Description

The present invention relates to an anti-theft device for a horse saddle.

According to known art, nowadays the riding saddles, whose economic value can also be significant, are protected from thefts simply by hot embossing, generally on the outer surface thereof made of leather, or hide, preferably inside the saddle quarter, a particular alphanumeric code distinctive of the sold product. It is known however that such a hot embossing operation is not able to produce any kind of deterrent effect against prowlers since the alphanumeric code embossed on the saddle can be easily scratched and replaced, always by means of hot embossing, with a completely different one, to allow who misappropriate the saddle to market it again. Therefore, the absence of technologies able to prevent, or render disadvantageous, the saddle theft and, at the same time, to make possible the identification of the possibly stolen saddle by associating it to the legitimate owner, renders substantially worthless the possible complaint filed by the owner victim of the theft, with the consequence that the probabilities of regaining possession of the her/his own saddle are extremely poor, if not null.

Anti-theft devices comprising an element protruding from the saddle and being non- removably fastened to the same, are further known. For example, the International

Application WO2014057330 in name of Scianaro et Al., just describes an anti-theft device comprising an element protruding from the saddle, provided with a first head, a second head and a pin that is housed into a saddle hole and keeps the two heads non-removably joined one to another.

According to a variation of the solution, one of the two heads could also be prearranged in the saddle during the manufacturing thereof, only one of the two heads protruding outwards.

However in any case such a solution, that has proven to be highly effective from a saddle safety point of view, due to its little sizes, does not allow a GPS device (English acronym that stands for "Global Positioning System") to be housed therein, which would allow competent authorities to trace the exact position of the saddle, if

l the same is stolen. Furthermore, due to the immovability of the protruding element also in case a GPS device could be inserted into such a protruding element, this could not be replaced in case of accidental breakage or full battery discharge.

It is therefore object of the present invention to implement an anti-theft device able to be however an effective deterrence against prowlers and being, at the same time, able to solve the above mentioned problems of the known art, i.e. to allow the use of GPS devices.

Further object of the present invention is to implement an anti-theft device that allows retrieving the rightful owner without the need of damaging the saddle itself. These and other objects are achieved by means of an anti-theft device for horse saddle provided with at least one protruding element non-removably combined with said saddle, or made in one piece with said saddle, comprising a main body, at least one recess to house, at least in part, said protruding element, and locking means to removably lock said main body to said protruding element.

In practice, such an anti-theft device takes advantage of the presence of an even only slightly protruding element present on the saddle to be removably combined with the same. This allows, therefore, using the inner gap of the main body, which is suitably sized to house a GPS device or any other device so that the saddle can be localized if stolen. In any case, also if such an anti-theft device was not provided with GPS device, it would however be able to afford optimal safety level since it would be able to make the saddle useless though, due to its sizes, in case the saddle was stolen. According to a first embodiment of the device, in case of a protruding element comprising at least one fastening head provided with one lower surface directly, or indirectly, couplable in abutment to the outer surface of said saddle, and at least one pin extending from said lower surface of said head and being housed, at least in part, in a hole of said saddle, the recess of said main body is blind and shaped to house said at least one fastening head along a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of said at least one pin, and said locking means comprise at least one restraining element movable with respect to said main body between a first position and a second position, respectively of disengagement and engagement, directly or indirectly, with said protruding element, in order to prevent said head from sliding in said at least one recess along said at least one longitudinal axis of said pin.

In particular* said restraining element, at least in its engagement position, is arranged between said outer surface of said saddle and said lower surface of said fastening head. In detail, said restraining element is foil-like shaped. Such a constraint makes in practice impossible to remove the anti-theft device from the saddle.

According to a further embodiment of the device according to the invention, always in case said protruding element comprises at least one fastening head provided with a lower surface directly, or indirectly, couplable in abutment to the outer surface of said saddle, and at least one pin extending from said lower surface of said head and being housed, at least in part, into a hole of said saddle, the recess of said main body is blind and is provided at the bottom with a longitudinal slot, wherein said recess and said slot are sized and shaped to partially slidingly house, respectively, said fastening head and said pin, along a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of said at least one pin. According to such an embodiment, said locking means comprise at least one restraining element movable with respect to said main body between a first position and a second position, respectively, of disengagement and engagement, directly or indirectly, with said main body, to prevent said at least one head from sliding in said at least one recess along said orthogonal axis.

Furthermore, in both the herein mentioned embodiments, said locking means also comprise actuating means to move said at least one restraining element between said engagement position and said disengagement position, and vice versa. In particular, said actuating means comprise at least one key lock provided with at least one rotatable cylinder, in which said restraining element is integrally constrained to said cylinder.

