I know with Warmbloods, when they're registered they get the breed logo thing branded on them. And I know that people who raise quarter horses put their ranch's brand on all the horses they raise...
But if someone just buys a horse, do they ever brand all the horses they buy with their own brand? What are the pros and cons of branding your horse?
P.s. I'm not asking about whether it's HUMANE or not, and I don't want to start an argument over it. I just want to understand the point of brands, and why people do it, when they do it, the pros and cons, etc...
I have known several people that have branded horses they didn't raise. It makes identification much easier if the horse ends up lost or stolen. All you have to do is register your brand with the state and buy a branding iron or a freeze brand. If you have never done it before find someone to help you that has branded a HORSE. It's different than branding a cow because the hide is much thinner.
A freeze brand is usually mad eout of brass or copper to draw the heat out of the skin more efficently and a branding iron is made out of steel to hold the heat and burn the hide better. I don't know if there is an online brand book but if you contact a brand inspector they can look it up for you. You can register the same brand for different quaters of a horse ie, left shoulder or right hip, so if the brand you want is registered for the left hip you can still put it someplace else.
My friend's parents brand all their horses (all freezebranded). It's really good if the horse gets lost or stolen (especially since they ride alot in the mountains where it's easy for a horse to get lost if it gets loose).
I've heard vets tend to recommend freezebranding over the iron as it's supposed to be less paintful & heal faster. More expensive, though i'd think.
My dad has made a few iron brands, but we've never used him, he just tests them on dead hides and sells them. I'll have to ask him if he's able to make one out of copper or brass...
You certainly can buy your own brand. It's a matter of making sure your design is not being used in your area, you buy it and you can use it on your own horses or livestock. I think it's great if you have a good breeding program in place, because you are then advertizing your horses and making it clear to the public where your horses have come from.
On a more personal level, if its a matter of branding your own single horse, it's a little silly. I had at one point considered getting a brand for my horses(I bred miniatures), but ended up deciding against it. It's all a personal reason. Unless you are seriously commiting to a large number of animals, I wouldn't put the money into it.
Also, one of the reasons why freezebranding is so popular among horse owners is that on darker colored horses, they are very visible from a distance since they grow back in white. Plus, they seem to be relatively painless where there is some pain with a hot iron.
I plan to get a freezebrand made one of these days and get all my horses branded. Mostly because it just looks cool but also for the safety reasons.
On our ranch growing up any horse we raised or bought we freeze branded. I like the practice and think it's a good idea, since microchipping isn't exactly well spread throughout horses. It's a bit harder to hide a freezebrand (or any brand for that matter).
I've tried researching the brand my Morgan cross gelding has on his hind quarter. I can't find anywhere online how to contact the state, It goes to the University of Vermont website (Equine Law). Do I just contact them? I was told he was from NY but we are in Michigan, so could there be a nationwide contact?
Thanks, I didn't mean to hijack thread but I was going to post this anyway.
What about branding cattle? They brand them so they can be easily identified if they are stolen. Horses are livestock so, why not brand them too? Sure its going to be uncomfortable but I think the benefits make it worth it.
Sorry I just get annoyed when people have the " omg poor we lil ponys" attitude...
I was looking at this old thread about branding.
Some people say it is not worthwhile but here are a few considerations.
One is horse rescues. I know of many rescued horses which were rehomed with strict buy back clauses and no slaughter clauses that have ended up at slaughter auctions. One horse it happened to twice! The horse is a nice horse.
Another issue here is that if there is a natural disaster, earthquake, wild fires,hurricanes, flooding etc, you and your horse may become separated. You want your horse back ASAP and if you have a brand and your horse has been rounded up with other horses from the disaster in a big pen the people dealing with the animals can get your horse back to you much faster.
The stolen horse issue goes without saying.
I microchip but you have to be hands on with a scanner to read a microchip. A brand can be read at a distance even with binoculars!
There are people on the ground at a lot of auctions spotting for horses that don't belong there. Once a horse gets there they are often very hard to catch and handle. Nobody is going to look for your microchip. They will see your brand though.
So I am considering freeze branding. Having rescued some good horses from slaughter I want to make sure they never go back there
Can someone explain to me how branding keeps any horse from being sold to kill buyers at an auction?
