THIEVES have stolen a horse trailer during a break-in at a gated yard.

Dot Mckinley, who owns the Cheval Liberte Touring Trailer, worth around £11,000, has called for the public's help to try and locate it.

She lives in Elphinstone and keeps her pony and trailer in a paddock close to the village at Towerhill.

She received a phone call at 7.05am yesterday (Thursday) from the owner of the land, breaking the news that the trailer had been stolen overnight.

Dot's pony Gwinny in the trailerDot, 58, told the Courier: “It had a hitch lock on so we thought it was safe but seemingly [thieves] can get round it now – they make a contraption up so they can put it underneath and then they can hitch it up with this contraption.

“But seemingly you can only go about 50 miles with it, then you’ve got to stop and you’ve got to try and take the hitch lock off that we had put on.

“So that's why we thought it’s maybe somewhere local still.

“So last night we drove around and around industrial estates and streets just hoping we could find it, but no."

The trailer is white with a grey roof and has registration plate SL09 KKF.

It was kept at the top of the four paddocks on the land, where six ponies live, and their owners are thankful that the thieves didn't take off with the animals too.

Following Dot’s appeal on Facebook, someone messaged to say that they had seen a similar trailer heading toward Dunbar, but so there are no further leads.

She said: “The police said there was nothing much really they could do. I emailed them pictures and they’ve sent them round to colleagues in the Borders, Fife, places like that."

Dot is an animal-lover, working as a dog groomer alongside regularly taking her and her granddaughter's ponies to the beach and local shows in the trailer.

Dot and her granddaughter

The trailer was purchased four years ago and the estimated cost to buy a replacement is about £11,500.

She said: “I wouldn’t get another one - I couldn’t afford to.

"I would be scared to get another one for the same thing to happen again.

“They’re really clever now, they can get round anything. If they want something, they’ll take it.”

Dot’s Facebook appeal has now been shared more than 1,600 times and she doesn’t plan to give up the search, but thinks the chances of having the trailer returned are “pretty slim”.

She said that the other ponies kept in the paddocks were “a bit startled” after the break-in but thankfully are all doing fine.

She added: “This is why I like animals better than humans.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 7.20am on Thursday, 21 November, 2024, we received a report of the theft of a horse box from premises on Elphinstone Tower.

“The theft is believed to have occurred between 5.30pm on Wednesday, November 20 and 7am on Thursday, November 21.

“Enquiries are ongoing and anyone with any information is asked to contact 101 quoting reference 0556 of 21 November, 2024.”