TATTOO RESEARCH?

[furlong47]

[QUOTE=charitymanwaring;6813165]
Have posted pics of him and of his tattoo… please take a look and see what your opinion is. I had not seen a tattooed lip before, so am not familiar with the standards of the letters, numbers etc…

THANKS!!!

ps- The poor fellow was called Barney…YUK! Now he is King Pepper until I can hopefully find his real name![/QUOTE]

Well, if he is Kennedys King you can still call him King! That looks like a pretty likely match to me. You can try contacting Ellen Harvey at the USTA, she may be able to help you confirm. ellen.harvey@ustrotting.com She has been big in helping with rescues and getting STB into new homes after racing.

[FalseImpression]

Just curious. I thought standardbreds were tattoed on the neck. Is this more recent? were they lip tattoed before?

He has a beautiful head and such soft eyes. I think you are both lucky you met!

[charitymanwaring]

Thanks! Have emailed her with some pics!!!

[charitymanwaring]

From what I have read, they can have tattoos(on lips) or Freeze brands (on the neck). Don’t know when/ why they may have changed… Just from researching my horses tattoo.

[furlong47]

[QUOTE=FalseImpression;6813571]
Just curious. I thought standardbreds were tattoed on the neck. Is this more recent? were they lip tattoed before?

He has a beautiful head and such soft eyes. I think you are both lucky you met![/QUOTE]

They were lip tattooed in the past… and many would have additional freezebrands which were not their registration number, but rather additional visible ID placed by the breeder or farm. (I rode a 1986 model with a lip tattoo and just a ‘2’ on his neck, for example.) I don’t know when the switch to registration number as freezebrand became official, but I started noticing it on mid to late 90s horses. They must be freezebrands now, no more tattoos.

[sk_pacer]

Freeze branding started in the late 90s and became mandatory by 03 on new registrations in Canada with the alphabet rollover back to A; horses with legible tattooes were allowed to go with the tattoo only although many were branded as well and anything with a bad tattoo was freeze branded. By 04, Standardbred Canada and the USTA synchronised the registration numbers to have three numbers and two letters (letters move one space left with each turnover of the alphabet) and shortly after, USTA mandated freeze branding as well. Most recently, any foal presented for registration must be branded before the certificate is granted. Any freeze brands that are not reg numbers are farm markings: both Keystone and Walnut Hall mark on the sternum and a few mark the neck or a shoulder. The only horse racing in the west without a brand, at least to my knowledge is Stiletto Hall and he is now twelve and still winning.

The first freeze brand I ever saw on a Standardbred was in in 78 and it was an Australian horse and the brand was the system of angles and lines. None of us ever figured out what Wellie’s brand was but a series of angles and lines. It wasn’t many years later when large farms went from hot brands to freeze brands for individual identification.

[FalseImpression]

thank you for the explanation!

[charitymanwaring]

sk- have you had a chance to look at the pics of king?

[sk_pacer]

[QUOTE=charitymanwaring;6814144]
sk- have you had a chance to look at the pics of king?[/QUOTE]

Yes, I did and he is a good lookin’ old guy…and is brown not black

[charitymanwaring]

But what about his tattoo? i think it is FS40?? the last one does not look like a 4, but then again… maybe the first # is not a four either? LOL! Any other suggestions? I have run this thing everyway to Sunday… And I agree that BY DESCRIPTION, Kennedy’s King (FS404) sounds like him…

[sk_pacer]

I have looked at the pic a few times with different lighting (ranging from natural to completely dark) in this room and the number seems to be right although part is pretty faded. The fading and lip pigmentation is what finally tipped the scales in favour of the freeze brand.