Nancy Warner
New Member
Stolen Horse Trailers: At least three that I know of by the time we left Saturday afternoon.
My husband and I were approached (Friday afternoon) and asked if we had maybe moved the wrong horse trailer or taken the wrong one home or ???, as it was a Hart and ours is a Hart. But ours is three feet longer and has a side loading ramp and I know we would have noticed that had we even tried to load or move it. Plus, we have a lock on our bumper pull that you have to remove before you can hook it up to your vehicle (this is probably why that Hart was taken and not ours) and we have it personalized with our names, etc. (which I realize would only take a trip to a hot car wash sprayer to remove).
There were also two others stolen on Friday night. One belonged to a trainer that had everything loaded into it except the horses. They went to eat before hitting the road and came back to no trailer.
The third horse trailer I didn't get the story on, but the security guard at the EXPO grounds that I know from our showing dog days and being building and grounds over in the main big building with the driller statue in front of it told us that three horse trailers and a flatbed had been stolen in the course of 36 hours or so. She and her husband work at the EXPO in security, but work opposite shifts. She said her husband felt really bad because his position was at a point to watch the parking lot where the biggest part of the trailers are parked, but every so often he has to make a tour around the rest of the area and that someone must have been watching him to know when he did this and then made there move for what must have been at least two of the horse trailers and the flat bed.
Stolen Horses & Dog On Wednesday, very early in the AM, I heard the tiny clip clop of hooves go right by our tack stall and didn't think anything about it. After all, no other horses whinned and it wasn't a wild running sound. I wasn't sure of the time, but someone could have been going to start grooming on their horse. It was reported later that a gray horse was missing from our barn. Over the next two days another horse came up missing and one was found that no one had claimed by the time we left Saturday afternoon. Then I find out that a puppy dog was also stolen right out of the pen it was in with it's sibling. The people that had the puppy brought it back to play with it's sibling while they did ???, and when they came back, it was gone.
What else was stolen... do you have anything to add to the list?
Dealing with theft! Having dealt with the EXPO services for a number of years during dog shows, here is some of the things that we tried.
Fenced in an area for the dog show people to park in. This was a two fold answer to dogs getting lose and being in a semi contained area (easier to catch a get-a-way) and people just walking off with something out the gate they shouldn't be walking out with.
Parking permits were put in the windows of the allowed vehicles for a number of years and changed color/dates/format every year. These were given out when they checked into the building.
We tried hiring extra "T-Shirt" security guards and this was just not good. Cheap protection. They are usually minimum wage young people (nothing against youth, I am all for youth with ambition and drive for an eventual goal in life) whom don't look very official and are usually so busy socializing with each other or bored to tears that they don't care what is going on around them.
Something most people don't know about that big building is that it has tunnels running under it and the year that a bunch of the "fake sheepskin dog bedding" vendor had about half her inventory stolen without it being seen going out the building above ground, it was thought that it went out through the underground to another part of the building.
We were also warned one year, by EXPO personnel, to tell our participants to keep their purses, important or expensive belongings in a safe place as it appeared that there were people watching the parking lots and when ladies, inparticular, would leave their purse in their car (wear a fanny pack instead) and go into the flea market next door, that car would get broken into and the purse stolen.
We hired extra EXPO uniformed security guards for outside and inside the building. They cost more, but that did help having one patrol inside and two outside.
What did the most good was having two or three uniformed County Sheriff on duty the whole time of the show. They weren't just uniformed, the carried their guns and could take action that the EXPO staff couldn't take.
Now I know what a lot of the above sounds like and I have to agree... someone, somewhere from a good vantage point is still watching and taking advantage of their moment with acceptance of looking like they belong and being quick about it. We (the dog show cluster) always felt like we were being forced into hiring the extra staff to safeguard our belongings. I was always glad that I was able to take my dogs to my motel/hotel room with me and when we first started showing the horses I hated not being with them, so we started staying in our tack stall. I feel much better about being near them. I think because of their size, they are much easier to walk off with.
I looked around our barn and only saw one camera in it and you couldn't even tell if it was hooked up. I know I have been down there when they have been having auctions and it was pointed at the area (east end in front of rest rooms, wash rack and office) where they would have had the semi round pen for the horse being auctioned which would have been right over all the stalls the sale horses were waiting in.
I know that the EXPO charges for every little thing you use. Every stall, every electrical drop box, every bleacher put in place or moved because you made a mistake where it was put, every t-shirt guard, security guard, tables, chairs and on and on. I do see where they are a little more flexible with the horse shows as we were not allowed to bring in "any" outside food vendors after around 1998 or so when a new food service took over. But...
In order not to allow such thefts what can be done? Fence in an area just for horse trailers and put a guard on the interest 24/7 (like other horse shows currently do at this site)? Make up tickets in two part so that you must have the matching portion to move that trailer out of that area. It might be a little inconvenient until we got used to it, but I would not like to have to replace my horse trailer and everything in it, would you? It would also cost more to the AMHR, but I am sure with entires now double what they were the first year at this site and with the site improvements that are being made and further to be made, they should be able to afford this protection as the National grows and minis become more and more popular.
We have to protect ourselves too and that means not leaving puppies where just anyone can pick them up. Sure it is nice to socialize them with human contact, but when there are so many people picking the up and putting them down or running to show someone else the puppy, how is a nearby person to know if the wrong person is picking up the dog and walking off with it.
The same goes for our horses. What are we to do... chain their stalls shut... dangerous if there is an emergency of something like a fire or tornado... by the way... over in the big building I mentioned before... that is a tornado shelter and I will never forget the year that they had a tornado warning and there were horses and people and dogs in the shelter between the first and second floors. That is the year that the big 76 truck stop was taken out and has never been replaced.
We need ideas to present to AMHR head office. This kind of stuff can be prevented, but it takes ideas with forethought and common sense.
So, what do you think? What can be done? What is done in your area at your major sites?
And yes, I live about 125 miles from the EXPO and participated for many years (1988 to 2001) in dogs shows there as well as the planning of the dog shows and now I am back there and although the site is "so much improved" I still am seeing some of the same problems cross over to the horse shows.
Nancy Warner
