Thoroughbreds and Tattooing

[Big_Tag]

I had a thought and wondered if some folks from the TB racing world could weigh in.

In Standardbred racing, registered horses are now exclusively freeze-branded on their necks for ID purposes. To me, this is so much easier than lip tattooing; it’s easily spotted and there is very little difficulty in reading them. With the amount of folks who come on here looking for help reading their OTTB’s lip tattoo makes me wonder why the Jockey Club hasn’t switched to this method. Any thoughts on this?

Another side question: when I was a kid, there was a thoroughbred at the barn I frequented who had a freeze-brand directly behind his withers, on the left side of his back. It appeared to be a full tattoo-style number and letters, as I recall. Just out of curiosity, is there a thoroughbred registry that would ID their horses this way? For reference, this would’ve been in the mid-90s; I’d imagine this horse was foaled in the mid to late 80s.

[Laurierace]

There is only one thoroughbred registry so no there isn’t one who would ID horses that way. People are free to mark their horses any way they please however so it could have been a private breeder’s brand.

I personally think tattooing and freeze branding for identification is outdated and all registries should microchip.

[Big_Tag]

[QUOTE=Laurierace;7254369]
There is only one thoroughbred registry so no there isn’t one who would ID horses that way. People are free to mark their horses any way they please however so it could have been a private breeder’s brand.

I personally think tattooing and freeze branding for identification is outdated and all registries should microchip.[/QUOTE]

Ah, Laurie, my mistake; I thought other continents had a separate registry (i.e., every NZ TB I’ve ever seen has a brand on their shoulder, European TBs have a different tattooing methodology, etc).

I’m wondering with microchips if there wouldn’t be similar problems with chip migration, etc that you sometimes see in small animals.

[Laurierace]

I guess. I wasn’t thinking about other countries. I suppose that is possible.

[hollynanne]

Chip migration was a problem when they were first brought into the open market in the late 1990s. There is a markedly less chance of chip migration now in small animals and virtually none in equines.

I agree lip tattooing is a PITA.

[x]

I would be for freeze branding. It is much easier to read on the Standardbreds, although TB lip tattooes are generally easier to read than the Standardbred ones were. I like the visible marking; i.e., tattoo or freeze brand over microchip, where you need a reader.

[gumtree]

Personally I find branding of any type that is in plan view really distracts from the beauty of a horse. My eye is always drawn to it.
I believe the JC is, has been looking into microchips. What has to be taken into consideration is the possibility of “skullduggery”. The security and integrity has to be paramount, beyond question and reproach. Billions of $$ are wagered on racehorses each year. It’s pretty darn difficult if not impossible to alter a tattoo.

[furlong47]

I have had the same thought for a long time. Freeze brands don’t fade or blur, they don’t disappear into lip mottling, and they are easily seen and read. (They may become unreadable with a winter coat but that’s easily remedied by a swipe of the clippers.) I also like the fact that STB are now freeze branded at time of registration, rather than TB which aren’t tattooed until they race. This ensures every registered horse can be identified.

I’ve never heard of a TB registry that freeze brands under the saddle (doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist in some obscure country). But there’s Farmkey in the UK which does personal brands in that location consisting of letters and numbers. http://www.farmkey.co.uk/farmkey/

[danceronice]

Freeze brands, though, are gonna kill resale value even further. They’re unsightly, let’s face it. (And my experience with freeze-branded Arabs doesn’t suggest they’re any easier to read.) Warmblood brands are a status symbol, but show homes aren’t going to want something with a number scrawled on its neck.

I can see the downsides of microchips (expense, insecurity, the need for a universal reader) but they’d at least be discrete and it would take some serious determination to fake an identity.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

[QUOTE=danceronice;7255834]
Freeze brands, though, are gonna kill resale value even further. They’re unsightly, let’s face it. (And my experience with freeze-branded Arabs doesn’t suggest they’re any easier to read.) Warmblood brands are a status symbol, but show homes aren’t going to want something with a number scrawled on its neck.

