Plait found in mares mane Beds/bucks/herts Borders Warning!!

what do you put on your horsie when traveling? tick as many as required...


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Dilbydoos

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Happy New Year Everyone..

I have just come back from putting my horse to bed tonight, when a plait was found in another horses mane! Looked a bit like a dread lock but was an obvious plait! We believe that she could of been ear marked for being stolen, so this is a warning.. She also has a foal at foot and seems untouched at present...

Thanks for reading
 

lhotse

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It's all getting a bit boring, hence the 'yawn' There is NO evidence whatsoever that horses are being tagged. There is evidence of new members trying to incite mass hysteria on this forum though.
 

Natch

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[ QUOTE ]
Looked a bit like a dread lock but was an obvious plait!

[/ QUOTE ]

Have a search and a read: it is likely to be a wind tangle and nothing to worry about.

No evidence exists for horses being marked for theft in this way.

Although it is a good reminder to be vigilant against theft at all times.
 

Dilbydoos

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Arrrr ok fair enough.... So why would there be a random plait appear, does seem a little strange!! I may not have posted very often on here,but I have been a member for some time. I am NOT trying to worry other members but purely trying to warn others of our GENUINE findings!!
 

dorani

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My horses have been getting these for the past 35 years and none stolen....They are caused by the wind and damp/wet air,they do look like dreadlocks, a good description!
We used to say it was where the witches had been riding the horse and tangled the mane tightly to keep a good hold!! Show's how long they have been around.
I think if someone wants to steal your horse the first you know about it is when you find it has gone sadly.
 

equineeyes

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Glad to hear none of yours have been stolen.... one of mine was.... in August, no wind for ages, no withces and no plait like it before or since!!!
Please DO NOT JOIN THE YAWN GANG AND BE HAPPY THAT YOU HAVE NEVER HAD TO GO THROUGH THE AGONY
 

Serenity087

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I yawned because it's all mass hysteria.

And for the record, no, I've never seen one of these plaits.

However, I have a good friend who found her mare with it's vagina between it's back legs and it's vulva slashed open. It wasn't reported to the police because the vet decided it was a kick, and with no medical evidence to prove she'd been assaulted, the police weren't interested.

So I do know what it's like to be genuinely scared for my horses! Plaits? Pssh. Try finding your horse half dead from blood loss.
 

Dilbydoos

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I am sorry to hear of your loss!! I am glad we found this plait and I dont plan on becoming part of the Yawn Clan!! Just very worrying for everyone... My horse is Freezemarked and Micro chipped, and is very wary of strangers.....
The horse that had the plait also has a foal at foot....
 

Hedgewitch13

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Odd how these plaits don't turn up in pulled manes..... It's a wind tangle! Seriously if someone wants to steal a horse they will just nick it. They wouldn't mark it first for all to see.... AND if they are going to steal it, usually at night, do you really think they are going to approach EVERY horse in the field and feel it's mane for a tangle - oops sorry plait?

A bit of common sense and thought goes a long way.
 

Tinseltoes

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I agree with you Hedgewitch13 its common sense.Horse thieves are not going to mess around in a field,they wouldnt want to be caught! They would just come and take it!!!
 

Dilbydoos

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I have now read so many different opinions TBH... I really dont think it was a wind tangle as it was kinda tied at the bottom... But yeah i understand that it does seem very strange tagging the horse first!! But god knows what these thieves think... Lets just hope it is a wind tangle and nothing more....
 

JanetGeorge

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[ QUOTE ]


However, I have a good friend who found her mare with it's vagina between it's back legs and it's vulva slashed open. It wasn't reported to the police because the vet decided it was a kick, and with no medical evidence to prove she'd been assaulted, the police weren't interested.


[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds anatomically impossible! For the vagina to end up between the back legs would take more than the vulva being slashed or kicked - the vagina would have to be physically separated from the cervix and the blood loss would be massive and almost certainly fatal withina VERY short space of time. And the vagina is only6-8 inches long - it would barely get past the buttocks if itWAS separated from the cervix and inverted. Was the mare in foal at the time - if so, what might be found between the mare's back legs would be the placenta.

I had an in-foal mare badly kicked in the vulva leaving her with a huge gash right across it which required 20 stitches. Fortunately she did not abort (6 months pregnant at the time) and foaled normally - and has bred easily since. I didn't suspect anything other than a kick - if anyone had injured that mare in that way I'd have found HIS body in the field!

If the vet thought it was a kick, it probably was!

I have also had a mare bleed badly into the broad ligament after large foal kicked back during difficult foaling (just a small tear). Within an hour she was on the floor and without immediate expert attention she would have died. If the broad ligament had torn, she would have been dead in an hour.

