The love of horses knows not it's own depth
'Til the hour of separation. -Unknown

Three horses taken from the field one night
By hands of strangers without plight;
How bold they are to take the horse,
Those who are without remorse.

If they could trust, as those they steal
They just might find an honest deal. - Peter J. Hurst

On March 23rd, I had bought a buckskin pony at the Cleburne Horse Sale. I had him delivered that very night and settled him into a stall in the barn. The very next morning at 7:00 AM March 24th, the barn gate was ajar and the three Paint geldings were missing. We recruited some neighbors, the wranglers and ourselves and fanned out like a covey of quail to search. We searched five miles out from the ranch, exploring abandoned properties, talking to other neighbors, etc.. NO HORSES.

We searched until 1:00 AM with no sign of the horses anywhere. We filed a stolen horses report with the county sheriff's department who took photos, copies of brands, etc... My boss who is the county sheriff got on the phone and contacted sherrifs from six other counties to lean on the deliveryman who was the last person besides myself to see the horses.We made it very "HOT" for him to move those horses. I also got onto netposse and had fliers made up of the horses with their information which contacts every sheriff's department in the US, plus every sale barn in the US. Last Tuesday, Mr.Bear e-mailed those fliers to the deliveryman. Tuesday night, the horses were "found" running loose by a Sheriff's Deputy ten miles from our ranch. One of the horses had been hit by a truck. He has a nasty gash above his left eye and on his neck. Eighty stitches to put him back together. We figure the deliveryman was going to sell the horses and cut his losses when it got too "HOT" for him. He dumped them in our area to be found. We have a bill of $1,074.40 with the vet bill, impound fees, etc. We are NOT happy about this at all.

We fully intend to prosecute and on top of all of this "FUN", I learned that I need to have a hysterectomy on May 11th.