On Wednesday morning, two Andalusians, both four, were stolen in Texas. WE are working on many fronts to try and get them back. Can you distribute this link to all your members and ask them to be on the lookout for these horses and to forward it on to any other rodeo/ trail riding, pleasure horse groups? There is a $4K reward for the return of these horses. The link is: 

http://www.dressage.com/photoads/CurrentAds/1207/stolen.htm

If we can get that message on as many links as possible, we can hit every base in the area. Given that these horses are young and both fairly green, they are not likely to be at big shows and with no papers on them, at no Andalusian events. But we may find them in other venues. This was suggested by Sheridan Rowe, CSI,  and I am trying to implement action on this. Pick a state, pick a discipline, and go for it.

Several onliners are in law enforcement including a crime scene investigator in Houston and a border patrol agent in Arizona.  Their involvement spread the word to law enforcement.  

Onliners rallied and posted the alert across the internet and emailed horse people everywhere.  A breeder in Mexico promised to spread the word to all Andalusian and Azteca breeders in Mexico.  

Thanks to everyone for helping by spreading the word.  Let's bring these horses home.  

Here is a Printable Flier that you can post at feed stores, barns.  Flier in Word Doc format  Flier Espanol

Netposse was contacted but takes at least 72 hours to post a horse online.  Cattlemen's associations, auction houses have been notified. 

Nearby barn was broken into a week ago.  

We had a CSI team show up and they are processing evidence found at the scene. The involvement of the CSI team made law enforcement take us seriously.  We were called by netposse to tell us that they had received unsolicited reports from three separate law enforcement agencies and numerous individuals so you can rest assured that your efforts are reaching people and getting the word out--sometimes in triplicate (or more)!! 

We were on television last night and the local station is doing a follow-up tonight at 5PM and 6PM locale time. This is a horse hunt on an unprecedented scale. The telephone is constantly ringing with advice and sympathy. Lisa's [owner of the Andalusian gelding Ranchero] devastation is ameliorated somewhat by the extraordinary efforts of the horse lover's community. I can't image where we would be right now without everyone's unflagging assistance. 

From the CSI team:

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has reached out to help Lisa and Carrie. Lisa sent out a quick email and you guys came through big time. By the time I was through processing the crime scene, Jane Marie and her crew of Angels had organized this webpage so all I had to do was forward the information to livestock authorities.  

The horse community banded together so efficiently and so effectively, that the information is spreading all over the country. Law enforcement is working on this case and is taking it seriously, but the united efforts of the horse community are the biggest part of an investigation like this. We have the resources; we just need to continue to organize these resources for a common goal. 

Keep up the good work folks! Your help is so important.

VERY first of all: They called the police. That should be first and foremost.

On Wednesday afternoon, I just happened to be at my computer when that email came in. My first thought was to hit reply with sympathy, and then I saw Lisa's phone number. So lesson number one (after calling the cops), if this happens to you, post it to lists with as much info as you can and give your number.

I decided to just pick up the phone and for some reason, I just said to myself, "I am going to get the internet list side of this rolling." Lisa picked up the phone, distraught. I asked her to post pictures and she said she didn't have very many good ones and did not know how, but could I explain to her husband how to do that? So, she handed the phone over to him. He was calm and able to think.

Lessons two and three: Have lots of pictures, good ones, of your horses on your computer and in several locations. Have someone on hand who can think for you. Face it, for most of us, this would not be possible in that situation. So, Lisa was lucky to have Jeff who is so smart.

I had Jeff send me all the pictures.

Next thing that happened was I put out a call for computer help. Kyra Beth Houston e-mailed me INSTANTLY and said some words that really gave me a lot of confidence: She said, "I can get a web page up in minutes." So I forwarded her the info and she literally had it up in minutes.

ALERT: http://www.dressage.com/photoads/CurrentAds/1207/stolen.htm

So, next lesson is to recruit good computer people right away. I do not know Kyra. She is just on this list.

I had given my phone number to Lisa's family and pretty soon her son called me and said he was going to make the flyers. At this point we were about an hour out from Lisa's e-mail, maybe a bit longer. He got me the flyers within about twenty minutes, and I did not know how to upload them so had people e-mail me for them. I had about twenty requests.

So, next lesson: get flyers made quickly and get them out on the internet as fast as posible.

