Award offered for return of missing mares
OLFORD Arabian stud owner Wesley Hayes has offered a R10 000 reward for any information leading to the return of two mares stolen from his farm outside Queenstown last week.
Hayes said both are breeding mares – Olford Lady Like and Olford Lady Grey – and about five years old. He added that Ladylike was heavily in foal and due towards the end of July.
According to Hayes, the mares, both part-bred Arabians registered with the Arabian Horse Society of South Africa, went missing sometime on Thursday last week.
Hayes said a lock securing the camp in which they were housed had been broken off, and he found it strange that the camp from which they had been taken housed 15 horses in total.
He was informed about it after a neighbour called to say the gate to the camp was wide open.
“My dad, [David] then went to check as he had thought some of the cattle had been stolen, but they turned out fine,” he said.
He went to the camp on Friday last week to check and it was then he realised they might have been stolen.
He then contacted other neighbouring farms to inquire whether the horses had perhaps slipped through the fence and escaped to other farms. However, the queries did not yield any significant results.
Hayes added that he has bred horseswhich compete in racing competitions globally.
The Olford Arabian Stud was established by Betty Arnold in 1948.
Hayes inherited the stud in 1997 and has been breeding horses for more than 20 years, having started as a boy. Asked what the pair’s monetary value was, he would not be drawn into putting a figure on it, saying: “They are irreplaceable. It is a very rare bloodline and I cannot replace the bloodline. The only way would be to import them from Australia,” he said.
Hayes said he opened a case with the Queenstown stock theft unit.
Police spokesperson Captain Namhla Mdleleni confirmed that a case had been registered at the Queenstown police station and the matter is currently under investigation.