By Debi Metcalfe, July 5, 2011

I saw this post recently on one of my yahoo list groups. 

Found @ 0630 this morning ( Sun 6/26 ) Two mares at the junction of St. Rt. 18 south and Porto Rico Rd. in New Milton, WV Looks like they have been traveling for a while, but appear healthy and well nourished. One Bay & one Buckskin. Neither wearing halters. I managed to catch the Buckskin and the Bay just followed us home. Both now safely in stalls while we search frantically for their owners. Please email or call us {304-873-2478} if you know where these ladies belong!!!!!!!!!!!!! – Maryanne 

I noticed that the horses were located in West Virginia so I sent a note to an old friend. He assumed like most folks do why the owners had not been found. 

He said, “It may be that they (the owners) don't want them back.” 

Many people think that a found horse is an abandoned horse in these hard times. 

Since he knew the people who had found the horses I asked him to forward our offer of help from Stolen Horse International / NetPosse.com to help find the owners. I also sent along an explanation as to why his above statement may be an incorrect assumption. 

In his response he added the following note, “PS: If you are still writing your blog you should post the information in your last message there.” 

What a good idea I thought. So, here is that part of my reply to my friend about “found” horses. 

Why have the owners not come forward? 

It may be that they have not been found yet. Believe me; I have worked enough of the found horse cases to know that it is frequently more complicated than that. In the cases where we have located the owners, we found many if not all of the following to be true:

1. NOT ALL FOUND HORSES ARE DUMPED
2. The horse was lost by a caring owner
3. The owner contacted authorities (law enforcement, animal control, etc)
4. The finder contacted authorities (law enforcement, animal control, etc)
5. The above mentioned authorities told the owner no one had found a horse when the called. (In one case Animal Control had the horse in custody!)  http://netposse.com/view_report.asp?reportid=84
6. The above mentioned authorities told the finder no one had reported having lost a horse when they called.
7. The owner put up flyers and posted information in public venues
8. The finder did the same.

All of the above was part of the cases where we were involved and the dots were not connected until we were inserted into the formula. I have to wonder how many more cases there are out there where the horses fall through the cracks due to miscommunications. 

My guess is that there are many!

This and other thoughts by Debi Metcalfe can be read in her blog, Horse Tales from NetPosse.com