This story reminds me of an incident that occurred a few years ago. A friend of mine called,very upset because 'somebody' had sneaked into her pasture and cut the tails off of her horses just below the tail bone. She had looked for footprints and tire tracks, but found none. She was completely at a loss as to how someone could steal the horse's tails, and not leave a trace, especially as the one horse wasn't very friendly.
When she told me that the calves that were in the horses were fine I started to laugh. The reason there were no footprints in her pastures or tire tracks along the fenceline was because the calves weren't wearing boots and neither could drive. You see cattle will often chew horses tails, leaving no trace but a very neatly 'banged' tail just below the tailbone.
I don't know if this would be a possibility in the Montana incident, but if you keep cattle and horses together be aware that this can happen. If you do keep cattle and horses together, also be aware that it is inadvisable to feed horses cattle feed.
Did Thieves Trim Tail Hair from 3 Horses? originally appeared on About.com Horses on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 06:53:29.
