STRANGE MANE PLAITING - HORSES THIEVES OR WITCHCRAFT??

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woodlandmoss

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Hi, Has any body experienced finding strange plaits in their horses manes. I am at a small yard in a Leicestershire village, only 3 horses and a shetland. Two of the horses were found with strange plaits in their manes on Saturday morning (done overnight). One horse was in the field with 2 others, the 2nd one boxed alone on the yard next to owners house.
The police were no help at all, horsewatch (northants) are not sure if it is to do with witchcraft rituals and others tell me the plaits are a marker for horses to be stolen (gypsies)?
Has anyone else had a similar story, do you know anybody who consequently had there horse stolen.
Any inform would be great, we are very worried about what might <font color="red"> </font> <font color="black"> </font> happen next. Thankyou
 
I've got white witches down the road from the field, found a wierd plait in the mares mane also found a dead magpie, squashed and stone dead by notorious bird killing horse. No joke she's done for sparrows and chickens so expect to find squashed witch in field.
Actually the plait was self inflicted, I cut it out of the mane and analysed it it was far too complex a thing for a human and was a 'wind' plait.
 
Please, please, please don't encourage the urban myth that says it's witchcraft.
I'm sorry,but as a hedgewitch, I find this attitude very hard to take (please forgive the rant)

No self respecting pagan/witch/wiccan etc would do anything like this. Yes, horses are sacred (epona etc), but plaiting manes of strange horse..... no!

I don't know if they are wind plaits, or 'markings' for theives - bloody hope not, as my lad had one t'other day (not caused by me, I hasten to add!).

Sorry for the rant - I've had one of those days! Bed is a-calling.
 
I call them witches knots. Our cob keeps getting them with all the winds and bad weather this winter, he had a corker this morning
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Nothing to worry about, it almost looks like it is half plaited but its just whipped and tangled by the wind.
 
Thanks for the replies, but these plaits are not wind knots, they are 2 long twisted pieces of hair plaited down the length of the mane and others added in to make a plaited bulk at the end, DEFINETLY, DEFINETLY plaited. I would much rather have a wind knot/plait believe me.
Also, didnt mean to offend any wicthes reading this, I am just trying to work out why our horses have been plaited by complete stranger in the middle of the night, as I say we are very concerned, I would much rather it be whites witches than thieves, as then no harm will come to these horses if it were white witches that is???
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I know, I know, I know ....... It sounds bonkers but what I write is completely true, dearly wish it wasnt. Yes - was very surprised by horsewatches explaination (witch theory).
 
Wind plaits/knots often look very complex. I've found a mare with 4 plaits, 2 of each joined at the bottom. However, unless witches and thieves are ALSO in the middle of nowhere in Argentina (incidentally, no horses have EVER been stolen from the place I refer to) then that's all they are; Wind knots.
Wish I'd taken a picture now!!
 
my friend came the other day and the first think her daughters did was plait the manes kids love doing it i see no harm in letting them i use to do it ,but now days if your horse is seen to have a plait all mayhem breaks out the is a obvious difrence between a plait and a ungromed horse try brushing baby oil in your horses manes and tails to stop them knoting up in to (twangles) farie plaits or whateve there called now days
 
This is just an observation of my own and isn't meant to be for or against either theory of these plaits! I found my mare with a rough plait in her mane a few years ago. It was very loose at the top but "improved" in tightness and "plaitness" further down. Now, a day or two before, the children who live where I keep her were stroking her and brushing her with me and it is perfectly possible that the oldest child had a go at plaiting one evening after school before I got there! It did bear a remarkable resemblance to the photos of natural wind tangles that people have posted here. I should add that she has never had one before or since, in the 15 years I've owned her and I have never worried too much about grooming her fully, so a few rats tails in her mane and tail would be normal. If these windplaits are apparently so common, why is her 18 inch mane unaffected year in year out?

