, however now every tangle is being labelled a 'tag' and it is getting a bit OTT.
 
Foxes will often chew anything that they find. It can look like it was cut with a knife. Someone on our yard left a bridle out one evening, it was found a week later at the top of the field in pieces, apparently cut, but quite obviously chewed as well. It also stank. As for chunks out of manes, that can often be the horse's fieldmates.
 
If everyone just stuck to FACTS and shoved the FICTION in a novel where it belongs, there would be a lot less stress on horse owners.
Yes we all take care of our animals and do our best to ensure their safety but all these STORIES do nothing to help.
So people only post if you have FACTS not FICTION or STORIES
 
Official Horse Watch response

As many of you will know they is an unprecedented number of reports being received from different parts of the country about horses’ manes being plaited.
The overriding question is why? In short there is no given answer. Depending who is spoken to the answer may be that the plaits indicate the horse has been identified for stealing. Others will say that the plaiting coincides with the time of the year, position of the sun, moon and that the plaits are symbols of others beliefs, rites and rituals. On the other hand the plait may be the result of natural movement of the

horse combined with its close contact with hedges, gorse. These “plaits” can have colloquial names such as tigs, twassels, teesels, torgs………
All plaiting incidents need to be examined individually and a decision on what to do made on facts as identified. It would help if all plaiting incidents were photographed so that within each county a log is maintained. This would help to appreciate exactly what plaits look like and determine their relevance
It is probably best to keep an open mind about the plait debate as it does not help the equine community to create a fear of crime if none is justified. This was demonstrated recently when a horse was allegedly reported stolen from Guildford, found abandoned outside the port of Holyhead, with a plait in its mane! Subsequent investigation revealed there was no theft, therefore no abandonment or plait.

As with all matters affecting horses and property the over riding message is remain vigilant, be suspicious and report all matters causing concern to your local police and Horsewatch.


And please only post if YOU have the incident number
 
Well said dragonslayer. I guess that most of the folk on this post have never had a horse stolen I HAVE and can speak from agonising personal experience. My pony had a plait in her mane 2 days before, it did not look like any of the pics above and was not a 'wind' plait. I have owned her for 6 years and she has a very long mane, however although she does get tangles like all horses I had never seen a plait like it before she was stolen or since I recovered her.
I am sure that some of the plait info that is going around is speculation but please do not ignore them. I would hate any one to go through the terror that both myself and my pony went through, its nearly a year since I got her back and neither of us has recovered fully.
 
Whilst not doubting your loss and evident trauma resultant from it I am intrigued. The plait, you say, was put in as a marker two days before she was stolen. Did you not take it out? In which case had she had another put in to identify her for theft?
 
You'd better let Missingonloan know all the details then and she\he (sorry!) can circulate the information as so far nobody has any evidence of any genuine thefts regarding this plait nonsense.
 
Plait found in horse mane - Hertordshire

East Herts Police Log No. 705 (01/12/09)

A small plait was found in the mane of a horse in East Herts yesterday, Tuesday 1st December. The police have advised the owner to take seriously the threat that the horse may have been "tagged" in order to be stolen. They further advised moving all the horses from the paddock for a short while to deter the thieves from returning.

Having followed the advice of East Herts Police, I do not consider my post "scaremongering".

nuff said...
 
This is getting so childish, "nuff said" Sorry you feel like this, it wouldnt surprise me if there are people out there now plaiting manes of other peoples horses to wind them up. The police won't even attend if you ring and say my horse has been plaited, they will give you a call log number which is the incident number above and advise to move your horse, the police have done there job, no one is forwarding photographs of the plaits, and if a thief wants to steal your horse he will just go in the night, drop the ramp and get your horse in, not search for a "small plait"

I am not being drawn into petty arguing, i am a horse watch co-ordinator and will advise people to join horse watch and have other like minded people looking out for you with the support of the police. I do take calls seriously and will do all I can to help members. I will get a full version of events of this incident and draw my own conclusions.
 
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This is getting so childish, "nuff said" Sorry you feel like this, it wouldnt surprise me if there are people out there now plaiting manes of other peoples horses to wind them up. The police won't even attend if you ring and say my horse has been plaited, they will give you a call log number which is the incident number above and advise to move your horse, the police have done there job, no one is forwarding photographs of the plaits, and if a thief wants to steal your horse he will just go in the night, drop the ramp and get your horse in, not search for a "small plait"



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Well done for saying what I have been trying and failing to politely and calmly into words.
 
MHOL - you do a brilliant job, and I for one am grateful that people such as yourself run, join and coordinate HW. I am a member myself, but to my shame I only joined after my Toby was taken - I along with most people never seriously thought it could happen to us!

