A recent rash of horses’ tails being cut in Albany County near Laramie, Wyoming, has baffled some equestrians, but the explanation could be that thieves are trying to supply a black market for horsehair.
Janna Urschel is part of the volunteer staff of an equine rescue center north of Laramie. She told Cowboy State Daily that three of the horses there each had about 18 inches of hair cut off of their tails this past summer.
“It freaked us out, because it’s a private boarding facility and there’s nobody out there during the day,” she said.
It’s not an isolated problem, either. Horse owners in Colorado have reported similar vandalism to their animals, and on Monday, a woman in Montana posted a photo of her horse missing its tail.
Pernicious Problem
Urschel and the rest of the staff thought it might have just been a weird, isolated incident.
Then she joined social media discussions and started reading about similar reports from several other horse owners near Laramie, including some within the past week or so.
And there’s chatter among equestrians of horses having their tails and manes cut in Colorado too, Urschel added.
It’s nothing new, according to reports from across the West and Midwest. It’s been going on for years.
Numerous cases of horses’ tails and manes being cut were reported in and around Wyoming in 2012, according to news reports from that time.
In February of this year, Kaysville, Utah, police sought leads regarding a case of somebody sneaking onto private property and cutting the tails and manes of two horses.
Also this year, the EquiMed horse health publication reported that thieves were getting downright vicious.
Some horses had their manes and tails cut almost completely off, leaving them disfigured, according to EquiMed.
The apparent motive is cash. There’s a robust black market for horsehair. It’s used to make violin bows and jewelry. In some cases, it’s even used to make hair extensions for show horses.
Laramie Horses Should Be Fine
Urschel said she and the other staff opted not to report the tail cuttings at their facility to law enforcement, hoping that it was just a one-time incident.
Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans told Cowboy State Daily that his office hasn’t received any reports of horsehair theft, at least in the past few months.
Urschel said she’s just thankful that the thieves that hit her stables were considerate enough not to hack the animals’ tails completely off.
Horses that had their tails cut included one of her personal horses, as well as two rescue horses that the facility hopes to put up for adoption.
Going For A Darwin Award
Horses will occasionally chew parts of each other’s tails off, but that’s definitely not what happened to her horse and the others this summer, she said.
“Part of what gave it away, it was a clean cut across the bottom of the tail all the way across,” Urschel said.
Cutting a horse’s tail too short could leave the animal miserable, since they need their tails to swish away flies and mosquitos, she said. Thankfully, her horses had enough of their tails left to still do that.
Cutting horses’ manes and tails can also make them more difficult to adopt out, she said. Particularly if people are planning to take them to horse shows – where every aspect of the animals’ appearance is scrutinized.
One downside is that it will take a long time for the horses to recover their full tails. Their hair grows less than an inch a month, she said.
On top of the damage done to the horses – creeping around and cutting manes and tails could be hazardous to a person’s health, Urschel said.
“Get behind the wrong horse, and we could have come out to find somebody kicked in the head and dead,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