Brands are really hard to trace (just check any of the threads on HF of people trying to find out where their horses' brands came from... I don't think I've seen a successful one yet) and to my knowledge auctioneers are not required to make any effort to compare the horses at auction to any list of reported stolen horses. Even if you were able to successfully trace a brand, it only tells you who registered that brand, not who currently owns the horse.
I really think microchipping is a better alternative. The microchip is a unique identifier that can positively identify a specific horse and its registration can be easily updated to reflect changing ownership. Some breed registries already require them, and The Jockey Club recently announced they're going to start requiring them in 2017. If the other larger registries like AQHA, APHA, AHA, etc also follow suit it will make sense to start pressuring auction houses to scan for microchips.
When any livestock, including horses, shows up at a border or an auction with a brand, the person with it MUST have a brand inspection. The paper provided by a brand inspector is essentially the title to that animal. No title? The animal(s) are held until ownership is verified.
This only works if you operate in states where brands are respected by law. Vanity brands (those with someone's personal initials, or some picture they think looks western), brands that are put on for looks in places where there is no registry are useless.
Oh. And people do get brands on themselves. Hot brands. Then an abrasive substance is rubbed on the healing brand to promote keloid scarring. The raised scarring that some people do naturally.
My vet says that freeze bands are more gentle i suppose and they last long. I have horses that have both types and the freeze band does look alot cleaner and easier to read.
im looking at angle branding out horses. its like the blm brands but instead of the "u" for the blm it will ethier hand a symbol for their registry or state. since non of our 5 horses are registered it would be the symbol for az.
In some rurul areas, microchips are very rare. Most auctions and vets around here don't even check horses for chips because nobody chips their horses here.
Brands are a whole other ball game. They won't prevent a horse from being legally sold to a kill buyer, but if you have a horse stolen, you can call all vets and sale barns and tell them to be on the lookout for a chesnut horse with a Rocking J on his left shoulder. If someone spots him, they will "delay" the horse and call the cops.
BUT, I live in VERY rural America. I suppose that would be a lot harder in heavily populated areas.
You have to Register your Brand with the State . Dept of Ag. or it is useless.
You have to pay fees to keep the brand registry valid.
The state has to approve your brand there are specific guidelines, and the State will tell you where to place the brand on the livestock, example.. rt gaskin or left hip, or rt shoulder .
Also in CA if you steal a branded animal and get caught it makes it a Federal offence.
Branding is extremely uncommon here in the East and Midwest. Yes, you will see a horse now and then with a brand at a horse show but it's definitely not the norm. Usually it's a QH that has ended up here. And, there is no such thing as a state brand inspector in these states.
Branding and microchipping sound like great ways to prevent horses (animals) from being sent to slaughter or for reclaiming lost or stolen horses. However, in reality it relies on other people doing more than just catching and caring for the animals...
I don't count on anyone returning my animals to me. I do the best that I can to keep them with me and safe. I keep good records of their physical descriptions (photos are nice too, but aren't always necessary depending on how good your description is) just in case. If one disappears for whatever reason, I contact as many places as possible as often as possible with the best description possible.
The person we got them from has her horses running on a huge ranch that very rural. Nice horses sometimes come up missing thus branding is a preventive.
Both of my boys came to me already branded, which I like. Makes identification a bit easier. One has a freeze brand on his shoulder and one a hot iron brand on his gaskin. The one with a hot iron brand is hard to see, since the hair came back dark brown and he has the same color spots, being an appaloosa.
I've been considering freeze branding my horses. I never really knew if it would do much good as an I.D. mark here in florida. This thread prompted me to go online and check. This state has a whole list of brands being used and who they are registered to. It costs 10 bucks to register it and 5 for renewing it (I guess every year). I think I'm going to do it as there have been quite a few stolen horses in the state. Every little bit would be a help to get my babies back if they came up missing. Thanks for pulling up an old thread.
A few years ago I got interested in freeze branding so looked up everything I could find on the subject. I found a research paper on freeze branding cantle vs hot branding. Pain is measured by the levels of cortisol. Blood tests were done prior to both types of branding, shortly afterward and an hour after. In both cases cortisol levels were high for approx. the same period of time.
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