Debi, I hope this helps, My heart just aches every time I tell it. Well, I'm not sure where to start… 

When my husband and I married 10 yrs ago. I had never lived on a ranch. I was raised in Houston , but my heart was never in the city like my parents.  I watched the Saturday morning cowboy cereals religiously, and every Christmas I asked for a Paint Horse. However there was no place for one of these fine animals.   

Many years later I married a cattleman and became a rancher's wife. I love our life here.  Several years ago on Valentine Day my husband took me to the Moore Paint Horse Ranch, where we picked out a gorgeous. Paint Stud and an equally beautiful Paint mare. It took us over a year to pay for them.

My Husband had 15 foundation Quarter mares already so we bred our paint stud to these quarter mares too.  Soon beautiful healthy, paint and solid fillies and stud colts were on the ground. I loved them all, but my favorite was the paint filly produced by our two paints. She was perfect and a possible homozygous. We had a DOUBLE DELTA.  

My Husband built a barn in our front yard so I could see or hear my Paints from the house. We went to the Paint World Show in Ft. Worth to see the Delta horses compete.  a friend from a neighboring ranch was selling a son of World Champion RR Risky Mastrpiece. We bought him. (also on time ) Another Wonderful Paint Stud. 

Never in all my childhood did I ever dream of having such marvelous horses. We bred our new Stud-Jose Uno's Mastrpiece to our Quannah Freckles mare. The next spring a black and white filly was on the ground.  

Our home sits in the middle of my Husband's family land (400 acres of fenced and gated property) backed up to the National Forest. We fenced two special pastures for my colts and mares. One pasture backed up to the North side of our barn and the second connected to the East side of the barn. One of the pastures is ten acres; I put my yearlings in there. It has rolling hills and a creek that runs through it. 

In August of 2003 our Double Delta was gone. We looked everywhere on horseback, trucks, tractors, four wheelers, and on foot. She was not there. I called the Sheriffs Department, made flyers contacted sale barns and even stopped anywhere I saw a paint that looked like her. I was heart sick! 

Our wonderful filly was gone, I could not sleep.  Who would betray us like that? We have let fathers and sons come on our place and hunt. We given jobs to people that didn't know the difference between hay and pine straw. But if they needed money to pay a bill or whatever, they got work. If you came on our place and we had just sat down for dinner, whether we knew you or not you were invited to join us.  

We began to look at friends, neighbors, and strangers differently. I took all my mares and colts out of the 10 acre pastures and let them run free on our land. This way they could not be hemmed in a corner. Then the unthinkable happened. 

A week before Thanksgiving 2003 someone came on our ranch and stole our black and white filly, Freckles. I was in shock. Not again. All I could think was, “WHO is doing this?” 

I don't want to leave the Ranch at all. We ride fence lines constantly now. In the 10 yrs that I have lived here, we have gone from 20 horses to 83. I can't describe what hard work, dedication and love that we have put in these horses. Now some unknown thief or thieves are coming in here by the cover of night stealing these innocent baby's. 

We are now investing in close circuit TV, hidden cameras, and sensors, anyone that comes on the Ranch, whether they are with the phone or electric company, potential horse buyers, or just lost and turned around on the property. License plates are recorded. 

To do this is not cheap, but this is what it has come to if you want to protect your animals. My fear and worry is that the thieves will not care, love, or feed these precious animals as we do because they have nothing invested in them. 

So please if any of you out there have seen our horses get in touch with us, Sheriff’s Department or Stolen Horse International.  To those who participate as a volunteer in the NetPosse and all others who help…   Thank You,

Tom and Cheryl Carter