NOTE: You can now download the flyers (and trailer info) from the link:

http://www.dressage.com/photoads/CurrentAds/1207/stolen.htm

Next thing that happened was that I received a very generous solid e-mail from Kristie Katch, followed soon by e-mails from JB in LA saying in essence "I am ready to stay up all night emailing." Which is what many people did. We had a team. Such e-mails started coming in, some to the list, some straight to me, from Kathy Levin, Sandra LaRoque, shurn-da, Lynn Wood, Betsy May, Regina-Sophia, Ellen of deependr, Joan Cordes, Elise in Dallas, Jennifer Dodd, Cyndi Funk, Chris Grogan, epona 209 (non name), Dawn Griggs, Miki Taylor, Joyce of VIPRanchTX, Susana Schwartz in NY, Josephine in Spain, seashorechloe (Rita) in NJ, Claire in the UK, Michelle (Friesianhorsewoman), Rebecca Olmstead, Mary Beth Adams in NY. If I forgot you, I am sorry. Email me. This requires that everyone be recognized.

Imagine that each of these people is on a list and everyone on a list is on two or three other lists, some the same and some different. People started e-mailing flyers and the link to the website to horse lists and it just kept going, kind of like a chain letter in hyperspeed.

At this point is it about 9:00 p.m.

NOW, and here is the really MAGIC part: Not every horse list happens to have a top ranked Crime Scene Investigator. Our list does, Sheridan Rowe (of the Goat King Stories). Completely separate from this action of the internet, she called Lisa and got up there right away and did a proper crime scene investigation, of a caliber perhaps not usually seen in animal theft cases. (She investigates murders, remember?)

So, by the time she finished (and what she has done makes it possible for this case to move along MUCH more quickly and with greater accuracy and being taken much more seriously as Lisa's husband has pointed out), we already had the flyers, a website and high visibility.

So, the next rule of thumb: Work in parallel action. Time is of the essence.

Next: Lisa's family managed to get this on local TV several times.

So, this is where we are. We now have the challenge of keeping the heat on. I think this collaboration of total strangers who in a strange way are like family is a human interest story.

And my hope is that when we get Ranchero and Chica back, we can perhaps create an emergency alert system that will put all of this into place very quickly and even better.

Now, if anyone knows how to make contact with national news agencies, Sheri Rowe and I think that getting the news of this effort on national news would be great. It has so many advantages: great coverage, good human interest, a positive story about the internet and cyber-communities but also communicates to horse thieves and dog thieves and cat thieves and god forbid, even child abductors that THE INTERNET CAN WORK AGAINST THEM AS FAST AS YOU CAN SAY "ANDALUSIAN OR PRE OR IBERIAN OR LUSITANO?"

We have very long arms. We stick together. And we are very passionate people.

I hope we can have a symposium and bring in some experts on crime prevention to help us get good at beating horse thieves at their game.

-- Jane Marie Law Associate Professor of Japanese Religions Director of Graduate Studies, Asian Religions Ph.D. Department of Asian Studies Cornell University 350 Rockefeller Hall Ithaca, New York 14853-2502 607-255-5095 (direct line: 607-255-7777)

ALERT: http://www.dressage.com/photoads/CurrentAds/1207/stolen.htm

Sheridan Rowe, CSI
Okay, I'm blushing here. I'm just a regular ole crime scene investigator, I'm not a top-ranked anything. (grin) We don't really have rankings in this field. Murder investigations, like kidnapped horse investigations, are a collaboration of efforts from many people. No one job is more important than any other. Because of the television show, my job appears glamorous, and we get more attention than we deserve. The reality of the situation is that every person who contributes to the investigation is JUST AS IMPORTANT as everyone else. I assure you, the person who translates posters into Spanish, makes phone calls, updates websites, or simply forwards emails, is doing just as much to help this investigation.

"It takes a village to raise a child." Well, it also takes a village to FIND a child. The horse community IS a village. Someone took a couple of our kids. That someone just stepped in a hornet's nest, because the village is pissed.

Lisa, owner of Ranchero.  

