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Stolen Horse International, Inc.
PO Box 1341
Shelby, NC 28151
(704) 484-2165
stolenhorse@netposse.com
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Been There Done That"
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No ordinary ‘horse opera’
Cassie Tarpley
Star Staff Writer
For Pictures click here
SHELBY — For many, horses on film means the Western movies — tall in the saddle John Wayne riding off into the sunset.
For Debi Metcalfe, it marks a climax in a crusade that began when her own horse, Idaho, was stolen nearly six years ago.
Monday, filmmakers from Oregon-based Itchy Fingers Films set up shop at the Metcalfe farm in western Cleveland County to document her story.
She has already put it in writing in her just-released first book, “Horse Theft: Been There — Done That.”
On the Web site she created, netposse.com, the Internet base for Stolen Horse International, which she founded, she tells it too: “You wake up one morning, put on your clothes and walk out to the barn to feed your four-legged family. Quickly you notice the open door, the open gate and the tire tracks. Your horse is missing. What do you do now?”
Mrs. Metcalfe said her yearlong, successful search for Idaho taught her a lot, mainly how hard it is for ordinary people to deal with such an extra-ordinary situation.
“The day that guy took my horse changed my life,” she said.
Since that time, she has become an activist, she said, using her hard-earned experience helping hundreds of other people who found themselves in her shoes.
The film producers sell their work to commercial television channels, and Mrs. Metcalfe’s story could show up on “Horse and Man” or The Discovery Channel, she said.
The stolen horse story is more prevalent than you might think, Mrs. Metcalfe said.
“Even if you have not heard of horse theft before, don’t think it doesn’t happen,” she writes. “An estimated 40,000 to 55,000 people in the U.S. are victims of this theft in one form or another.”
Through her work, her Web site, her book and, soon, through telling members of Congress, Mrs. Metcalfe wants to increase awareness of horse theft and help others who face it, including law enforcement agencies, she said.
In “Horse Theft,” she personalizes the topic with stories of horse owners who have lost, and found, beloved animals.
4671-4/3/2004-LN
4/3/2003 Shelby Star
Shelby, NC
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