'˜Ridiculous' thieves steal 20 bags of horse manure from Vale riding school

The owner of a riding school has blasted '˜ridiculous' thieves who climbed a fence to steal 20 sacks of horse manure.
Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manureBags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure
Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure

Bags are filled with horse droppings at Hoofprints by young helpers at weekends.

But before they could be offered to the public as fertiliser for just £1-a-bag, the whole lot was taken.

Lucy Conroy, who set up the Gawcott riding school to rehabilitate horses, said: “It’s ridiculous.

Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure PNL-160519-155108009Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure PNL-160519-155108009
Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure PNL-160519-155108009

“The kids put in a lot of hard work to fill the bags and someone thinks it’s okay to take them all.

“We’re all quite cross, because it’s so ridiculous – it’s really annoying.

“There’s an honesty box next to the bags but whoever it was didn’t bother contributing to it.”

Lucy has not reported the theft to the police but raised awareness on social media to make sure other stables and farmers remained vigilant.

Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure PNL-160519-155108009Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure PNL-160519-155108009
Bags of manure stolen from Hoofprints at Gawcott - pictured is 25 year old pony Dancer with yard manager Kim Newton and the honesty box on the gate by where they leave the manure PNL-160519-155108009

She said the school is only small so they rely on fundraising and schemes such as selling the manure.

It means a theft, no matter how small, can affect the running of the business.

Lucy said: “People think because you’ve got horses, you’ve got lots of money – but that’s not the case at all. £20 goes a long way towards paying for bags of food.”

She added: “It’s just not something you expect to find out has happened. I noticed it last weekend and they must have climbed over a double gate. We stopped putting the bags out last year and we’d only just started again because the land had dried up.

“They’re big bags. Not little bags at all – you can only just about pick them up.

“Maybe it was a keen gardener.”

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