To everyone who is a part of this magnificent effort. I cannot express how much everyone's efforts mean to me and to Carrie. I have been spending my time (when not teaching second graders) driving around putting up flyers and trying to not think about what might be happening to my beloved boy. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have all you helping me. I will be eternally grateful to you all no matter what the outcome. I just got off the phone with Jane Marie and I tried to express how overwhelmed I am at the effort that she, Sheri and Kyra Beth have made to help Ranchero and Chica. It is such an impressive accomplishment. I have received countless emails and phone calls all expressing sympathy, concern, and suggestions. Every single one lifts my spirits. I feel that I have all of America behind me as well as half of the rest of the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Lisa in Houston

Here is the letter from Jeff Schlitt. Please cross post this everywhere. It tells us a lot about how this is affecting people and just how good people can be:

From Jeff, Lisa's husband: 

"I printed out the Update from the web site last night (four pages) and showed it to Lisa. I have also been forwarding it to the various law enforcement personnel and they have been most grateful to get it.

Now get this:

Lisa has been going around Houston and its environs delivering fliers and the Update information I downloaded for her from the web site. Well, she just told me that at some locations (feed stores, horse goods (tack) stores etc.) the fliers were already posted (having been downloaded from the both the forums and the web site (thanks again Kyra for such a beautiful job on that)) and the merchants had also downloaded the update from the web site and were encouraging their customers to read it. She said that there was a crowd of people in the various stores reading the update. It was quite like the rural folks gathered around the pot bellied stove sharing the latest news (gossip?). Who says the newspapers are dead? It seems that people are very interested in reading the update and following the story. The customers seemed to like the fact that they were becoming part of the story through their efforts and it seemed that everyone was rooting for us and wanted to see how the story ended. It seemed to Lisa that the updated story was very effective in communicating to our audience and the audience wanted to know what happens next!"

Let's hope that what happens next is the recovery of these horses.

One thing anyone may not have thought of is truck stops. These people would most likely stop at truck stops for fuel. Truckers are very observant and if you hang flyers at as many truck stops as you can you may get some leads, especially with a good picture or description of the trailer. I doubt with a stolen horse trailer they will stay in that area too long so this would be very helpful.

Advise people to hang flyers in all the truck stops they can across the country (this is what helped find my daughter). You can also go to trucking companies in the area and ask the drivers to hang them in truck stops along their route. Most of them will be more than happy to as it is not out of their way. I am doing that in our area (Wisconsin) in case they are headed north to Canada. You never know.

Hopefully your horses will be home soon.

Sharon PS. The horse community is like no other. We band together, never give up, leave no stone unturned and are far reaching

Triple H Horse Transport htransport@earthlink.net 

Texas Horse Auction
List

We had been assured that some internet sites specializing in stolen horses were going to help in this effort. We have discovered that in fact we have not gotten any help from them and although they had promised to contact auction sites, they did not do this. This was a BIG piece of the puzzle we had hoped to have covered with a single contact, and in fact nothing happened.This is a big concern to us, so we are taking this into our own hands, one auction house at a time.

SO, where we are at now is we have the list of auction houses in Texas, some of which have already had an auction since the horses were stolen on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. I posted the list in a previous e-mail.

Dawn, JB and I have volunteered thus far to start calling. If you can help, call me and I will give you some letters of the alphabet. My numbers are 607-257-1455 or cell: 607-229-3431. I will be on feeding schedule and at my cell phone in the afternoon.

Here is some information for people calling auction houses in case they need to contact law enforcement:

Sgt. Virginia Brasher
Houston Police Department 
Major Offenses division 
 713-308-3100. 
Cell: 281-704-2280

Special Texas Ranger* Jimmy Belt : 
Home office: 936-587-4120 
Sheriff office: 936-336-4500 
Cell: 936-334-5076

*You know what we say in Texas? One riot, one ranger....

My suggestion would be if you can to print out a flyer, and ask them if they have a fax machine you can fax it to. Lisa has found auction houses to be very helpful.

We are proving that a grassroots effort of reaching people in the horse community really works. We can duplicate this in the future, and when Ranchero and Chica are safely home, I propose we have a symposium, at Equine Affair or somewhere, to get this kind of grassroots response network organized so we are not inventing the wheel every time. We can use this for emergency relief, stolen horses, etc.

Everyone of you who has contacted us to help is greatly appreciated in this effort. You are all angels.

With great humility and gratitude to all, -- 

Jane Marie Law Associate Professor of Japanese Religions
Email Jane:  jml16@cornell.edu 

Lisa in Houston

1) Texas Cattleman's Assn. This was suggested and taken care of by law enforcement the night the report was filed.

