Stolen life-sized fibreglass horse reunited with Kelowna owners

A life-sized, fibreglass horse had been recovered after theft from a B.C. business three weeks ago. (Photo credit: Facebook/diamondhtack)

He's got a few more scratches than he did when he was stolen three weeks ago but “Harry” – a life-sized fibreglass horse – is back where he belongs greeting customers out front of a Kelowna, B.C. shop.

Since 1995, Harry has stood outside of Diamond H Tack Inc., a store that sells horse supplies, feed and saddles. He was made by Prewitt Fiberglass Animals in the 1970s and painted to look like an Appaloosa.

On June 21, he was loaded into a U-Haul in broad daylight, a brazen theft that left the store's co-owners reeling and sparked a community outcry.

"We've been, fingers crossed, hoping that maybe they ditched him somewhere because he was hard to get rid of," said co-owner Heather Moffat.

And on Monday, she found out that was exactly what seems to have happened. She tells CTV News Vancouver she got a call from a "brave" resident of the city who had seen something covered in a tarp in an area near an orchard where a lot of illegal dumping occurs.

"She waded through the brush and lifted the tarp and lo and behold, it was our horse," Moffat says, adding she got in her truck and called the police who agreed to meet her at the spot.

"We drove over there and pulled him out of the ditch and loaded them into my truck and they gave me a police escort back to the store. We unloaded him and he’s back doing his job as our open and closed sign and community landmark."

While Moffat and her co-owner Heather Robson has reported the theft to police, she says the hope was always that whoever took their irreplaceable mascot would abandon him unharmed.

"I just kept thinking with the outpouring of community support, and everybody's interest in the story that they were going to have a really hard time getting rid of him or utilizing him in any way because somebody was going to recognize him," she said.

In order to deter future would-be thieves, Moffat says the horse is now chained up outside.

"He has a few extra scratches to add to his story," she says. "But he's vintage and we have never repainted him or done any work on him. All his stories are right there on him."

No suspects have been identified in the case.