Campbell Co., VA - Horses are still being stolen, and a Campbell County woman says she's learned that the hard way when someone stole a horse she was caring for from her farm.

She's spent the last few days trying to get the word out so she can get the horse back. She has spread the news on Facebook, Craigslist and even posted a report on the website Netposse.com, which is dedicated to finding stolen horses.

There's a new sign outside the New Horizons Equine Rehab farm in Campbell County that reads, "Horse thieves will be shot on sight."

It was posted after a Missouri Fox Trotter named Jake, disappeared Saturday night.

"I just think that somebody wanted him and didn't want to have to pay the price for him," said Carey Cartwright, from the New Horizon Equine Rehab Center.

The six year-old gelding was on sale for $3,000. Cartwright was boarding him for a woman in Botetourt County.

"The only way anybody would know that horse is here, they would have had to physically come to my farm and known the land and known that horse was here and singled him out," said Cartwright.

The thieves left behind tracks showing they walked the horse nearly a mile through three gates to a parked horse trailer.

"Nobody has security for something like that. I mean you try to keep the animals in but you're not worried about somebody getting in to steal the animals," said Maj. Steve Hutcherson with the Campbell County Sheriff's Office.

It's a crime current deputies only remember reading in history books.

"It's an unusual call, I don't recall ever having another theft of a horse," said Hutcherson.

Cartwright says she wants the thieves to go to jail, but it's not what's most important.

"We just want Jake back, that's our main concern right now," said Cartwright.

Cartwright has distributed fliers to horse auctions from Florida to Maine. She says if they try to sell Jake, someone will see him.

The owner has offered an unspecified reward for his return.

Contact Jean Tozar at 540-400-5431 or email at jtozar@yahoo.com