2) brokers (people who buy horses and transport them to Mexico for slaughter legally). A broker called Lisa personally and had received the word and will pass the flyer on to all of his brokers. Our understanding is that he has both the English and the Spanish flyer, and the reward for the horses is more than a person would get with a broker by A LOT.

3) We are operating on the assumption that the horses are still in the US. We have to, but we are getting word out in Mexico as best we can. Any new ideas on how to do this, let us know.

4) Lisa has shot a video segment with an appeal for their return and this will be up on Youtube soon. When this goes up, we will be asking people to do a mega-blitz on getting that out there.

5) Churches: (I can't believe I didn't think of that. DUH!) Anyone who knows any churches in Texas (Texans, we need your help here), we ask that you get flyers to the church. Also, is there such a thing as a Cowboy Megachurch in Texas? If there is, it would be great to get in contact with them. WE will not be targeting any denomination or ethnicity, but will do our best to get this information out to both English speaking and Spanish speaking congregations. But we need help on this.

6) Every horse trailer going into Mexico is being checked for these horses and the border has been alerted since Thursday.

7) The trailer could possibly already be parts at this point, so who knows, but again, you can see a picture of the trailer's prototype ad on the link below.

8) Our efforts may end up having redundancies in them. Redundancy is a good thing.

9) We made calls and sent snail mail to the auction houses as described in an earlier e-mail when we discovered this had not been done by an agency promising to do it. There seems to be a bit of a business to the "stolen horse recovery" and it is not necessarily as efficient as people think it is. So our efforts are necessary. If you can still help in this regard, please e-mail me.

10) Lisa is going to contact local media and also Animal Planet. The angle she is taking is not just the stolen horses, but the nature of the recovery effort.

11) Last, and not at all least, Lisa is holding up but having a hard time. As a second grade teacher facing mandatory tests for her kids the week after Christmas, she is under a lot of stress at work. Her son and husband are going around putting up flyers. Let's all send her our very best wishes and try and imagine, for a minute, that if we were in our shoes, we would be totally dependent on other people to carry the weight for us. let's carry that weight a little longer. Pretty soon we will reach our saturation point in terms of information, have done what we can do and will just have to keep our links up and our flyers at hand and hope and pray for their return. But we are not their yet.

We have been distributing fliers to agricultural agents, farriers, and feed stores.

I studied the stories of recovered horses in an effort to determine the manner in which these horse were found. My informal survey indicates that over 95% of all recovered horses were found as a result of a flier having been seen by a good Samaritan. Based upon my study conclusions, I cannot overemphasize the need to get those fliers out to everybody. This is the single most efficacious method of recovery.

Fliers help

Last night, KHOU TV (our CBS affiliate on channel 11) did another story at 5:00PM on Thursday night, 12/13/07.

As a result of this broadcast we developed an important lead as follows:

A supervisor for the U.S. Post Office was driving to work between 12:30PM and 1:30AM the night of 12/4-12/5 (the night of the theft) and saw a brand new horse trailer with two horses in it stopped by the side of the road at the intersection of highway 99 (the Grand Parkway) and New Mason Road (close to where the horses were stolen). It was pointed south toward Brazoria County. She noted this situation because the trailer was so new and the truck was so ratty. The truck didn't seem to belong to the trailer and she was surprised that anyone would be hauling horses that late at night. There were two dark-skinned men wearing baseball caps standing beside the trailer, shaking their heads, as if they were having a problem with the rig. The truck was very distinctive: It was a black or dark colored pick-up truck with LARGE FIRE FLAME DECALS OR PAINT ON THE SIDES OF THE TRUCK.

On Thursday of last week she saw the ABC affiliate's broadcast, turned to her husband, and said, "we should call about that trailer," to which her husband agreed. Nothing was done. Then last night she saw the KHOU broadcast at 5:00PM and called me immediately thereafter with the above information.

Battle Stations!!!

I called Police Sgt. Virginia Brasher who immediately interviewed this witness. The witness is preparing a drawing of the truck, which I will forward to everyone as soon as I get it. Sgt. Brasher is also making an additional effort to immediately obtain the video of that night which is available from a gas station CCTV located at the intersection of Willowbend and South Post Oak, an intersection one block from the barn. If the truck appears on the video, we have a match!!!! Sgt. Brasher is going to post the drawing on the national law enforcement data base and specifically contact all the surrounding counties to be on the look-out for a truck matching that description.

