So fed up with getting robbed!!!

I do keep most of my stuff at home or at my friend's, but it's the bulky everyday stuff like feed, mucking out stuff, hay, etc that I have to keep at my stable as I don't drive and there is only so much I can take on my little bike trailer (lol, that is only supposed to carry up to 10 kgs or something like that and I regularly overload it with bags of horse feed, I'm just waiting for the wheels to fall off one day!).

I'd LOVE to get a big container! If I owned the field, I definitely would and get rid of all the crappy dilapidated sheds there to neaten it up but I don't think the FO would be too keen on that as he likes his old sheds that he built.

When they nicked the hay the last time, the Welshie got out of the field and was in the hay barn eating the hay from the bales. I don't know if they let him out or seeing hay bales got him excited (he is fat and on a grazed down paddock to keep his weight down) and he barged out through the leccy tape but I wish he had kicked the h*ll out of them. Would have been their fault too.
 
Do you have brambles and overgrown bushes?? As I'd suggest hiding anything of worth in the bushes and leaving all the old crap in the barn.... certainly this won't work for your hay of course, but cut the strings on it all so it's a pain to take away. Certainly anything wrapped in plastic can live out.

I used to keep grooming stuff and the odd rug in a rubber dustbin and hide it in the bushes when I was at a field with nowhere secure to keep it....

I'd love to do as Orionstar suggests with the bird scarer. There are similar things on the market for protecting outdoor items. Might be worth a look, as I'm sure you'd hear it go off from your house.

What I'd love, is a CCTV link to my house with a loud hailer attached to the shed, and to shout: "will the scraggy thieving barsteward currently rummaging through my shed, please sod off".... and then shoot them with dog-poo filled bags. Is that going too far perhaps??!!!! :)
 
KristmasKatt said:
how about borrowing some geese? supposed to be better than guard dogs........
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ooh yes, I know someone who did this. Worked a treat. They make an absolute racket and imagine the surprise of them all bursting out the shed in the middle of the night pecking the thieving knees!!!
 
There is a simple solution. It is called 'Smartwater'. Smartwater is a liquid with micro-particles in it which are coded. You could simply paint it on the doors or items and anyone that touches them becomes permanently coded. When at a later date they are apprehended and scanned the coded particles will identify that they have been in contact with your property.

www.smartwater.com
 
I think what I would do is get c.c.t.v that can come though on your mobile phone and p.c at home, I have looked into this myself for foaling, they are not that £££ and you can keep an eye on yr yard day & night no matter where you are ;) also with shavings i would only buy what i needed and put the bed down so no extra shavings are in the store shed, and hay bales I would also stack them and cut the bailing string ;)
 
My mam used to own a rottweiler untill he was sadly pts last year because he had cancer, he must of weighed about 8 stone and he used to go everyware with her in her little Peugeot 106 (lol) and funny enough she never had to lock the doors of the car when he was in it, even though he would much rather lick you to death and wouldn't hurt a fly. Just something to think about ;)
 
Sorry, just to check everything is padlocked? Like, fences to the field etc? To get to ours you have to go through 4 padlocks of different types to get to the tack room or field, then both of them are locked too!!!

You're asking for trouble if you're only tying with baler twine!!
 
All great suggestions above... it sounds like someone local with animals themselves knowing where to get some extra supplies :(

If this was happening to me I would build a storage bay out of three pallets and empty my bedding into this so it is loose and cannot be easily carried away, same with the hay, cut the twine and again only small sections could be taken.
Geese are great security, they will get to know you and will frighten all other visitors away, they are easy to keep and feed! Plus I would put up the CCTV signs and speak to my local PCSOs to see if they can offer advice and join the local farmwatch group.
 
You have my sympathies, the same thing happened to me at the beginning of winter. Just a word of warning that when my things were stolen they came back a fortnight later, presumably in the hopes of taking the new things I'd replaced. They took all my mucking out things, although kindly left me a broken shavings fork, buckets, rugs, grooming brushes, rasps and hoof nippers, wheelbarrow, first aid stuff, feed etc which is all blooming expensive to replace.

I've ended up postcoding EVERYTHING in white gloss paint - my poor pony looks like a Blackpool donkey with the postcode across the front of her grazing muzzle :o Buckets and everything that has to stay at the field is done.

I bring as much as possible home and only take what I need, it is annoying though and hard work, especially lugging haylage nets over.

I now put any bedding straight in the stable and don't store it, hay has the twine taken off. I learnt the hard way that the more secure I made things, the more determined they seemed to be to take them and did more damage. The final straw was the third time when they stole our chickens, they'd cut the padlock off with boltcutters the second time, so we made it so that they couldn't do that, and they tipped the whole shed on its side to take the floor out to get to the chickens. The poor things must have been terrified. I only keep a couple in the garden at home now as it's just not worth the worry and upset. :(

It is totally depressing when it happens, but I think it is surprisingly common sadly. I hope you manage to stay crime free.
 
The very first yard I went had a bridlepath running through my field & I was forever getting things nicked - I feel for you hun :(
I had to leave in the end as I was having rugs taken off backs, hay & shavings going walkies & it was costing me a small fortune to replace. The YO didnt give a crap & there was nothing I could do about it.
The final straw came when I went riding in the field opposite our stable block, it got really warm so I hung my £85 pikkeur (SP??) jacket up on the barn door, was only gone half hour & someobody had been up & taken it :( I was obviously being watched & that was the last straw for me, hope you get it sorted xx
 
flamehead said:
Sorry, just to check everything is padlocked? Like, fences to the field etc? To get to ours you have to go through 4 padlocks of different types to get to the tack room or field, then both of them are locked too!!!

You're asking for trouble if you're only tying with baler twine!!
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The gate is padlocked and so is my tack room but they've come before with bolt cutters and cut them off and broke the wood off the wall to get into my tack room. I don't keep any of value down there, the last time they broke into my tack room, they stole my £5 lunging bridle but chucked my riding helmet and the KK bit off of the bridle, over the hedge!!

My hay barn is my FO's old garage so no door on that, only a wooden gate he cobbled together to keep neds out. The shed where my shavings were in, is an old woodwormed rotting thing and the doors are hanging off of it hence the baling twine to hold it shut. If you put a lock on it, you could just kick the wood in to get in! My tack room is too narrow to keep any bulky things like shavings in.

Locks don't seem to deter these people so I'm going to do what everyone has said here and just buy one bale of shavings and top up Hattie's bed every week. My OH can bring the bale down on the weekends for me as he can drive me. Not much I can do with the hay other than to continue to cut the strings. I found some barbed wire and I'm going to put more around the tops of the fences. I'm not keen about putting up CCTV signs though as I don't want whoever is nicking to think that there is camera equipment down there to steal and then they go looking for it and cause more damage in the process.

The problem is that it's not my field to do any major improvements on it like high security fencing, etc so just have to do the best i can.

I do think it's someone local though if they have stolen shavings.
 
That's awful! Some people want stringing up by their sensitive bits!!

How about somehow injecting a load of dye into the middle of a bale of shavings (so it can't be seen from the outside unopened) and leaving it to be nicked. And once it's gone give it a week or so then put ads up everywhere asking people to let police know if anyone on their yard has been using green (or whatever) shavings because they're stolen property.

Just an idea. Can't think of anything else to add.
 
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