Pony 'tagged' somerset

[hairycob]

Amyrosee, if you seriously think that tangles like that cannot "just happen" I will gladly lend you my mare for a few days in windy weather! I've said on other threads that she regularly gets quite complex & fancy looking tangles & has done for all of the coming up 6 years that I have owned her.
I'm sure Ponder is genuinely concerned but I suspect that her concern is caused by the posts about plaits rather than the actual tangle. I have yet to see a photo that looked like a plait rather than a tangle or a crime reference number for an actual theft.
I repeat again that we should consider the story of the boy who cried wolf. Being concerned about your horses welfare is good if it leads to you getting it freezemarked etc, not if you waste police time.
Also you say that the mane isn't thick enough - I have 2 cobs - 1 has a mane that is 1m long &very thick, the other has a shorther finer mane - guess which one will have several tangles each day & which gets 1 or 2 a week.

 

[snaffle]

wether or not the plaits and thefts are related, its up to each owner to do whatever they feel necessary to protect their own horses. I for one, am grateful for the warnings etc that are posted by others on here, it just makes you more vigilant - which is a good thing these days anyway. my horses are more important to me than some peoples opinions.

 

[sakura]

sparklers I was talking about Cornwall. I can not possibly know how many horses are stolen down here, since there are so many and a lot go without much investigation.

I'd also like to ask HOW owners would know if their horse was tagged or not before being stolen? Owners do not often thoroughly check their horses when they go to visit them, a lot are targetted as they know the owners will not be down there till certain times of the day etc, therefore just how would we know if a stolen horse had in effect been 'tagged', or if they hadn't? If we knew that, the horse would not be stolen now would it?

I agree with wheelbarrow, I came on here to spread the word. You can choose to ignore it or take it as rumours if you like, but showing a little support maybe wouldn't go a miss as unfortunatly to me, I'm not taking a risk and am taking theses as warnings.

 

[lhotse]

So you came on here to further hysteria and the wasting if police time, sure, everyone needs to be fully aware of security issues but this is all now getting to be out of hand, and I for one will be listening to the people who DO know the figures, like missinghorsesonloan. There is absolutely no evidence AT ALL, but you still carry on 'spreading the word'.

 

[Hedgewitch13]

Hear, hear!

 

[sakura]

If that's how you want to view the situation, then that's up to you. Fact is you can't 'prove' that horses have either been tagged or not when stolen - since if you knew that, they wouldn't be stolen would they? How would you know if a horse that had been STOLEN, had any kinda tag in its mane?

As I said, my horse has a mane that was once almost down to his chest, he lived out 24/7 with no neck cover and never had any tangle even remotely like the ones being described by a lot of people - and the photos to match. Sure he had 'fairy plaits' and tangles, but nothing like those.

For those reasons, I am choosing to not ignore this, and take it as a warning so that I can do the best to protect my horse, it's up to you whether you choose to or not. If the police considered it as such a waste of their time, and lets face it, many things are, they would not be following it up. Simple.

 

[Hedgewitch13]

My horse is well enough protected as it is thank you. Oddly enough there haven't been any of these 'incidents' in my surrounding area. Funny that.

I still haven't seen any proof of any horses or ponies having been stolen after being plaited and until I do I will still consider this to be hysteria and nonsense. And that's my right to do so.

 

[lhotse]

Why do you and your fellow cronies seem to have this attitude that the rest of us don't care for the security of our horses? I am very aware of my security, but I'm not going to get paranoid over something that is not happening. The police DO have better things to do with their time than running around chasing up stories of tangled manes.

 

[MHOL]

Right, I have to say, How many of these new posters that are "spreading the word" and concerned and want to warn other horse owners are active members of Horse Watch, Sorry, What was that? 'None", No i didn't think so.

Why don't you become Proactive and not reactive to equestrian crime, lets say for instance your horse IS stolen, what do you do???

In my county a worried horse owner had 9 horses "Stolen" she phoned the police, then horse watch. At 8am in the morning we dropped everything and alerted national horse watch, all markets, slaughter houses etc., We also gave the owner advice and kept her calm, she later found her horses two fields a way, we were on local radio alerting everyone. This was beofre the police had even turned up to take a statement.

Then what happens is they give you an incident number, that is where your help ends, the police have enough on their hands without looking for your brown horse. Most dont know what a 15hh bright bay is with a broad stripe!


Horse Watch are there to help and need support and can people PLEASE take photos of these plaits and email them in.

We want to help and will advise but its worrying how many people are getting themselves in a tizz and sending "official" messages from the police, i can check these out and none of them so far have been true!

 

[Hedgewitch13]

Fab advice yet again but sadly the people who are perpetuating these rumours don't seem to be listening

 

[teddyt]

[ QUOTE ]
Quite saddened to see peoples genuine concerns dismissed as a tangle.
What is so wrong about being concerned for your horses welfare? Better safe than sorry imo.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. It may be just a tangle (?) but the owner is genuinely concerned. Why does that mean shes scaremongering? People should make up their own minds and there is no need to be rude if you disagree that its a tag. If the photo and thread helps prevent ONE horse from being stolen it is worth it. What is suspicious to one person may not be to another but its not so much creating hysteria as offering information and sharing concerns.

I think its important for people to be able to use forums such as this to spread the word. At least a photo was included, so people can make an informed judgement.

There is just no need to have a go at the owner who is obviously genuinely worried. It is her personal thoughts and feelings, they are not something to be horrible about.

 

[SirenaXVI]

Here's a thought - lets put hoods on all our horses, that way they cant get 'tagged'

Seriously though, Sirena often has wind tangles, these are most definitely NOT plaits, but they do look kinda like the photos on various threads on here.

People need to STOP PANICKING! By that I do not mean compromise your horse's security, but just put things in their proper perspective.

 

[hairycob]

I agree that Ponder is genuinely scared & I would say she is the victim of the scaremongers. I hope that if her horse isn't freezemarked already she has been in contact with Farmkey or Freezmark to make a booking (I'm afraid I'm beginning to sound like a stuck record on that one!)

 

[sakura]

I never said you don't care for your horses protection, that'd be ridiculous. I said that personally I am taking this as a warning for my own. I'm also not a new poster, I've been a member a while, I had a very small post count as I usually just browse and post on topics that catch my attention - and all of that is irrelevant to the topic.

Again, I'm sorry but there is no 'proof' as finding horses that have been stolen - before they reach their destination is pretty hard to do! By the time horses are recovered, they have almost always been in a new home or on a yard - so of course, the people responsible are gonna want to take any clues away that would link back and make the horse appear neater for sales - which would include removing these 'plaits'. Therefore, you would simply not know that a horse had been tagged. It's hard enough to discover one thats been stolen, let alone a horse who was stolen AND tagged.

I'm sorry that you don't share the same view as I do, but it is also my right to express my own opinion, as you have with yours.

If it goes to help ANY horse, I think it's worthwhile.