Kay Pope of Wheatland is missing at least one very pregnant horse, and possibly two animals. Her 7-year-old palomino mare Blondie was very pregnant and may have already given birth when she disappeared.
“It would have been her first baby,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “When she came up on the 27th, she had blood down her legs and a little placenta coming out. I said, ‘Oh my God. I think she just had a baby. Should we go out checking?’
“My husband, the old-time cowboy, said we're not going to find it out in that tall grass.”
That was June 27, the last time Pope saw her horse in its 46-acre pasture before heading out of town. Pope said her husband saw the mare at the barn around July 1.
But by Friday, the palomino mare or its possible newborn foal were nowhere to be found. Pope is convinced her horse, and possibly the foal, were stolen.
“Horses don’t leave the herd,” she said. “We've already had a drone go over the property, the canyons and other properties just to make sure that we didn't miss anything. She’s not lost, so theft is the only thing I can think of.”
Going Against The Herd
Horse theft might be considered a crime of the Old West, but old ways die hard. The nonprofit organization Stolen Horse International estimates that around 40,000 horses go missing every year.
Steve True, director of the Wyoming Livestock Board, said they receive around 50 to 60 reports of missing livestock every year. Reports of missing or stolen horses account for anywhere from 2% to 10% of those reports.
“Anything over two is too many for us,” he said. “Sometimes, people see an opportunity where they can get in and out of a place and grab a horse without being seen, and there are cases where people send their horses away to be trained or bred, and they never return.”
According to Stolen Horse International, horses are commonly stolen as a result of divorce and civil disputes. With enough time and opportunity, True said anyone with enough gall and shamelessness can become a competent horse thief.
“We're just so mobile now,” he said. “It’s pretty easy to get something in a horse trailer, and in 10 hours, you're out of the area and can take or try to sell that horse.
The Wyoming Livestock Board has a team of investigators that collects as much information as it can to find and prosecute horse thieves. True said the reports of missing livestock are sent to sheriff’s offices and other law enforcement agencies in 16 states.
“The first thing we do is send one of our investigators to visit with the folks who have filed a report to get whatever information they can glean from that,” he said. “We'll bring that report into the office and send it out to the 16 different states that have counterparts to our livestock investigators and all our brand inspectors. We make sure that information is distributed far and wide.”
True said some of these thefts get solved, “but not enough.”
It can be challenging to locate a stolen horse, let alone prosecute the person responsible for its theft.
The Evidence
Pope believes her palomino was stolen because there’s no reason to think Blondie is lost. Even if the mare managed to get out of the pasture, it wouldn’t have gone far — especially if either very pregnant or having just given birth.
“Horses don’t leave the herd,” she said. “Even if she got outside the fence, she would have been up and down that fence trying to get back with the herd. We've had our horses go down the road before when a gate was left open.
“But if one leaves, they all leave. If one comes back, they all come back.”
Other property owners told Pope they spotted a suspicious-looking truck on the road adjacent to her property.
“I've had people tell me that they've seen a really nice rig and a nice black truck go up and down our road,” she said. “We're on a dead-end road, so you have to be coming out of our road for a reason. A couple of people on our road said that they've seen this truck, and they’ve never seen it before.”
Pope doesn’t know why someone would steal her palomino other than the fact that it’s a palomino .
“The color is the only thing I can think of,” she said. “She’s registered, and she’s got great bloodlines, but whoever stole her isn’t going to know that because they can’t get her papers.”
True said the rarity and appearance of a horse might be enticing enough to spur a horse thief into action. However, most thieves are opportunists.
“It’s usually just a horse they can get their hands on, get in the trailer, and drive away without being seen,” he said.
Off-Brand
As of Tuesday, Pope has submitted reports of her missing horse to the Wheatland Police Department and the local brand inspector. The mare was branded, but True said that might not be enough to bring it home.
“Only a portion of states have brand inspection,” he said. “A horse can disappear in Wyoming and be taken somewhere where there's no brand inspection, and a title can be more easily obtained.
“If they can get in and out without being seen, they can get it somewhere where the brand won’t be checked.”
Stolen horses can turn up during spring horse sales. That’s where brands are closely inspected by livestock investigators, who occasionally identify stolen horses being masqueraded as acquirable property.
If caught, the penalties are severe.
“Theft of livestock is a felony,” True said. “Up to 10 years and $10,000.”
We Want Her Back
Pope isn’t sure if she’s missing one or two horses. She couldn’t confirm if her palomino delivered a healthy foalbefore she went missing.
“My husband and I didn’t try to find the foal,” she said. “He said it’s either not alive or the mare’s going to go back out and find it herself. You have to let them do their thing.”
True said it wouldn’t be difficult for a horse thief to take the foal with the mare.
“It sure could happen,” he said. “If somebody's going to steal a mare, it's pretty likely that the foal is going to follow mama right into the trailer.”
Pope said she’s heard rumors of rustling in the area. Many locals believe there could be a serial livestock thief in the area.
“I’ve got calls that there’s someone who lives in Lusk who would have seen our horses from the highway every time he comes down to Cheyenne,” she said. “It could be very coincidental, but they said every time he’s off, animals tend to go missing.”
Pope’s gotten a lot of leads about her palomino , but none that have panned out. None of her neighbors have spotted a wandering mare, so she believes theft is the only viable explanation for the sudden disappearance.
“We just want her back,” she said. “This has never happened before, and I know she’s not lost. We just want her back.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
