Stable Safety

BAILEY67

BAILEY67

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17 March 2010
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Lancashire
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We have had a lot of unwanted attention on our yard recently from certain members of the community, we are a yard of cobs.

Tonight it was looking for water holders last week was for scrap metal the week before washing machines!

We were wondering if anyone has any tips on how we can prevent unwanted access to our horses, tonight i have tied bailing twine around the handle of my stable door so that it cannot be easily opened but obviously a pair of scissors would cut through easily enough.

The yard owner locks the gates at night but the "visits" have been during the day when gates open.

Any ideas/recommendations? Sorry if I've rambled :o
 
Any nice BIG dogs you could leave wandering the yard at night?.How about a dummy cctv camera.You can get ones now that are battery powered and are motion censored so if someone breaks the beam it will follow the movement.
 
Do NOT give them anything scrap metal NOTHING as they will be back.

Even if you are there they will have a plausable reason for being there.

CCTV is that an option?. Make sure your gates cannot be lifted off the hinges and the biggest lock you can afford.Do not leave headcollars or anything out.

A gate alarm or stable alarm so if the door is opened it will alert you. I was going to say shut the gate during the day? Can you not have keys and a lock during the day? Even if it means getting a few cut. Alert any nearby houses to be vigilent and if possible take down registrations of vehicles.

Ask your local police what else you can do? Make sure you report it as they will patrol the area if they know. We had a problem with metal theft and I was suprised how quick they turned up at our village. If its not nailed down they will have it.(They even told me the householder had asked them to come along). They had not.Brazen. Oh I was told they hate infra red security lights too....German Shephed or Belgian even better!!
 
Keep gate shut during the day! We shut ours and people get too it and it dosent look very welcoming as when it is wide open :)
 
We had a yard meeting tonight about it and those were the main ideas, however the only BIG dog we have between us all is a Labrador and she isn't going to scare anyone she's soft as anything.

The CCTV camera was the best idea we could come up with too, between 12 of us it shouldn't be too expensive, hopefully. The farmer is being supportive and understands our worries.

I'm going to get my lad freeze marked too, he is micro chipped already but think it can only help the situation.
 
I agree with indie above... try not to even alow them onto the yard... nine times out of ten I'm saying 'no' before they've had the chance to finnish 'have you got..'

I'd be tempted to make random night time visits to the yard at different times, get even a fake CCTV camera - some have flashing lights on which are quite convincing.... e haven't had any unwanted visits since we put ours up.

leave NOTHING out or in view of the road and microchip and freezemark your horses.
 
indie999 said:
Do NOT give them anything scrap metal NOTHING as they will be back.

Even if you are there they will have a plausable reason for being there.

CCTV is that an option?. Make sure your gates cannot be lifted off the hinges and the biggest lock you can afford.Do not leave headcollars or anything out.

A gate alarm or stable alarm so if the door is opened it will alert you. I was going to say shut the gate during the day? Can you not have keys and a lock during the day? Even if it means getting a few cut. Alert any nearby houses to be vigilent and if possible take down registrations of vehicles.

Ask your local police what else you can do? Make sure you report it as they will patrol the area if they know. We had a problem with metal theft and I was suprised how quick they turned up at our village. If its not nailed down they will have it.(They even told me the householder had asked them to come along). They had not.Brazen. Oh I was told they hate infra red security lights too....German Shephed or Belgian even better!!
Click to expand...

We asked them politely to leave the premises, unfortunately today we were having a brew and a gab so didn't notice them until they drove up onto the yard - but will be more vigilant and i accept your comment re keeping gate shut.

Our local police station is unmanned so can be difficult to speak to the police but i am going to have a drive across to the next nearest manned station tomorrow. Also, we do not have a horse watch person in our area never have so that avenue is closed to us as well unfortunately.

The gates are fabulous the farmer had them specially made with the yard in mind, they cant be lifted off and he had them reinforced so would need a mega whack to get through them.

We have spoken to the owners of the houses which over look the yard entrance and they have been fantastic one even said he would put a camera on a tripod in his window to film the entrance each evening :)

Phew :)
 
If it's not nailed down - nail it down.....
We had a couple of men turn up on our yard a couple of months ago apparently selling beds - the human sort - fortunately the girl on the yard at the time realised what they were up to and got rid of them when she realised they were checking out the yard.
I would also put signs up to say all the horses are freezemarked/microchipped and that CCTV is in operation, even if it isn't.
 
My broth in law would have them in his yard of tractors and he said he would watch them as they were having a good look round and wouldnt realise he was even in the sheds!

We dont have a local station but ask the police to patrol when you know you are not going to be around, they can do this for you.If you are rural you should let your rural officer know.

Make sure you get any number plates/type of vehicle etc and be aware these types can turn quite nasty in an instant.

Look at other week points in the yard ie not necessarily the main gate. Could they remove any fences etc. But get some security lights fitted for night time as well. Donkey??!!I still maintain nothing will get past one of these....we use to sneak up on ours and it would hear a pin drop! And wake the whole world!
 
PeterNatt said:
Get all your horses freezemarked on their shoulders. Tack mark all tack. Postcode the roofs of all trailers and horseboxes. Keep the gates shut at all times.
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These are some really good suggestions thank you, i will mark my trap tomorrow we'd never even thought of them just concentrated on the horses.

At the risk of sounding stupid :o when you say "tack mark" what do you mean?

Thanks
 
indie999 said:
My broth in law would have them in his yard of tractors and he said he would watch them as they were having a good look round and wouldnt realise he was even in the sheds!

We dont have a local station but ask the police to patrol when you know you are not going to be around, they can do this for you.If you are rural you should let your rural officer know.

Make sure you get any number plates/type of vehicle etc and be aware these types can turn quite nasty in an instant.

Look at other week points in the yard ie not necessarily the main gate. Could they remove any fences etc. But get some security lights fitted for night time as well. Donkey??!!I still maintain nothing will get past one of these....we use to sneak up on ours and it would hear a pin drop! And wake the whole world!
Click to expand...

Yeah i know what you mean re other points of entry/exit, it would be quite difficult to get a horse off the yard any other way as we have another gate at the back entrance and then pretty much everywhere else is walled off (sounds like a prison when you write it down doesn't it?). I suppose they could knock the wall down.

Think lights and dummy CCTV might be the way to go with this - i got the registration no, make and model of the truck today so will take that to the police tomorrow.

Do you know where i can find details of my rural officer?
 
Your constabulary website should tell you which rural officer covers your area if not ring the landline for your local police they will tell you who your officer is. A lot of forces are looking more at rural crime due to metal thefts (lead etc manhole covers etc etc). They will advise about marking items and some will provide this service free too.
 
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