Additionally, I called Herb Boykin, the Deputy Sheriff for Brazoria County (the County to which the truck was pointed) and he said, "I know a few trucks with that distinctive fire flame motif and will have officers check them out Friday morning."

Sherri (CSI) contacted her people (including dog handlers!!) who were on duty last night and they will be looking for the truck also.

I just spoke with Brad Woodard, our reporter at KHOU and he said that he will have his producer see if they can announce the description of the truck on all of the news breaks during the day today.

There is so much happening as a result of this tip that I can't spend the time putting it all in this update--I have to "man" the telephones, calling various law enforcement personnel to get them to stop and interrogate any trucks matching this description--so I will stop here and post further developments as they occur.

Keep your fingers (and toes) crossed!!!!

You may wonder if the distribution of the fliers makes a difference. Well, last night we got a call from a feed store located in Hockley, TX (a very tiny village) whose owner thought she had seen Ranchero in a pasture behind her store. Lisa sped out there to get a look, law enforcement was mobilized (thank you Sgts.Virginia Brasher and Herb Boykin) and we all spent a tense two hours waiting.....

It turned out that the horse was not Ranchero. But there is good news. Our flier was in a feed store in Hockley Texas!! And people are looking out for our horses as a result of having seen a flier. My research indicates that over 95% of all horse recovery comes as a result of someone having seen a flier and this story serves to bolsters my point.

Our team of horse people, law enforcement, and media contacts are poised and ready to jump into action the moment we receive another lead.

We should have the CD from the CCTV by Monday (12/17/07) and hopefully it will show that the fire flame-sided truck was near the barn--I will keep you informed.

Nancy E. Dash 
Mad Dash Farm 
8979 Townsendville Road 
Interlaken, NY 14847

I have 5 horses and they are my kids and I have cried when I had to sell one. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Best of luck in finding both of the horses.

Shirley L Baca

I would alert every television station in your area and ask them to feature a story during slow news times, in addition to at least one major interview story. Focus on the horses and their worth, personality, and value as dressage horses not slaughter horses (sorry). Contact the Nancy Grace Show on CNN Headline News as this might appeal to them.

Contact community weekly newspapers. Ask the city and local papers to give you advertising space as well as a story. The Houston Chronicle and Dallas, Austin, and other major papers will need for you to speak with both advertising and news directors.

I would form a national equine alert system such as the Amber Alert. See if you can make contact with founders of the Amber Alert system and get any nationwide air time that you can. The Equus Alert (or whatever you want to call it) will help owners of stolen horses throughout the U.S. Get other horse owners and horse associations to sign onto the idea.

Idea links: http://www.google.com/search?q=stolen+horses&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

http://amberalert.com/resources.php http://www.governor.state.tx.us/divisions/press/initiatives/amber http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-amberplan.htm

Ask for volunteer help from horse associations, especially all related to the Spanish horses and dressage horses. Visit horse farm links that you can find at every breed site. E-mail to ask them to volunteer to help found the alert system. Keep the media interested in this.

Plan to keep working the story for a long time if nothing turns around in a week. The thieves may plan to hold onto the horses until the initial theft interest wears off.

Host a news conference at the farm. Newspapers, TV, radio should be invited. Be sure this is OK with law enforcement so that evidence is not tampered with and other thieves do not learn about the vulnerabilities of the barn. Be prepared to talk to other horse owners and give them tips to protect themselves and make their barns safe.

Be sure that Texas Rangers and neighboring state police departments have pictures of the horses and trailer. Ask them to post the trailer picture wherever stock trailers have to go through a weigh station.

Provide the thieves a way to get the horses back to you or to a safe location where someone can pick them up. The police will need to be involved in this for safety reasons.

I cannot tell you that these are proven ideas because I have not been in your situation. But, I think the more you keep this theft in the public eye and more volunteers you have, the better your chances of succeeding.

Also, these horses may be quietly sold to a trainer of dressage horses, so don't forget to contact all of the dressage barns that you can locate. Look at Canadian farms as well.

I wish you well. I know that you must be overwhelmed, but focus that energy on working steadily every day to do something to get your horses back and to keep others from experiencing this tragedy.

Ann Meffert