By CASEY NEILL
MUCH-LOVED horse Maverick is missing after thieves snatched him from his Dandenong North paddock.
His owner Brittany Jubb, 22, from Clyde and her mother Tricia from Cranbourne have been searching high and low for the 23-year-old chestnut quarter horse gelding since Wednesday 7 January.
Tricia became aware of a problem that morning when she received a call from a City of Greater Dandenong ranger because a horse was found on the Monash Freeway between Heatherton and Stud roads at 6am.
The thoroughbred chestnut gelding was a companion for Maverick.
“The ranger and police caught it and walked back along a public bike path which backs onto our paddock,” Tricia said.
“There are other paddocks in this area, but the horse started to take over and walked the ranger to an area of our fence line that clearly had been deliberately cut.
“I arrived at the paddock shortly after and discovered that my daughter’s horse was gone.”
Maverick is 15.1 hands with distinctive markings – four long white socks and a white star/strip that angled down the right side of his nose.
He was branded HA with an arrow underneath the letters pointing towards his tail and has a scar on his far front hoof.
“It is all very confusing as we don’t know whether they attempted steal the other horse as well, used the other horse just to walk along with Maverick so perhaps he wouldn’t neigh, or simply knew the other horse got out when they cut the middle fence and left it out to roam,” Tricia said.
“It is, however, unlikely to have wandered the distance to the freeway away from all horses in the area on its own.”
Tricia discovered fresh manure leading from the paddock to Clow Street in Dandenong via a bike path.
“The Clow Street exit point has an oval area with a car park so Maverick may have been loaded there,” she said.
“Someone has gone to great lengths to get our horse and he is not overly easy to catch and there were 20 horses in that paddock to choose from.
“I have leased this paddock in Dandenong North for around 30 years and never had a horse stolen or known of others stolen in this area.
“Britt only turned Maverick out in this paddock about eight weeks ago as there was plenty of feed there for the summer period.”
Brittany has owned Maverick for about 10 years and rode him in dressage and other competitions.
“He has been retired for six to seven-odd months, purely as she felt he had done enough and deserved retirement – not through injury,” Tricia said.
“She loves him so much and wants to give him the retirement he deserves.”
The Jubbs have notified sale yards and contacted knackeries.
“Someone must know this horse’s whereabouts or will see him somewhere in the coming weeks,” Tricia said.
Dandenong police Sergeant Ally Howard said horse thefts were rare in the area.
“This is something unusual,” she said.
“I expect someone would have seen something.
“I urge them to contact Crime Stoppers.”
Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or contact Brittany Jubb on 0431 737 580 or through www.facebook.com/maverickstolenhorse.
