Plaits in manes - have just spoken to a police officer.

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Cedars

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Afternoon all.

I've just spoken to a police officer about plaits in horses manes. This is what he said.

1. There are NO recorded cases of horses being stolen after plaits have been found.

2. However, that is NOT to say that it doesn't happen. Just as much as they couldnt say if the horse was painted bright pink, had one leg chopped off or had tinsel wrapped around its neck before it was stolen - because, if they do it to see whether you visit your horses regularly, then your horse would be gone before you got there if you hadn't visited regularly.

3. Although there are NO RECORDED CASES, this is not to say that you should ignore it. Everyone should be as viligant and security conscious as they can possibly be - plaits or no plaits. Advice on how to secure property can be found with the police.

Thought people might find this interesting. x
 
ah yes but if I was to now think like a theif I would be thinking i'd plait these manes as everyone will now assume it's a wind plait. Perfect opportunity now I would think so worth being vigilant wind plait or not!
 
So, like it says Ella, your security levels shouldnt increase if you find a plait because yoou should ALWAYS be at maximum security.
 
Mm, I agree. It always makes me laugh when people say they're upping security because they've had a scare - our yard is like fort bloody knox at every time of year! xx
 
Now, this is what I don't understand and it puzzles me every time this comes up! Surely if you had time to put a plait in you might as well seize the opportunity and steal it there and then.....?!?

Regardless of how often you check your horses it's a pretty much given fact that they will be alone at night, if I were a horse thief, forget plaits, I'd watch the place a few nights and I'd be in under darkness and out again!
 
so your telling me horse theives stand there under torchlight doing a time consuming plait to "mark" the horse as one to steal?! I don't buy that.

...then when they come back to steal they'll get their torch out again and go round checking which horses have a half done plait! LOL

Would be far easier to chalk an "X" on the side, or just take the horse there and then.
 
Don't forget, theives also take off 1 shoe to mark a horse, spray it with a red x or put nail polish on their hooves all as markers to steal horses.

These are all things I have all heard people say their friends next door neigbours cousin had happen to their horse who then got stolen.

Horse owners should be extra vigilent all the time, not just because their horses mane gets a knot in it.
 
Thanks for posting FH

I have said time and again on this forum -

The 'plaits' are put in place to see how often the owner tends to the horse. They do not mark to let an accomplice know which horse to take, merely to see how long it takes the owner to take the 'plait' out. They can then establish how long they have got to steal and sell the horse without the owner noticing.
 
Irrespective of what the motives are for the "plaits" it is still a frightening and horrible feeling to know someone has been in such close proximity to your horse , i would not wish it on anyone .
 
christi said:
Hmm , if they what something they will take , even if your security is at the max ie Fort knox.
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Yes but if it's like Fort Knox it won't be easy for them. I'm lucky enough that most people couldn't find mine even if they wanted to! Plus the man who lives in the house up there has CCTV cameras set up which I find very reassuring, and he has 3 noisy dogs. It also takes me about 5 mins of swearing to get the blasted chain off the gate! The gamekeeper is also up there at strange times through the night, also reassuring.

What surprises me is that these horses stand patiently while they are plaited by a complete stranger..
 
mymare said:
Yes but if it's like Fort Knox it won't be easy for them. I'm lucky enough that most people couldn't find mine even if they wanted to! Plus the man who lives in the house up there has CCTV cameras set up which I find very reassuring, and he has 3 noisy dogs. It also takes me about 5 mins of swearing to get the blasted chain off the gate! The gamekeeper is also up there at strange times through the night, also reassuring.

What surprises me is that these horses stand patiently while they are plaited by a complete stranger..
Click to expand...

I have cctv cameras linked to my house, security flood lights that record , signs up all over the place , my noisy dog , my yard is 15 steps from my door on my property , also live in the middle of nowhere 18,000 acres of nothing, and someone was still able to be on my property when i was there without me knowing . its most annoying . :-(
 
Someone marked one of mine today, with lumps of mud in his mane, they were hanging there like dirty xmas tree decorations :eek:
The onley photo's i have seen on this forum of plaites are actually wind tangles, all of mine get these from time to time, as they don't have neatly pulled manes.:o
 
christi said:
I have cctv cameras linked to my house, security flood lights that record , signs up all over the place , my noisy dog , my yard is 15 steps from my door on my property , also live in the middle of nowhere 18,000 acres of nothing, and someone was still able to be on my property when i was there without me knowing . its most annoying . :-(
Click to expand...

Was it overnight? Did the CCTV pick anything up? That's worrying. I'm assuming you're on a hill farm or similar? Our local police have set up a "Farm Watch" around here which we registered with, you get automated calls warning of anything from diesel thefts to gate thefts, but it's worth knowing of any dodgy goings on - might be worth finding out if your local police have anything similar set up?
 
At my last yard we had people in the dark using flash photography, obviously going to steal to order, they were disturbed by one of our ladies going to fetch her horse in, two men ran and legged it over the 5 bar gate and were gone, fortunately nobodys horse got taken, but it was extremely worrying at the time, the only saving grace there was that liveries all went at different times, so no one really knew when anyone would be there.
 
There are alot of urban myths about the whole horse tagging thing.

I had a mare who was very valuable when she was young, her mane was kept short & she was never "tagged" but when I retired her & let her mane grow long her mane was full of tags!

It wasn't to check how often they were removed as I never removed them until her annual trim in the spring.

Why would thieves warn you that they are going to steal your horse, cars & houses don't get tagged, why would horses be different?
 
I havent read the thread because I've just had a screaming row with my sister about this very topic! Tonight when we fed and checked them, Moomin had a 'plait' in her mane, as well as a unicorn horn of a forelock :D I am 100% certain that if shes stolen tonight it wont be because of a plait in her mane! Mainly because there is only her and the foal out in the field!

However we have spent a ridiculous amount of time rowing about it! Mainly because my sister wants to go up hourly to check if they are there! Arrrgghhhhh!! If someone wanted to steal just Moomin and not the foal it would be very easy to say "steal the bigger grey/beige one" Even a non horsey person would know the difference between a grey and a coloured surely? But in all honesty if you were going to steal horses you would take both Moomin and the foal surely?!?
 
I don't really understand this either. How would thieves know how often I come up to the yard by whether or not I have brushed my horse's mane? I know I will get in bother for this, but if I bring her in for the night and she's wet, she doesn't get brushed, for fear of rainscald, and I don't have time before work in the morning so she goes back out as she is. If it rains for 3 days and this coincides with the working week she might not get groomed in all that time (:eek: but that's the way it is I'm afraid). So thieves would learn nothing except that it has been raining, from the fact that the plait is still in her mane...I would have thought that any thief that knows their business would be able to steal a horse without marking it first, anyway, visiting too many times will get noticed. Besides which, horses are just not selling at the moment unless they have a proven record or something else special about them, so what would be the point of stealing them? They would be better off stealing the hay that's in the field with them, I should think...
 
i was wondering if anyone has ever found a horse with a full neck rug on or a pulled mane with a plait in its mane? what happens if they want to steal a hogged cob?
 
SO1 - my fresian x cob is quite capable of getting plaits in his mane with a full neck on - they are always in the same place near the wither so I assume it's the movement of the rug. If some one was to do it to see how often we were up there they would be very confused - I only take them out at the weekend so they would have to conclude that the horses brought themselves in, put themselves out, mucked out their stables & poo picked their own field each day!
 
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