Freeze Branding

[Gotta Love Duns]

After reading Horsey-gals post about getting her horse freeze branded I was wondering if you all would mind sharing some pictures with me on where your horses are freeze branded.

See one of my horses is already freeze branded with a PMU number on the side of his neck. I really don't like it because each number is about 3'' long and it is right down the side of his neck.

Now I understand the merrit of freeze branding your horse, because here in Alberta we have had many stolen horses and when a bay goes missing with no distingusable markings it is very hard to track down. Even a paint for that matter, because it is very hard to describe all the markings on that one horse.

Now peacecountrycowboy and I have been having this discussion about freeze branding our horses with the farm brand. Now because I have had the bad experance with the freeze branding (I really dong like Iggys) I'm very hesitant to freeze brand everyone else, Iggy included.

The other issue is I don't know where to put it, and this is where I'm calling on all of you to help me! If I could see some pictures of some brands on the shoulders and hips and such that would help me out so much.

I know for peace of mind, we will probably end up branding them, I do agree that it is a good idea.

So here is Iggys brand on his neck...

[Iwasbornonahorse]

I, too, would like to see some brands and hear how much it cost you, and if the horse needed anesthetic etc.

[dandeeqh]

This is a mare I sold last summer. She has the freeze brand on her shoulder. She had this done before I bought her.

[annag307]

Heres my friends BLM mustang........... Spirit

[HorseDork]

the icelandic i sold had some intense freeze branding... wierd writing on his neck and an 8 under the saddle. hmm...ill try to dig up some pictures.

[annag307]

Heres a horse I was buying but changed my mind do to her age & not being started. turned out she is an awesome ride, no one even quessed shed only been riding for only 1 year. She was started as a 10yr old.

[joustinggirl]

We did her when we sedated her to microchip her and pull her wolf teeth. We did it with alcohol and dry ice. It went very well.

[Horses&Soccer]

Annag - what is that on Spirit? It looks like some kind of foreign script.

Now you guys have me thinking, ours have no real identifying marks either. I can see our local cops now - "Well, gee, ma'am, you're missing a grey mare?" I guess I need to call the vet and discuss this along with the spring shots.

[Iwasbornonahorse]

Originally Posted by Horses&Soccer

Annag - what is that on Spirit? It looks like some kind of foreign script.

Now you guys have me thinking, ours have no real identifying marks either. I can see our local cops now - "Well, gee, ma'am, you're missing a grey mare?" I guess I need to call the vet and discuss this along with the spring shots.

It's the BLM freeze mark code

[annag307]

Originally Posted by Horses&Soccer

Now you guys have me thinking, ours have no real identifying marks either. I can see our local cops now - "Well, gee, ma'am, you're missing a grey mare?" I guess I need to call the vet and discuss this along with the spring shots.

You know you can do as someone stated, get the micro chip. They dont have to be sedated for that, just a shot. Then to prove its your horse, they just have to scan for the # & proof.

Originally Posted by Iwasbornonahorse

It's the BLM freeze mark code

Yup, as she said it, thats waht it is.

[Slim Pikkens]

Micro chipping is great providing all readers can read it. Does anyone know if one registers freeze brands. My gelding has the breeders initials and a number on his near shoulder.

[HorseMomToSage]

Not all slaughter houses scan for microchips but they probably don't all verify tattoos either

[dandeeqh]

Here they verify all visible brands. I know some of the auctions don't have the scanners to read the microchips.

[rms0706]

[peacecountrycowboy]

Originally Posted by dandeeqh

Here they verify all visible brands. I know some of the auctions don't have the scanners to read the microchips.

Right now by law they only have to look for brands. If you micro chip your horse, you're going to have to find it yourself. Same goes for tatoo. Both will be recorded in a missing report as other information but only a registered brand will legally hold a horse at an auction or slaughter plant on a missing report. Meaning if you make a missing report of a horse with a brand and that brand goes through either an auction or slaughter plant without proper proof of ownership it will be held and checked to see if it's the missing horse.

I have done export papers for horses going to slaughter and I have never even seen a micro chip scanner before. When we do exports we may look at up to 60 horses at a time. We can't possibly run them all through and run background checks on all the tatoos we may find. Brands though, with one simple look at the side of a horse and one phone call I can find out a lot of information.