I have seen photos of these 'plaits' and think that most of them are tangles, I am pretty sure that the wind or other horses are mostly to blame, but its one of those 'what if' scenarios - what if it is a real tag, and so i can understand why people are concermed. But lets try and keep it in context, some maybe genuine plaits, some may be just tangles. I think a less emotional judgement has to be made if one is found? Try not to panic is what I mean.

Toby wasnt tagged - he had no plaits - but there were bags 'snagged' on the fencing for at least a week before he went - I was taking them down never thinking they could be markers.

I think it is great that everyone is passing on information, but lets try to keep it sensible - we need hard facts, not surmising to help keep our horses safe.
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This is being covered - responsibly, I hope! - on BBC Somerset tomorrow morning from 0730. If you're in Somerset it's on 95.5FM. If you're not and want to hear you can click listen live or listen later at at bbc.co.uk/somerset

I hope we've got it right, but from the digging our reporter did he reached the conclusion that this has (understandably because we're a protective lot!) got a bit out of hand: there may well have been genuine reported cases that kicked it off, but the good news is there's no evidence it's happening on the scale some people fear, nor is there any concrete evidence that the plaits in any genuine recovery cases weren't a coincidence rather than a definite marking. World Horse Welfare have also told us they're not convinced the resale market is viable for thefts of this type on this feared scale. But maybe police are right to be cautious and to advise people to move their horses if they're worried - they wouldn't want the liability of getting it wrong.

It's a tricky one because no one can really prove if it's a definite yes or a definite no, and the truth might be somewhere in between. But hopefully people will feel reassured rather than scaremongered when they hear it.
 
I have it on authority from the police that this incident has been reported but NOT circulated until further evidence received as they don't want to alarm everyone, I think the wording in the post above if it had been an official ringmaster message from East Herts police would of been more official.
 
Ok so why dont we put an end to all this...Some people are dam right rude on here ...some people dont come on the forum everyday so therefore are just simply trying to help, if you dont want to read about it because you do not believe in it then dont read it! I think people should grow up a tad and stop throwing bitchy comments if you dont like it dont say anything, Im not saying I belive in the plaiting and Im not saying I dont, at the end of the day I protect my horses to the best I can, weather there's theives plaiting or not theres nothing more I can do so I would suggest people calm down about it, there has not been a great deal of stolen horses but there may be some,but there is 100 percent no need for people slating and slagging each other down, people find it very rude and childish and quite frankly pathetic.
 
Hello Everyone,

The "nuff said" ending to my original post was for me, not you lot. I was saying "enough/end of my message". Golly, I didn't mean to upset anyone. That's the awkward thing about forums, emotion and tone is difficult to convey...
 
There has definately been an increase in the number of horse thefts this year.

If you wish to increase the chances of having your horse recovered after it has been stolen then:

Get your horse freezemarked on it's houlder (so that it can be seen when being ridden). Also get your horse microchipped using one of the new European Standard Microchips.

Also take photos of the front, rear and both sides of your horse both in Summer and Winter.

Ensure that your horse is registered on the NED (National Equestrian Database) web site with it's Freezmark and micro-chipp number.

If your horse is stolen report it to the police and ask for an incident number.

Report the stolen horse to Horsewatch (you will need the police incident number to do this).
 
Its like what happened to me last year, a lady knocked on to say one of my mares looked like she had been painted (tagged) and i should be aware as there were horse thieves about.
I went across the fields with her so she could show me which mare it was.
Nothing untoward at all, particular mare has a blackberry fetish and had juice all over her nose!!
 
Hey now!!!, come on and be nice...Plaits are plaits, they are like crop circles, aliens and even marmite, you either love them of hate them. I had my horse stolen from me whilst on loan and he has just been returned to me after 12 months of pure hell, and i have missing horses on loan to thank for his return. he came back from Kilmarnock with a plait in his mane, all i done was take it out!!! I think that the plait situation has been blown totally out or proportion and every body needs to chill about it. As fas as im concerned there is no cause for concern, dont go giving your self sleepless nights, take a chill pill and relax.
 
Since so many people seem to think knots are a 'sign' - then would one think that potential thieves would find an alternative method of marking horses?? A big red paint cross perhaps??
 
You should see the 'plaits' on the brood mares at the stud my mare has gone to. They live out all year round until they foal and some of them had incredibly long manes and plaits... Nothing but wind tangles.

Seriously why would someone mark a horse, that the owner would spot, to be stolen when they could just nick it then and there? Load of crap if you ask me I'm afraid.
 
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