Erath County man with lengthy rap sheet charged with stealing family’s horse.

Curt Garrison is being held at the Erath County Jail.

By SARA VANDEN BERGE

An Erath County man has been arrested for allegedly stealing a horse early Sunday morning.

Curt Garrison has been charged with theft of livestock, a third-degree felony. He was taken into custody at a pipe yard in Stephenville shortly before 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

He is being held at the Erath County Jail on a $65,000 bond.

I spoke to the family who owns the horse on Monday.

They said they were asleep inside their home when someone gained access to their property through a locked gate between 12:30-7:30 a.m. on Sunday, then “walked the horse out.”

(The family found hoof prints going outside of the gate.)

“We board horses and he is one of our best,” one of the family members told Beneath the Surface News. “His name is Denny and he’s a roping and junior rodeo horse.”

Denny was returned to the family the following day by Erath County sheriff’s deputies.

Sheriff Matt Coates would not say how investigators found the horse, but did say that Garrison claimed he took the horse by “mistake.”

“His story is that he just picked up the wrong horse,” Coates said.

Garrison has been arrested 23 times since 2017 on a range of charges including criminal trespass, theft, possession of dangerous drugs, unlawful carrying of a weapon, deadly conduct (discharging a firearm) and evading arrest.

Sheriff Coates said horses are a hot commodity for thieves these days.

"Lock your gates and keep an eye out on all your livestock," he said.