Here's part of an article I found on micro chipping vs. freeze branding,



A Hanging Offence

“Horse theft is still a big problem,” admits Cathy Hutcheson, spokesperson for Calgary-based microchipping company AVID Canada. Though there are no national or North American figures available on just how effective microchipping is, nor how many horses have had the procedure, animal microchipping companies claim thousands of animals worldwide, worth millions of dollars, have been recovered as a direct result of microchipping. Its competitor, Anitech Inc., has microchipped and registered 400,000 dogs and cats on its Mississauga, Ont.-based PetNet Microchip Identification recovery service; AVID Canada states its PETtrack pet recovery service has reunited 25,000 lost pets with their owners.

In the old days, horse thieves were hanged. These days, horse theft is classified as theft under, or over, $5,000, and carrying the same penalty as car theft. Ottawa Police Service Detective Ken Livingstone, who has been assigned to the Tilgner case, explains “someone could get a suspended sentence, or up to six months in jail, depending upon their previous criminal record, and how the judge is feeling that day.” In Alberta, which has 41 per cent of the nation’s livestock, horse and cattle rustling is widespread. Cpl. Ed Turco, a livestock inspector with the RCMP’s south Alberta Livestock Section, says more than 100 horses were reported stolen from Alberta last year. Two years ago, in an effort to stop the tide of animals - many of them stolen or otherwise being illegally transported - leaving the province, RCMP and the Livestock

Identification Services stepped up livestock checks. Livestock “check stops” were set up at auction houses, rodeos and recreational parks throughout the province. Shippers without documents clearly showing a brand inspector’s signature, origin and ownership of cattle and horses are ticketed. “Every time you haul livestock in the province of Alberta, you have to complete a livestock manifest. It is a permanent record of all livestock that’s been transported and changed hands.” says Cpl. Turco. Recently, a trucker attempting to export animals without proper inspection received a $1,300 fine; yet Cpl. Turco estimates thousands of horses and cattle continue to be shipped across Alberta borders without inspection. Several years ago, a Cochrane, Alberta man was convicted of stealing two horses and selling them for meat; he received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Cpl. Turco - who has recovered stolen Alberta horses as far away as Ontario - says he’s never got a stolen horse back because it had been microchipped. As far as he’s concerned, branding - whether hot or freeze - is the best method of identification. “When people see a branded animal, that makes everybody a ‘scanner’. When people put their confidence in a microchip, that eliminates most of the public.”

The Fort McLeod, Alta. slaughter house has a brand inspector stationed at the plant looking for brands - but not, Cpl. Turco says, scanning for microchips. That may soon change. Microchip companies and other associations and are discussing, together with the provincial government, an amendment to the Livestock Identification and Brand Inspection Act that making microchip scanning compulsory for auction houses, sales barns, slaughter houses, packing plants and livestock exporters. The microchipping companies have already donated thousands of scanners to animal shelters and slaughter houses in preparation.

Meanwhile, Det. Livingstone continues to make the rounds of sales barns, boarding and breeding farms throughout the Ottawa vicinity. “I’ve looked at more horses in the past few weeks than I have in 20 years,” says the veteran officer, who once kept horses himself, and who knows just about everyone in the Ottawa-area horse scene. “Those horses have disappeared right of the face of the earth.” Unlike Cpl. Turco, he believes microchipping might have helped trace the stolen fillies’ whereabouts. And, after two weeks of exhausted searching and worrying about the stolen fillies, Mrs. Huneault and Mrs. Tilgner had to admit the same thing: both called their veterinarians to have their remaining horses microchipped.

[joustinggirl]

Brands are registered with the state you live in, is there a larger organization to register with? Or do sale barns call every state to track a brand?

[sundancer maiden]

When I had horses freeze branded by a co. called Kryo Kinetics, they explained the weird markings. The ID starts out with script IDing the breed or if the horse is grade. The rest of the script does look something from Egypt. But it is harder for someone to alter, to claim as their own. The company then sends in their paperwork with your reg. papers so your breed AQHA, etc. can record it and add it to your papers.
Mine are marked along the crest of the neck. You can have it done on the mane side and cover it if you want.

[Horses&Soccer]

Thanks Sundancer, that better explains why it looks like foreign script. So how does one "get" the design for a brand? Do you make your own, or are they regulated in some way?

[greygirls]

My Standie mare has a freeze brand on her neck but it's hidden under her mane so it's not overly noticeable. In fact, it dissappears with her winter woolies!

[joustinggirl]

I designed mine and a company call Naasco(Cassco?) made it for me. You have to check with your state to see if the design you want is already registered.

I don't know about the "sand script".