There is a fair bit of mass hysteria about assaults on horses too. There is usually a more mundane explanation!
 

Zebedee

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[ QUOTE ]
I have now read so many different opinions TBH... I really dont think it was a wind tangle as it was kinda tied at the bottom... But yeah i understand that it does seem very strange tagging the horse first!! But god knows what these thieves think... Lets just hope it is a wind tangle and nothing more....

[/ QUOTE ]

Look at the pictures of the "plaits "in the other thread. They all look tied too.

My elderly mare often comes in with these tangles, & to date hasn't been stolen despite them quite frequently being left in for days. She's the only one who is ever 'tagged' in this manner, inspite of being of being in a field of competiton horses & youngstock. Common sense dicates that it's more to do with her having the only long mane than anything else
wink.gif
 

Cuffey

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There have been a number of horses/ponies found with mane plaits recently in my area--all within the Motorway corridor but non to date have been stolen.
No incidents reported throughout the rest of the Region
All are sensible owners who have kept horses for many years
At one location where a pony was found with a plait another pony has had its tail hacked off a couple of weeks later and no sign of the hair. Both ponies are now very nervous.
Definitely odd
Incidents have been logged and people asked to remain vigilant but not panic.
Police quite prepared to go into properties to advise on security
 

Serenity087

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Janet - I did exaggerate slightly to prove a point - mare was totally prolapsed, not in foal at all.

Probably was a kick, to be fair, but we lived in an area of surrey notorious for horse mutilations.

I've had white vans outside paddocks, gypsies bringing my horses home after they've escaped, people standing beside my field for no apparent reason, wind tangles, missing tails, random injuries and not one single theft.

I am getting vaguely annoyed with the scammers behind it because they're flooding a workable system and meaning that actual threats and thefts are ignored!
 

_HP_

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DD...is it a long mane or a pulled one. Have you pictures to show us?
Mypony regularly gets these tangles in windy weather...like these:

121220094767.jpg

121220094771.jpg
 

DebbieCG

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I think all horse owners should be vigilant that horse theft can happen.

As a victim of horse theft myself, I am always very distressed when I see the dismissive comments made by horse owners who have never had the misfortune to suffer the trauma and, in my case, as we were never able to find our horse and get our 'life back to normal', the lifetime of heartache that it causes.

My horse was stolen in 1981 and my family and I have never got over the loss. Certainly things were a little different then and we certainly never expected anything so terrible like that to happen, as it was not so common then. We could never find our beautiful horse and one of the most agonising things was, and still is, the 'not knowing'. You just want to know if they are alive or not. I don't know if he suffered and I don't know if he survived and just hoping amongst hope that he got to a good home brings no peace or closure, as ultimately I just know know what happend to him. My mother always said it was like losing a child and I can only liken it to a member of your family going missing and you don't know what has happened to them - no-one would wish to be in that position in life.

I don't agree that 'mass hysteria' is a term to be used just because someone is concerned for the safety of their precious animal. It is not silly to be vigilant or to be on the look out, if something has been of concern. Hopefully there is nothing to be worried about, but awareness is very important, as is hopefully finding out the course of concern is something more practical.

I have experienced the loss of horses in a more normal way, as is the way of life, and from accident too. But nothing compares to the loss of your horse from being stolen. I've got that pain for life.
 

Serenity087

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I'm absolutely mortified that you compare losing a horse to losing a child!

I have buried my sister and I have buried a horse and I assure you now, painful as both are, they are not even in the same league. Especially as your horse was stolen, not killed.

Please, keep your scaremongering about horse thefts and these plaits to yourself. It is not necessary and is clogging up the system, thus preventing real warnings from getting out to horse owners.
 

PapaFrita

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[ QUOTE ]
But nothing compares to the loss of your horse from being stolen. I've got that pain for life.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh, you have GOT to be joking! Horrendous as your experience has been there most certainly ARE worse things that could happen.
 

*hic*

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[ QUOTE ]
It's okay, all the posh expensive showjumpers, eventers and dressage horses with any value arent going to get stolen because amazingly the plaits don't appear in pulled manes!!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's certainly borne out by my experience that the only horse on my field that gets "marked" is worth meat money only and is the only one with a long mane! Mind you the people that mark him must be geniuses with horses because he's terrified of strangers entering his field and often won't even let us fuss him, let alone get a headcollar on him. Oh and they're also rather stupid as he's usually unrugged and very visibly freezemarked.
crazy.gif
 

hairycob

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Same at our yard. The 2 that aren't freezemarked never get "tagged" but my 20yo sarcoid laden arthritic freezemarked mare must be highly desirable as in winter she is rarely without them!
 

