Colorado brand laws help stymie horse thieves

By Marty Metzger
Correspondent

It's a horse owner's nightmare scenario. He or she goes to the barn in the morning to feed. No hungry whinnies or impatient kicking sound out. The only greetings are silence, empty stalls and perhaps an equally stripped-bare tackroom. Thieves have intruded and violated.

Worse than the monetary loss is the emotional damage that likely ensues. Many stolen equines are valuable performance horses or breeding animals. Others are beloved pets and companions. Either way, a devastated owner's initial shock soon evolves into anger and anxiety about the animal's ultimate fate.

It is well documented that nationwide as many as 40,000 equines are reported stolen each year. Some of these may turn out to simply be escapes, later found contentedly grazing on a neighbor's prized lawn. Others may have been re-claimed by a prior owner in response to the new owner's default on a purchase agreement.

Among those criminally snatched, some are turned quickly for an easy profit, especially in states lacking good brand inspection laws. These horses lose their original identities. They're either presented to prospective buyers with registration papers once belonging to another horse, or previously registered themselves, suddenly become unregistered animals.

A sound, talented performance gelding might be bought by a private buyer at public sale, but a mare, stallion, aged or untrained animal, or an unsound stolen equine rarely meets anything but a slaughterhouse fate unless quickly recovered.

One heartbroken victim of horse theft began an immediate and exhausting search for her two talented and expensive show mounts. For several days, she closed in ever tighter on the thieves. The trail ultimately led her many hundreds of miles away to a slaughterhouse. (U.S. slaughterhouses have since closed).

The woman's high hopes were dashed. She had arrived at the kill plant mere minutes after her prized horses were killed and rendered meat for human consumption. The microchips she'd had implanted for identification had gone undetected.

According to Brand Inspector Jim Easthouse, only a couple Larimer County horses have been stolen in the past six years or so. The last horse stolen locally, that Easthouse could recall, was found with some other Wyoming trail horses.

Approximately six years ago, a stolen Denver horse reappeared several months later in Texas, being campaigned by a roper, said Easthouse.

In all of Colorado, three horses were reported missing this February. Easthouse said that Colorado's brand laws prevent problems. In comparison, Kansas, Nebraska and California have huge theft numbers, he said.

Theft-proofing a horse property runs the gamut from a simple, down-and-dirty approach to use of ultra high-tech, high-dollar gadgetry. In the former category are such deterrents as big, mean, loud dogs or locked gates surrounding the acreage. (Never lock barns. This could deny access in the event of fire or other emergency.) The latter include video cameras and monitors, motion sensors at barn entrances, or contracting with a security company. Nothing is foolproof, however.

A word of caution: An owner should never personally attempt to subdue thieves. Since the crime is a felony, most of these bad boys and girls won't hesitate to inflict bodily injury on foolhardy souls trying to stop them. A particular incident involving saddle thieves proved that point well.

Abruptly awakened in the predawn hours by his frantically yowling hunting dogs, a stable owner leapt out of bed and looked out the window. He saw an unfamiliar truck in the driveway. Quickly, he pulled on boots and a jacket, raced downstairs and out the back door, hesitating just long enough to grab a loaded shotgun. By then, the pickup had raced out. Still, he held his gun at the ready as he approached one of the barns, gingerly snaked his other arm through the partially open door, and flicked on the light.

Just inside the doorway were piled a half dozen or so good saddles, apparently hurriedly readied for "export" by one thief awaiting his accomplice in the truck.

Luckily for the gun-toting stable owner, the pair had escaped before he came running. Leaning against the doorframe next to the saddle stack was a 1-by-4 board studded with long spikes driven clear through and spaced at 1-inch intervals for about 2 feet. Had the man entered while the thieves were in the barn, he'd likely never have had the opportunity to use his shotgun. Rather, the lookout would have slammed him in the face or chest with the wickedly spiked board.

If, so to speak, a horse has already left the barn, what recourse does an owner have? Some owners trust microchipping.

Easthouse stated, however, that it is not standardized for equines. Three companies presently offer the implants, each type using a reader that doesn't recognize the other chips. This means there's a 66 percent chance a chip would go undetected even at a facility that owns a reader.

The best initial action an owner can take is to call local authorities, and then go online. Several web sites will post lost and stolen horse notices and photos. These include www.netposse.com and www.dreamhorse.com.

In the event a stolen horse is never recovered, insurance may defray financial loss.

Jim Miller, an agent for Colorado Farm Bureau Insurance in Fort Collins, said his company offers limited coverage with farm packages. Also available is an animal mortality policy, which covers most losses, except from neglect.

Miller estimated that at most 10 percent of area horse owners insure their animals. He said he pays out 10 times more on tack than on horses, receiving up to 10 claims a year for missing saddlery.

John Beckett of Beckett & Associates in Fort Collins cautioned that no homeowner's policy covers pets or livestock, except for liability. He offers a combo policy for death/theft/some surgeries. His company insures many area horse groups, such as the Colorado Draft Horse Association.

The old saying goes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Practical implementation of that cliché offers horse owners the best peace of mind against modern-day rustlers.