Your Horse/s and items of equipment are now at serious risk, even whilst you sit reading this. Your horse-box and/or horses, with all the expensive security measures you might possibly take, could disappear tonight. Your coloured horses are almost certain to be already marked down for a visit by the theft brigade. Harness and tack disappears by the lorry loads (yes, lorry loads plural) every month throughout Great Britain.

Your equine purchase today could well be the theft of yesterday, I use yesterday in its broadest possible sense.

Perhaps, even more sadly, the incidences of neglect, cruelty and deliberate abuse of horses escalates as more and more people decide “it would be nice” to have a pony for the children, or to improve their ‘local status’, to “keep horses”. Without the knowledge, sufficient land and buildings, or money to do the job properly, will almost always begin and end in extreme suffering for the horses, and heartbreaking work for Horse Watch, the RSPCA and the Police.

The equine world is riddled with theft, cruelty and abuse. Sorry, but it is true.

So what can Horse Watch do? Well; Horse Watch, for a very small subscription of £5 per year:

• Unites horse owners across the whole of England, Scotland and Wales, as well as

Northern Ireland.

• Provides free expert advice and information.
• Provides access to a free, Police backed, national Web Site, where thefts, theft recoveries, problems, events, and information are posted, often within minutes of the first report becoming available.
• Has links to other important sites, such as Stolen Horse registers, Stolen Trailer.

and Horse Box registers, latest equipment information, events and the very latest

security developments.

• Recovers and gives temporary shelter to abandoned, neglected horses.
• Investigates and initiates nationwide action in respect of any reported offences or concern.
• Provides tack marking, freeze marking, horse chipping events, as well as table top sales and sponsorship events.
• Holds County Branch meetings where branches are established and also helps to establish new branches where a number of persons wish to set up their own branch
• Will provide individual members with a full branch service from the nearest branch, if no branch local to those members is available.

Having said that, Horse Watch depends upon membership to be able to function and without the support of members it can only fail. We, in the Worcestershire Branch are determined not to fail and seek your help to provide a membership (and a branch) in your County. We have no paid staff and all subscriptions are applied to Horse Watch

work only.

Meanwhile, we promise you that the theft brigade will have its eyes on you sooner or later. You just need to anticipate when that might be…..like tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year; when you are asleep or out for the day, they can strike in minutes………and what you might do to defeat them is something we can help you with.

We receive dozens of desperate calls, pleading for assistance, from those who are not members, who suddenly discover that they have lost their treasured horse/s and/or equipment. So far we have always helped them out, but (so often), having given our help, we hear no more from them, so we now apply a ‘no membership, no help’ policy.

To this end we urge you to contact us on the number below, so that we can assist you in your County. If you wish to set up a branch, we can provide you with a speaker to come and meet your colleagues and aim you in the right direction.

Call 07736 231062 or email admin@worcestershirehorsewatch.co.uk, our website is www.worcestershirehorsewatch.co.uk