# How did you prevent someone from stealing your horse back in the day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2015, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565 "2015-01-22T12:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/21 "2015-01-22T19:26:40Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Big cities would have had thousands of horses at their height. Even well-to-do people would not have owned horses in a 19th-century city, but hailed a carriage. > [@](#): > > Under those conditions, I think one would have to rely on trusted livery stables (or bring a family member or servant to stay with the horse). Having a stable was the mark of the truly rich. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/22 "2015-01-22T19:37:36Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Having a stable was the mark of the truly rich. My Grandparent’s garage in TN has originally housed a horse, and their family was certainly not wealthy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/23 "2015-01-22T21:02:45Z")
Branding and then Hanging 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/24 "2015-01-23T01:09:05Z")
I think the hitching post in front of the saloon is a TV trope, My experience with horses is you don’t leave them saddled up w/o loosening the girth, and better to remove the saddle entirely. This means no just tieing a horse up and walking away, then getting back on like it’s a machine. Horses are pretty delicate. Public stables were common, and corrals where you could turn out your horse for a fee were too. Tack was expensive and how they kept their tack from being stolen, no idea. There’s no reason that working cowboys went to town on horseback is anything more than the movies. More likely they went as a group in a wagon from their ranch of employment, then back again. A wealthier man, not a working cowboy, probably took a wagon or some kind of horse drawn vehicle like a buckboard. I’ve ridden horses since I was 6, it’s a fun hobby, but hours in the saddle is a pain. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/25 "2015-01-23T02:29:41Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Even well-to-do people would not have owned horses in a 19th-century city, but hailed a carriage. > > Having a stable was the mark of the truly rich. I think we’re talking past each other a bit. Regardless of who owned them, there were thousands of horses in big cities that had to be protected against theft and secured at night. My point just was that the notion of neighbors knowing each other’s horses and policing thefts themselves would not apply in larger places. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/26 "2015-01-23T03:25:41Z")
Didn’t they brand their horses back then? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/27 "2015-01-23T03:28:14Z")
U locks were made smaller than a horse’s hoof. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/28 "2015-01-23T04:31:50Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I don’t have a legal cite, but here’s a list of death penalties by crime in the US between 1608-2002 and there are 51 cases of executions for horse theft. Not quite as many as for piracy but leading sodomy/buggery/bestiality by a wide margin. Usually all that was needed was the threat of bestiality to get the horse to co-operate. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/29 "2015-01-23T07:53:41Z")
Sometimes stealing someone’s horse would be akin to murder. If you stole someone’s horse “out on the trail”, (carjacking) they would be completely stranded without food or water. A very dangerous situation. And, unlike car tires which leave no humanly discernible trace as it leaves an area and goes hither, if you went mounted or even in a wagon, the tracks your horse made could always be followed unless you resorted to those old times tricks of riding up or down river (try that in your car) and then resurfacing onto dry land somewhere far away, or riding through a rocky area. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/30 "2015-01-23T09:39:11Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > It does seem like most hangings of horse thieves was done by a lynch mob, not through the criminal justice system. Does anybody have a cite of a lawful execution of a horse thief merely for the crime of the theft? Hanging of horse thieves was most common out on the frontier, where it was sparsely populated and didn’t actually have much of a “criminal justice system” (or the lynch mob was the criminal justice system). Not so much in the more developed areas. And, as bardos said, this was a much more serious crime on the frontier. Stealing a horse left a traveler stranded, and quite likely to die. And stealing one from a farm took away enough of the work power that it was possible that everybody on the farm would die over the winter. In the developed towns or cities, there were carriages or rental horses so a traveler was not stranded, and there was shelter nearby for people without their horse, so a stolen horse was not generally a threat to your life (just your economic health – a big financial loss, and no insurance). So people in bad neighborhoods left their horse safely in a livery stable (just like they now opark their car in a public garage or parking ramp). > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Usually all that was needed was the threat of bestiality to get the horse to co-operate. Not quite – you would be in an unprotected & exposed condition, and approaching the defensive end of a horse – do you know how far both those hind legs could kick you? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/31 "2015-01-23T09:41:47Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > It does seem like most hangings of horse thieves was done by a lynch mob, not through the criminal justice system. Does anybody have a cite of a lawful execution of a horse thief merely for the crime of the theft? Hanging of horse thieves was most common out on the frontier, where it was sparsely populated and didn’t actually have much of a “criminal justice system” (or the lynch mob was the criminal justice system). Not so much in the more developed areas. And, as bardos said, this was a much more serious crime on the frontier. Stealing a horse left a traveler stranded, and quite likely to die. And stealing one from a farm took away enough of the work power that it was possible that everybody on the farm would die over the winter. In the developed towns or cities, there were carriages or rental horses so a traveler was not stranded, and there was shelter nearby for people without their horse, so a stolen horse was not generally a threat to your life (just your economic health – a big financial loss, and no insurance). So people in bad neighborhoods left their horse safely in a livery stable (just like they now park their car in a public garage or parking ramp). > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Usually all that was needed was the threat of bestiality to get the horse to co-operate. Not quite – you would be in an unprotected & exposed condition, and approaching the defensive end of a horse – do you know how far both those hind legs could kick you? ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/32 "2015-01-23T10:25:04Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > I think the hitching post in front of the saloon is a TV trope, My experience with horses is you don’t leave them saddled up w/o loosening the girth, and better to remove the saddle entirely. This means no just tieing a horse up and walking away, then getting back on like it’s a machine. Horses are pretty delicate. > . Actually I know businesses right here in Kansas and Missouri which have hitching posts although they arent usually right in front but beside the business. They are near Amish country. One roller skating rink I’ve been to actually has a small open field next door where you can see many wagons and buggies have been by the tire tracks and dried horse manure. Funny story: Once a man was arrested for driving drunk. Except he was riding a horse. He defended himself saying “Yea I was drunk but my horse wasn’t and he knew the way home”. Google image of “Horses at Mcdonalds” or “horse at a drive-thru” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/33 "2015-01-23T10:34:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Especially if done by the owner and his associates. 🙂 Especially if the owner and his associates are Vulcans. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/34 "2015-01-23T19:26:07Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Usually all that was needed was the threat of bestiality to get the horse to co-operate. I think you mean the “promise” of bestiality. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/35 "2015-01-24T05:38:13Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > It is still that way in my neck of the woods, and I do mean the woods. When you are off the paved roads and onto the gravel or up in the hills on the logging roads, a friendly smile and wave indicates that you belong there. Not waving indicates an outsider and will raise some suspicion. IME that’s a pretty general “small place / big city” division. In middle sized places, you don’t greet strangers when the street is busy but you do when it’s not. It indicates that you belong, but also that you’re friendly, both in the sense of “not a threat” and of “if you happen to need help with something, I’m here” (wouldn’t be the first time an old person who’s gone out on the streets at 3am and gotten lost is returned to their children by a kind stranger). ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/36 "2015-01-24T10:54:50Z")
In Elizabethan England horses were often left with a servant or a dedicated self employed street businessman. Shakespeare is described as getting his foot in the door of the London theatre world by looking after the horses of Nobles attending the theatre. Regarding well trusted livery stables. This sounds like a very good idea. It’s a modern day parking lot. If not dedicated stables then at least outside a trusted business. A business with a layabout young son to look after the horses. It’s the kind of job layabout young boys are made for. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/37 "2015-01-24T13:33:13Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > IME that’s a pretty general “small place / big city” division. In middle sized places, you don’t greet strangers when the street is busy but you do when it’s not. It indicates that you belong, but also that you’re friendly, both in the sense of “not a threat” and of “if you happen to need help with something, I’m here” (wouldn’t be the first time an old person who’s gone out on the streets at 3am and gotten lost is returned to their children by a kind stranger). I once returned a pony foal in the wee hours of the morning. I couldn’t get to the porch because if the dogs. Their barking and my hollering got the guy up. The pony was walking down the middle of the road. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/38 "2015-01-24T16:02:31Z")
> [@Huvudtvatt](#): > > Surely it couldn’t have been that easy to steal a horse? That would be like leaving your car unlocked with the key in the ignition. As an elderly relative pointed out to me, most people actually would leave their cars unlocked with the keys in the ignition (or at least inside the car) back when cars had begun to replace horses as a means of personal transportation. In fact I know of people living in small Vermont towns who still do this, although they are the exception. For the most part, the countermeasures we take to protect ourselves from car thefts are in response to trends and circumstances that were not relevant during the time period you are asking about so trying to draw too close an analogy would be anachronistic. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/39 "2015-01-24T16:39:15Z")
> [@skdo23](#): > > **As an elderly relative pointed out to me, most people actually would leave their cars unlocked with the keys in the ignition (or at least inside the car) back when cars had begun to replace horses as a means of personal transportation**. In fact I know of people living in small Vermont towns who still do this, although they are the exception. For the most part, the countermeasures we take to protect ourselves from car thefts are in response to trends and circumstances that were not relevant during the time period you are asking about so trying to draw too close an analogy would be anachronistic. I would assume this was in part due to virtually no-one knowing how to drive a car(and from what I understand it was pretty difficult). The period when cars replaced horses may be the exception rather than the rule. After a certain time period the horse/car comparison may be quite apt. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565/40 "2015-01-24T16:44:13Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > I would assume this was in part due to virtually no-one knowing how to drive a car(and from what I understand it was pretty difficult). The period when cars replaced horses may be the exception rather than the rule. After a certain time period the horse/car comparison may be quite apt. That’s probably true in part, as you said, but the habit did not end once cars became mainstream. The impression I have is that many car owners used to view locking their car and carrying their keys around as an inconvenience:confused: that became increasingly justified as auto theft rates increased. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-prevent-someone-from-stealing-your-horse-back-in-the-day/710565.md?page=3)