By Catherine Cashmore
BBC News Online, Nottingham |
 Ponies Polo and May vanished from their field |
A Lincolnshire family is calling for action after several horses were stolen while they were on holiday. The family says police are unwilling or unable to help them track down their missing animals.
And the number of horse thefts is on the increase, according to UK Horsewatch, a voluntary organisation which specialises in tracking down stolen horses,.
In the East Midlands alone, thefts have risen from 27 in 2002 to 61 so far this year.
Polo, a piebald cob gelding, and May, a two-year-old bay coloured filly, disappeared from a field close to a busy village pub in Crowland, Lincolnshire.
The owners say the horses went missing hours after a horse box was spotted on Deeping High Bank.
Kelly Fourague, 23, became suspicious and moved one of her horses to safety at a nearby yard. The other two vanished a short time later.
 |  We were greeted by our daughters crying their eyes out  |
Her daughter, two-year-old Megan, who was due to start learning to ride, is left wondering where her ponies have gone.
The family say the thieves must have come prepared, as they cut the wire fence and - if it is the same people seen loitering nearby - came with bread ready to tempt the ponies.
Owner Kelly described how the theft made her feel: "I was absolutely gutted especially because it was my own pony.
"I always thought I'd have them for my children and then they're gone.
"These people can't have any feelings."
Inspector Tony Smith from Lincolnshire Police said: "It did not warrant an emergency response because there was not a crime in progress, the horses had already gone.
"If the people were there actually taking the horses then we would have got there quicker.
"Horse thefts aren't a national priority crime which we're monitored on, it's not a house burglary, vehicle crime or involving class A drugs."
Distressing crime
Meanwhile the family are printing posters and looking through advertisements in horse magazines for any sign of their animals.
Ms Fourague's father, Paul Bradley is even appealing to the travelling community in the area to look out for his pets.
The Bradley and Forague family's ponies went missing when they went away for a few days.
Mr Bradley said: "We went away on holiday to visit friends in Ireland, when we got back we were greeted by our daughters crying their eyes out saying someone had taken the ponies.
"One we've had for 15 years and the other one a yearling filly, they'd both gone overnight.
"The police make me angry. If it had four wheels and an engine they would soon be interested in them."
At the same time the ponies disappeared from Crowland a number also disappeared from nearby Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
Most horses change hands outside legitimate horse sales or through small adverts placed in papers, tack shops or shop windows.
Pat Lawson from Horsewatch in the region said "There isn't a lot the police can do because it isn't going to be sold in the same county it was stolen in.
"The police are sympathetic but they don't really know what they are looking for and where.
"There aren't that many police on the beat now so they rely on the public to keep a watch for them.
"I'd suspect the same few people are taking horses all the time."
Equine enthusiasts are hoping that new legislation calling for the registration of all horses with a passport scheme by the end of December 2003 will help to make selling on stolen horses harder.
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