In the case of the first embodiment of the anti-theft device according to the invention, the lock is integrally constrained to said main body of the anti-theft device.

In the case of the second embodiment of the anti-theft device according to the invention, said lock is slidingly combinable with said at least one recess of said main body along said at least one axis orthogonal to said longitudinal axis of said pin. Still according to the invention the anti-theft device, in accordance with both the first embodiment and the second embodiment, comprises at least one GPS device. Specifically, said main body comprises an additional recess in which said GPS device can be housed. In a characteristic and advantageous implementation of the invention, said at least one additional recess is obtained inside said at least one recess of said main body. This has the advantage of preventing the GPS device housing from being used, from the outside, as an access point to open the main body of the anti-theft device. Indeed, when the anti-theft device is combined with the protruding element, the recess housing the head of the protruding element can not be accessed from the outside and, thus, the access to the GPS device becomes impossible.

Furthermore, the anti-theft device can be easily inserted into, or extracted from the main body, for example in case it has to be subjected to battery recharge process, or it has to be replaced for any reason.

Finally, such an anti-theft device comprises at least one metal wire provided with at least one end secured to said main body. Such metal wire can be used to constrain the saddle to a stationary frame.

These and other aspects of the present invention will be more evident to the field technician from the following description of several preferred embodiments of the present invention, provided for illustration purposes and without limitation, in reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

figure 1 shows a known art saddle provided with a protruding element on which the device according to the invention can be applied;

figure 2 shows an axonometric view of the anti-theft device in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention;

figure 3 shows a further axonometric view of the anti-theft device of figure 2; figure 4 shows a bottom view of the anti-theft device of figure 2;

- figure 5 shows a sectional view of the anti-theft device of figure 4;

figure 6 shows an axonometric view of the anti-theft device in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention;

figure 7 shows a further axonometric view of the anti-theft device of figure 6, in which the lock has been removed;

- figures 8a and 8b show in longitudinal section a lock that can be combined with the main body of the anti-theft device of figure 7, wherein the restraining element is, respectively, in its disengagement position (figure 8b) and in its engagement position (figure 8a);

figure 9 shows a sectional view of the anti-theft device of figure 6;

figure 10 shows a top view of the anti-theft device of figure 6;

- figure 11 shows the section of figure 9 in which the anti-theft device is free from both the lock and the protruding element.

Referring specifically to such figures, the anti-theft device according to the invention has been denoted with numeral 1, whereas with numeral 100 is shown the horse saddle on which the anti-theft device 1 is installed.

Specifically, the saddle 100 is provided with a protruding element 200 non- removably combined with the saddle 100 itself. For example, the patent Application WO2014057330 in name of Scianaro et Al., describes a not removable protruding element 200 adapted to combine with the anti-theft device 1 according to the invention. Specifically, such a protruding element 200 comprises a fastening head 200a provided with a lower surface 200b directly couplable in abutment to the outer surface 100a of the saddle 100, and a pin 200c extending from the lower surface 200b of the head 200a and being housed, at least in part, in a hole 101 of the saddle 100. Such a pin 200c is provided with a longitudinal axis X substantially coincident with the one of the hole 101 pierced in the saddle 100. Specifically, the hole 101 is a through hole and is made at the cantle of the saddle 100. In figure 1 additional parts are shown both of the saddle 100 and the protruding element 200 that, however, are not described herein as being already known to the field technician and not being useful for the understanding of the Application.

However, despite hereinafter such protruding element 200 in the saddle 100 will be referred to, however any protruding element non-removably combined with the saddle, or made in a one piece with the saddle, still falls in the protection scope of the present invention. For example, the anti-theft device 1 can be also applied to a protruding element 200 which is free from a second head, or wherein the second head is placed inside the saddle itself.

According to the invention, referring to figures 2 to 5, the anti-theft device 1 comprises a main body 2, a recess 3 for housing, at least in part, the above said protruding element 200, and locking means 4 to removably lock said main body 2 to said protruding element 200.

Specifically, as visible from the above mentioned figures and in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, the recess 3 is blind and obtained through a dig made along an axis which is parallel to the axis X of the pin 200c of the protruding element 200, when the device 1 is combined with the protruding element 200. Such a recess 3 is furthermore shaped to house the fastening head 200a of the protruding element 200 along a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis X of the pin 200c. The locking means 4 then comprise a restraining element 5 movable with respect to the main body 2 between a first position PI and a second position P2, respectively, of direct disengagement and engagement with the protruding element 200, to prevent the head 200a of the protruding element 200 from sliding in the recess 3 along the longitudinal axis X of the pin 200c. In figure 4 the anti-theft device 1 is shown not applied to the saddle 100, but in which the restraining element 5 is in its engagement position P2.

