And when they exist, they’ll find ways to take things no matter what. I was at a boarding barn (not self-board) at which a fellow boarder would walk past the hay room and take flakes of hay out of our two horses’ stalls so that her horse could have more without the barn owner noticing. Never mind that her horse was overweight on badly cracked feet, and ours were underweight (in retrospect, it made sense that ours weren’t gaining weight once we discovered that she had taken their hay away).
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While my boy was at a lay up farm for Lyme recovery, I had some issues. I provided the grain, 16 scoops per bag is what I estimated. I was going through too much grain & then labeled my bin. I never thought of it as theft, only someone not paying attention.
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Wow, that’s really crappy! I used to do full board (I’m at a self-care barn now) and that never even occurred to me something like that could happen.
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I used to board at a barn that had both self and full care board. I had my horse in a smaller barn on the property along with a few other horses on full board. One of my co-boarders, who also self cared, and I became friendly and shared our hay stall - she had her hay and I had mine. I came to the barn one day and noticed a bale and a half of my hay was missing. We had our suspicions about who was behind it but couldn’t prove it until one day I’m grooming my horse and here the thief comes with a wheelbarrow. She had no reason to be in this barn as her horse was in another separate barn. She sees me and high tails it out. She was there to help herself to another bale of hay. We started locking the stall and the theft stopped. I had alerted the barn owner but don’t think anything happened.
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Not at all convenient but if you do all your own feeding just keep hay and grain in your trunk? Or in back if you drive an SUV?
When I boarded I had a big upright tack box made that could hold all my tack/ saddles and my grain ( barn fed plenty of hay) but it could have easily kept a bale at the bottom. It was solid wood and had a padlock.
Too much " borrowing" when you kept things in the " common areas"… and BO/ BM lived on site and were always there.
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Some great ideas, thanks everyone! I am a boarder here. This is a very small barn (5 boarders, 10-12 horses) so we all have our own areas and no one is doing anything accidently. The feed is being taken from me and one other woman. The other woman is going through some bad family stuff and just doesn’t have the energy to care about it. But she can also afford to feed another horse or two so not a big deal to her.
Unfortunately if you don’t buy hay here in the early summer, you have none for the winter so I have quite the stash now. And I have the hard keepers with the more expensive hay, of course! Utilizing baggies is a great idea for the feed.
I really don’t want to change the ambiance there, as someone mentioned. The rest of us have been there for many years and we all have gotten along great, just asked if we needed to borrow something. Putting locks on everything is going to change things. I’ll look into the game cameras. We’ve had some issues with wildlife in the barn so I can use that as excuse.
I haven’t said anything to BO. BO is a very sweet lady but is really not involved (it is truly self care) and totally non-confrontational. I don’t want to put her in the middle. And I live in a condo so no where to store stuff outside of barn…
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Since you don’t want to change anything to try & prevent the theft, sounds like you need to approach the thief directly or just put up with it.
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Little changes like not leaving the bales open is likely going to help a lot. Retie the twine and see if that helps.
Another thing you can do with the grain is leave it in the bag in your trash can, roll the top closed and put a clip on it. See if that is enough of a deterrent.
Clearly neither of these simple things will work if the person taking stuff is determined to take stuff. But both might be enough to stop someone who is taking stuff because it is easy to take stuff.
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Ugh! I guess I should have included, “the person who thinks their horse is more important than everyone else’s.” I’m so sorry you had an asshat like that.
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Try some signage. Seriously. If the person is flat determined to steal it might not do anything, but it gives you a leg to stand on (the first argument people use is “oh I didn’t know it was yours!”).
Second, DO NOT put up cameras without explicit permission from the BO. Text/email/written - something you can screenshot or print and save. Filming on someone else’s private property without consent and sometimes signage/notice can be legally problematic. Obligatory Not A Lawyer. Just get permission from the BO.
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To go with this smart thought, you don’t have to make this into a huge thing with the barn owner.
I know you say the barn owner is not involved and all that. Is there a barn manager?
Just simply ask if it is OK for you to put a game camera or two in the area where you are storing your feeds. Something is getting into your grain and you are trying to determine what it is so you know how to move forward with protecting the grain the best way.
Note, I did not say someone, I said something.
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If you don’t want to do locks, I’d throw a ratchet strap around your hay pile. Say the bales were falling overnight or something.
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might make a big deal announcing that you wanted to install game cameras then pretend to do so then let the thief search for the none existent cameras
Horse world is no different than the real world where there are people who have no morals.
We had Lexie at a national show, she did well but when loading to come home her halter was gone. Stolen off the stall door. Not a mistake of some one grabbing the wrong halter as hers had her name plate on it. Some jerk took it. Halter has sentimental value as it had been Socrates.
Over the years we have saddles that had the farm name stamped into the leather stolen, a horse trailer stolen
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I’m so sorry this happened to you. I understand the sentimental value of that, and am gutted for you.
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I’ve had so many things stolen or “borrowed” over the years when I boarded. It was wild.
My grooming brushes grew legs, my ponies bit was missing one day cause the lesson pony preferred it. I had two coolers stolen, 1 blanket, gobs of cowboy magic during burr season, lead ropes were always disappearing until I started buying neon orange ones. Thankfully pony stuff doesn’t fit the big horses so they couldn’t use most of his gear.
When I did board at a farm where I provided feed, the barn owner was excellent in keeping everything organized and never lost anything there. It was great.
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Weird colors never worked for me.
I just started buying lead ropes with bull snaps. Everyone else hates bull snaps. I learned to really like them.
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As a young Kook I had a big problem with a person boarding 2 horses at the same facility I rented a barn at.
This person rode a horse of mine without permission one night at least, and regularly was stealing feed.
I hid a game camera in a pile of sheep hay that was set aside and angled camera only on my hay stack.
I caught photos only of the thief this way. That very evening. I also caught the thief messing with my tractor. 
He was a real piece of work.
He did get kicked out eventually, there are more stories about him, unfortunately. A nice barn owner can sometimes be a bad thing.
I told my barn owner that something was messing with my hay and I wanted to put a game camera on it to find out what it was. He had no problem with that.
Good luck to you, I hope the thief is caught for the sake of everyone at the barn.
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I am happy with my Tactacam Reveal game cameras. They send me photos within a minute of taking them. Of course you need the BO/BMs approval. There’s a monthly ‘cell phone’ subscription (25 for 2, I would guess 15 ish for one). I think I paid 125 for each camera.
A short cable threaded through handles and a combo lock (think bike lock) will stop feed theft out of a trash can.
Are they stealing whole bales, opening bales, or stealing flakes from already opened bales? Tying the opened bales shut may be enough of a visual “uh-uh, stop it” that it stops.
If you KNOW who is doing it, ask them. “hey, I saw you borrowed X amount of hay. What’s your plan to replace that?” If they deny doing it, fine, just reply with 'there’s maybe a misunderstanding somewhere then. Either way, I bought this hay to get me through the winter and that’s what it’s going to do. I will have to think further about how to handle this". so you aren’t backing off, rather you’ve sent a clear message that you know. And that may stop it.
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Spypoint cell cameras. I have them for hunting deer and they have free plan on limited photos.
They are on sale for $98.00 and it has video too.
Non cell cameras are a bit cheaper and have great quality photos and video. Since you’ll be out everyday, I would get one of those. Wildgame makes a good one
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