FT259

A strange phenomenon has been sweeping through rural Britain, creating alarm in stables and meadows up and down the country. Small plaits are being found in the manes of horses.

The plaits set the online forum of Horse and Hound magazine buzzing with speculation about who could have been out at night, catching sometimes intract­able horses and bothering to braid a few strands of their manes, an activity which at first seemed as innocuous as it was inexplicable. However, Devon and Cornwall police took a more suspicious view, suggesting that the little plaits were ‘tags’ inserted by thieves. “Similar incid­ents,” they said, had “occurred throughout the counties where horses are likely to be followed by the criminals returning at a later date and stealing the affected horses.” The public was urged to be vigil­ant and to report instances of plaiting.