Lost horse feared stolen

Lynn Ferraro is searching for her Quarter Horse mare, Mariah, which was last seen in the town’s northeast corner on Sept. 8. Ferraro has called the State Police, checked with surrounding barns and farms, area horse veterinarians, and even posted information on Stolen Horse International Inc.’s Web site. She has even posted fliers at Pieper-Olson Veterinary Hospital in Middletown, where she works.

The last time Ferraro saw her horse was at a noon feeding on Sept. 8 in the paddock of a Foot Hills Road farm.

After work, "I stopped to feed them again, and she was gone," Ferraro said. The gate to the pasture was open, she said.

Ferraro believes Mariah was stolen, rather than just having made her way out of the pasture.

"She’s very attached to another horse -- a gelding," Ferraro said. "I know she would not run off."

Mariah is approximately 7.5 years old, and Ferraro has had her for two years.

The mare is described as being jet black with a white blaze on her face down her nose. She also has a white left rear "sock." Mariah is described as being 15 hands high -- or 5 feet tall at the front shoulder, and weighing a half ton.

"She answers to her name," Ferraro said, adding Mariah has a large growth in her right ear.

Stolen Horse International is a 7-year-old North Carolina-based nonprofit organization which offers a comprehensive theft awareness program to the various facets of the horse industry.

According to SHI’s Web site, between 40,000 and 55,000 horses in the country are missing or are victims of theft each year. The organization has established a global resource to assist in the search for missing or stolen horses through its horse theft recovery network of volunteers.

Anyone with information about Mariah can call Lynn Ferraro at (203)314-5251.

To contact Amy L. Zitka, call (860)347-3331 ext. 211 or email azitka@middletownpress.com.
©The Middletown Press 2004

* "One source says 40,000 to 55,000 are stolen each year." - These numbers are based on a study done in the late 90's. There are no current numbers available.