Furthermore, the restraining element 5, at least in its engagement position P2, is arranged between the outer surface 100a of the saddle 100 and the lower surface 200b of the fastening head 200a of the protruding element 200. Specifically, the restraining element 5 is foil-like shaped.

In accordance with a further embodiment shown in figures 6 to 11 and applicable to the same above described protruding element 200, the recess 3 is blind and is obtained through a dig along a direction orthogonal to the one of the axis X of the pin 200c, when the device 1 is combined with the protruding element 200. Furthermore, the recess 3 is provided on the bottom with a longitudinal slot 10 obtained on the wall 13 of the main body 2, obtained after the dig for making the recess 3. Such a wall 13 has reduced thickness in order to allow the anti-theft device 1 to be applied to the protruding element 200, as it will clearly emerge from the description reported below. Specifically, the recess 3 and the slot 10 are sized and shaped to at least partially and slidingly house, respectively, the fastening head 200a and the pin 200c, along a direction Y orthogonal to the longitudinal direction X of the pin 200c. In such an embodiment the locking means 4 comprise a restraining element 5 movable with respect to the main body 2 between a first position PI and a second position P2, respectively, of disengagement and direct engagement with the main body 2 (see figure 9), to prevent both the head 200a from sliding in the recess 3 and the pin 200c in the slot 10, along said orthogonal axis Y. The restraining element 5 inserts into a slot 40 obtained in the main body 2, when in its engagement position P2.

In both the above described embodiments and referring to figures 8a and 8b, the locking means 4 further comprise actuating means 11 to move the restraining element 5 between said engagement position P2 and said disengagement position PI, and vice versa. Specifically, said locking means 4 comprise a key lock 11 provided with a rotatable cylinder 12, in which the restraining element 5 is integrally constrained to the end 12a of the cylinder so that it is subjected too to a rotation between the engagement position P2 and the disengagement position PI, or vice versa, when the key, entered into the lock 11, causes the rotation of the cylinder 12. According to the first embodiment of the invention, the lock 11 is integrally constrained to the main body 2 of the anti-theft device 1.

In accordance with the above shown second embodiment, the lock 11, on the contrary, can be slidingly combined with the above mentioned recess 3 of the main body 2 along the axis Y orthogonal to said longitudinal axis X of the pin 200c.

In any case, in both the embodiments as also visible both in figure 1 and in figures 9 and 11, the main body 2 comprises a GPS device 21 within the same. Both in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, the main body 2 comprises as well an additional recess 20 inside which said GPS device 21 can be housed. Specifically, the afore mentioned additional recess 20 is obtained just inside the recess 3 of the main body 2. This has the advantage of preventing the housing of the GPS device 21 from being used, from the outside, as an access point to open the main body 2 of the anti- theft device 1. Indeed, when the anti-theft device 1 is combined with the protruding element, the recess 3 houses the head 200a of the protruding element 200 and, therefore, makes the GPS device 21 impossible to be accessed from the outside. When the anti-theft device 1 is not used, the GPS device 21 can be thus extracted and recharged. In figure 11 it is shown how the GPS device 21 can be extracted (see the dashed line arrows) once the lock 11 has been removed from the recess 3, as well as the head 200a of the protruding element 200.

Finally, as visible in figure 4 or 5, the anti-theft device 1 comprises a metal wire 30 provided with an end 30a secured to the main body 2. Such a solution allows constraining the saddle 100 to a stationary structure when the anti -theft device 1 is applied to the protruding element 200 of the saddle 100 itself.

It has to be noted finally that the herein described solution also protects an anti-theft device for horse saddle 100, comprising both a protruding element 200 non- removably combined with the saddle 100 and comprising at least one fastening head 200a provided with a lower surface 200b directly, or indirectly, couplable in abutment to the outer surface 100a of said saddle 100, and at least one pin 200c extending from said lower surface of said head and being housed, at least in part, in a hole 101 of said saddle 100, and at least one anti-theft device 1 of the above described type in accordance with the first or the second embodiment.

Finally, the anti-theft device 1 according to the herein described embodiments is made of steel, however an embodiment in which such a device 1 is made of other metal or material such as, for example, plastic, still falls in the protection scope of the present invention.