As I said - just an observation!
 
yeah we hade a posteing like that last year in shropshire star its probally because the person who added this post reported it to the police now its going to cause mayhem in that area
 
Ok, would like to close this post now as this hasnt proved very helpful at all, was just looking for anybody who has had a similar experience, I am relieved that nobody here has reported there horse has been stolen after spotting one of these plaits, hopefully that will be the case for us.
Just looking for a bit of hope. Im not a scare mongerer and never will be. If it had happened to just one of our horses, maybe we could of ignored it but to have two horses appear on the same morning, plaited in the same manner, one in a stable (away from field) and another horse in the field. I dont think you can choose to sit and ignore it if you think your horses are at some sort of risk. Thankyou to the comments which were not sarcastic.
 
I hope you don't think I was being sarcastic, I've followed the plaiting hysteria that developed on the site, if you do a search on the forum you will see this has been done to death.

It all started/escalated due to press reports and people panicking, I was orginally going to open a new thread with the article in stating here we go again.

But when I came into the board I noticed this thread was active, it would be easier to put it here instead of opening a whole new thread on it.
 
Do you have a photo of these plaits please so we can see them for ourselves...

Do they look anything like these?
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Dont mean to be mean but I really dont think A thief would NOT BE SO STUPID as to WARN you hes going to steal your horse.???????? If you believe this well!!!!!
Theres NO PROOF that the tangles/plaits are to do with theft.
My little mare always gets these plaits and I know they are NOT MADE BY HUMANS as shes untouvhable!!!!!
I really think everyone is blowing it out of proportion now!!
 
As I've said many times before: I have a couple of valuable horses and a couple that are paddock ornament ponies. The valuable horses with their short manes have never been "targetted for theft" by plaiting, whilst my untouchable paddock ornament frequently is.
 
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Ok, would like to close this post now as this hasnt proved very helpful at all, was just looking for anybody who has had a similar experience, I am relieved that nobody here has reported there horse has been stolen after spotting one of these plaits, hopefully that will be the case for us.


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I think if you'd read the many posts on this subject prior to posting a fresh thread on the topic you would have been reassured. Not one horse has been stolen after one of these wind plaits appears. Common sense dictates that it would not be an effective way of 'tagging'. The police will give a crime number &amp; advise on how to improve security to cover themselves, but just becuase they do this doesn't mean a crime has been committed, or that they are unduly concerned.
Hope that's put your mind at rest.
Please see the other threads for greater detail.
 
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There's a bit of mass-hysteria being created in my area over wind plaits. It doesn't help anyone really.

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I agree.It is getting beyond now.Anyone with common sense would know that thieves do not mark your horse before taking it.
 
Firstly - the user has only got 5 posts, so I suspect she's the same 5-10 posted user who regularly posts about these plaits in order to cause hysteria.

Secondly, I specifically worship the Goddess Epona and I don't even plait my own horse. So you can shuv the witchcraft ideas where they belong!

Thirdly - not one single theft has been attributed to these plaits. The one horse who was supposed to have been stolen after plaiting didn't even exist. I don't care what you say about them definitely being done by individuals, if they aren't windplaits, then you, your horses and their freaking plaits aren't real!!!
 
Harper_Gal said:
Firstly - the user has only got 5 posts, so I suspect she's the same 5-10 posted user who regularly posts about these plaits in order to cause hysteria.

Secondly, I specifically worship the Goddess Epona and I don't even plait my own horse. So you can shuv the witchcraft ideas where they belong!

Thirdly - not one single theft has been attributed to these plaits. The one horse who was supposed to have been stolen after plaiting didn't even exist. I don't care what you say about them definitely being done by individuals, if they aren't windplaits, then you, your horses and their freaking plaits aren't real!!!
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you on everything said.
 
Looking at the figures on the stolen horse register there has been NO increase in the number of horses reported stolen (as opposed to stolen on loan) in the past two years to coincide with the appearance of Eastern Europeans taking pictures or mistaken wind plats.

These figures disprove that either of these scares have anything whatsoever to do with an increase in horse theft. Were this to be true we would have seen a considerable percentage increase in horse theft from fields countrywide and this has not happened.
 
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