KarynK

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Yes being alert to the possibility of a horse being stolen is never a bad thing, but all this is achieving is spreading panic and causing stress to people who see one of these and assume their treasured horse is about to be stolen when the facts say otherwise.

I would say to anyone who is worried look on the Stolen horse register and see for yourself that genuine horse theft is very rare. You are far more at risk of having your rug or tack and equipment than your horse.

Providing you take all the precautions you can, be it freeze marking or microchipping, and put a sign up to this effect around your premises or on the gate there is a very tiny chance that this will happen to you.

My broodmares get exactly the same as in that picture above and have been doing so for years. I have just watched one form over the past couple of days as I was going to photograph it but forgot. Day 1 a couple of hairs from opposing bunches of mane joined together the above that point the hair began to twist as the bottom was joined and She now has two dreadlocks joined about half way down the mane on day three, the same as has happened in the picture.

A plat put in by a human is totally different and would start at the top of the mane, you would want to do it quickly and spinning a deadlock and joining two of them would take a lot longer than putting in a plat.

What would be good out of all this is if people take the time to mark and record details of their horses, take pictures of your horse in summer and winter coat, keep a record of all this in an envelope somewhere safe, take close ups of distinguishing marks, make a note of numbers for passport, who it was issued by, microchip and freeze brand. If you are one of the rare cases then you have the means to report that theft quickly and accurately, quick enough to stand a very good chance of finding your horse left in someone’s field as it is too hot to handle!!

While you are at it and in a state of mind to do so MARK ALL YOUR TACK, RUGS, EQUIPMENT and TRAILER/LORRY. Then if any of these get stolen you stand a chance of getting them back and the police stand a chance of convicting those responsible.

So rather than focusing on the rights and wrongs spend that energy and time wisely and get the paint, marker pen, tack marking kit or vet out and protect your equine friend and your property.
 

DebbieCG

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A few of these subsequent 'comments' are a sharp reminder of why, as a victim of horse theft and, therefore, someone with first-hand experience and knowledge of how it affects your life, I don't generally post anything on this type of subject. I just hold on to the hope that there are reasonable minded people out there, unlike a couple of the posters here.

There is no scaremongering going on here - just the initial poster who is concerned for the safety of their animal, which hopefully is nothing to be worried about but the poster is just seeking some advice. But there are a few posters who it would appear are the ones themselves who are hyping it up. I was merely only giving my personal experience of horse theft in reply to the 'few' who appear very dismissive, in the eventuallity that it did happen.

Harper-gal - I am mortified that there are people with 'opinions and attitudes' like yours. In fact, one of the worst things about the whole terrible experience of having my horse stolen was people with your type of attitude. Why do you have horses yourself if not for the pure love of looking after and keeping such wonderful creatures? For some people, it is their world. And certainly, in the case of my mother and myself, our horse was our world (and we had to work very hard to have and keep him). And actually it was my mother who compared losing our horse, in the manner in which we did (ie. he was traumatically ripped out of our lives never to be seen again or without knowledge of his wellbeing or whether he was alive or not or whether he was killed or not) as to like losing a child. Are you saying that my mother should never have said that, even though it was how she felt? My mother is no longer here and her health was affected considerably by our horse being stolen. And on a final note, the point about 'not knowing' is just that - I don't know if my horse was killed or not, after all he was in what could best be described as 'ruthless hands' and back then our worst fear was that our horse could have been sold for slaughter. If that is what did happen, and of course I do not know, then I would classify that as my horse being killed. We were distraught. We were powerless to protect him. At the time we said we just want to know if he is dead or alive. Then at least we could have tried to deal with whatever had happened to him. But of course we just did not know, either way. Therefore we could not even grieve properly. They were very dark days. To this day, I do not know what happened to him - therefore I do not have peace. It is just the way it is - we are all different.

There is a Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary made in about 1993 which follows the traumatic and harrowing experience of about 5 people/families who have had their horses stolen and the effects it has and the pain of trying to find their horses. These people all made comments to the effect that it 'was like losing a child', or their horse was 'third generation' or 'people don't realise what it's like'. One of the people at the end of the programme, who actually was fortunate enough that the police equine unit at the time, found and recovered her horse, said 'I never thought I would see him again. I now have an insight into what it would be like to lose a child.'
So, Harper-gal - are you mortified by all of these normal, everyday type of peoples' opinions?

PapaFrita - your term 'you have GOT to be joking!' when I am referring to a very personal, terrible, emotional and pyschological lifetime experience leaves me 'horrified' also. Please look at the more general spectrum - I was not referring to the idea that there are not worse things that could happen, but in the context of the loss of a horse - I've heard it said many, many times, to have your horse stolen is most owners worst nightmare.
 
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