The story of a private investigator, an Ontario Provincial Police constable, and a horse that was referred to as ‘dead’ has cracked the mainstream media. The drawn-out tale, which took place over the course of roughly one year, left a grown man in tears when it came to its conclusion.
As an article on mykawartha.com explains, the horse in question was a rescued and rehabilitated Quarter Horse that had been living in the United States. The horse had been stolen and moved to Canada by a family member.
An agreement was then reached between the parties to see the horse sent to the United States to be reunited with its owners. Although the situation appeared as though it was on the cusp of being resolved, a transportation accident had allegedly killed the Quarter Horse. The U.S. connections weren’t buying the story, and that is when private investigator Peter Moore was brought into the fold.
The horse that had passed away in the accident did not match the description of the Quarter Horse – who is aptly named ‘Diamond,’ due to having a distinctive white diamond on his forehead – thus, the search was on.
Moore had admitted trying to find Diamond was similar to trying to find a needle in a haystack. Moore and three other people spent countless hours driving country roads in the Peterborough area in search of the horse with the white diamond. “Soon, everything started looking like a diamond,” he said. They would pull up beside paddocks and call for Diamond to see if a horse would specifically respond.
Moore explained that it was tricky process. He couldn’t inform the farm owners as to what he and his crew were doing, due to the fact that Diamond would be relocated if the culprit caught wind of what was going on (the individual that had stolen Diamond did not have a farm of their own).
Moore’s effort caught a big shot in the arm when Kawartha Lakes OPP Constable Darrin Thompson joined the fray. Constable Thompson liased with Diamond’s U.S. connections, which ramped rescue efforts up another notch. With the hard work of Moore, his team, Constable Thompson, and the leveraging of social media, Diamond was located this past August after an 11-month ordeal.
Moore and Constable Thompson showed up at an undisclosed farm near Omemee, checked a horse’s lip tattoo, and, lo and behold, Diamond was found. The farm owner did not put up a fuss and handed the horse over. “Out of the blue, I broke out in tears, which is ridiculous,” Moore said. “It was emotional since I didn’t believe we would find this horse.”
Moore went on to say, “You could sense he (Diamond) knew something was up and he was going home. He knew something good was happening.”
Moore was paid for all the work that was put into finding Diamond, but he has said that he did not bill all the man hours that went into bringing Diamond home. “This one was more personal,” he said.
Diamond was transported to another location where he worked on getting some weight and muscle put back on him, as he had lost roughly 600 pounds during the 11 months.
Diamond was returned to his U.S. family in October, and the family has sent Moore photos of the happy horse as he gets reacquainted with his family.
(Please note that the mykawartha.com story did not divulge the names of the family members and culprits due to charges not being filed)
(With files from mykawartha.com)