Tips for preventing horse theft

Sadly, horse thefts do happen - read the following advice on how to keep your horse safe and deter thieves.

Ensure that your horse is microchipped and all details are up-to-date.

Keep your passport securely locked away: It is illegal to sell a horse, export a horse or present it for slaughter without a valid passport, so keeping this safe will help protect your horse.

Your passport also contains details of your horse’s markings, which will help the police with their identification process should your horse go missing. It’s worth taking some good quality photographs of your horse for identification purposes too. Make sure you take some at different times of the year – just think how different your horse looks in the summer and the winter!

Keep your horse in a safe place: If you keep your horse at grass, make sure the gates are secure. Many people padlock one side but lots of gates can be lifted off their hinges. Simply putting another chain and padlock at the hinged end may act as a deterrent.

Unfortunately it is impossible to make premises completely secure but there are some simple measures which can improve security for your horse:

• Look at where your horse lives. Examine the boundary – is it secure with solid fences and locked gates? Are there other owners in the vicinity who you could create a Horse Watch group with? Lights which are activated by passive infra-red sensors are a good investment

• CCTV is becoming more cost effective – if your stables are close to home they can be monitored from the house or you could install a wireless camera at the stables, set to run during the night. This will show you who has been into the yard overnight.

• It is also possible to modify a domestic alarm system for stable use – but it is important to use door contacts rather than sensors to avoid false alarms. Should your budget allow, you could consider active infra-red beams covering the approach to the stables; these can be connected to a radio transmitter and provide a silent alarm to your house.

Article from the World Horse Welfare