I can see the downsides of microchips (expense, insecurity, the need for a universal reader) but they’d at least be discrete and it would take some serious determination to fake an identity.[/QUOTE]

I would think it would be much easier to get a fake identity with a chip than with a tattoo. Just remove the microchip and put in a new one. Wouldn’t even leave a scar.

[beowulf]

[QUOTE=Big_Grey_hunter;7255835]
I would think it would be much easier to get a fake identity with a chip than with a tattoo. Just remove the microchip and put in a new one. Wouldn’t even leave a scar.[/QUOTE]

Maybe I am naive, but isn’t it hard to extract a chip? Most people wouldn’t even know where to start.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=beowulf;7255853]
Maybe I am naive, but isn’t it hard to extract a chip? Most people wouldn’t even know where to start.[/QUOTE]

You are greatly underestimating human nature when large amounts of money are on the line!

[ReSomething]

Greatly underestimating human nature is correct - I’m adding a link here on an entirely different subject but it has a photo of a horse with a significant skin wound - created when they skinned the brand right off of her. http://horsetalk.co.nz/2011/12/20/abandoned-horses-slaughter-rejects-advocates/#.UoDMJp0o6M8 . Not so much for money as to avoid tracing the origins/previous owners etc…

DNA is always going to be the one and only sure fire method to differentiate horses, although supposedly there are unique retina patterns. There are locations on the horse that would make a freeze brand less visible, such as on the belly, but the skin is thinner and it might not work so well plus you really want a unique identifier to be out there easy to find.

I’ve seen brands on Aus TB similar to the one mentioned by the OP, but they may have been an individual stud’s markings for their horses and nothing to do with racing.

Cows used to have their ears notched but that’s unsightly and easy to add to. Brands always needed to be designed so they couldn’t be overbranded to create a different brand - although one of the brands on my mare was probably overbranded to conceal the original, it was a largish bald spot and not readable by anyone I knew. Tattoos on thin skin can migrate or wear over time, and never underestimate the lengths a criminally minded sort will go to. The racing tattoos work fine for the length of time most horses are starting, correct?

[Texarkana]

@ReSomething;7255941

DNA is always going to be the one and only sure fire method to differentiate horses, although supposedly there are unique retina patterns. There are locations on the horse that would make a freeze brand less visible, such as on the belly, but the skin is thinner and it might not work so well plus you really want a unique identifier to be out there easy to find.

Even DNA can be easily falsified or contaminated. Just look at all the legal cases where it is merely circumstantial evidence!

Retinal scanning would be interesting if it became affordable… is it still an effective means of identification with horses?

[Big_Grey_hunter]

[QUOTE=beowulf;7255853]
Maybe I am naive, but isn’t it hard to extract a chip? Most people wouldn’t even know where to start.[/QUOTE]

Nope. Scan to find general location, maybe Xray to exactly see where it is, make small incision, pull out chip, a couple stitches, and you’re done. You’ have to find a vet willing to do it, but for enough $$$ I doubt that would be hard to find.

[harvestmoon]

I agree, big freeze brands on the neck are unsightly. If you need to brand, just do a small one on the shoulder, like they do in AUS/NZ/HK.

[SonnysMom]

I am starting with the assumption that the Jockey Club really only cares that the correct horse is racing. I would think that they could mandate that the chips can only be implanted at recognized tracks by the approved track vet with a chip provided by to the track by the Jockey Club. The vet notes and confirms the markings/whirls as listed on the papers and that confirmation is sent to the JC. When the horse is raced the chip is scanned and the markings verified.

For another horse to race in their place you would have to find a horse with really close markings, be approximately the same age and then switch the chip.

I would assume there will be unscrupulous people that will remove the chip so they can dump the horse at an auction like New Holland off of a track that has a ban on that. But I would think that by the time they pay to get an xray and pay the vet to remove it they are investing more money than these types of individuals want to spend on a potentially slaughterbound horse.

I am assuming DNA takes care of switches in the breeding shed and isn’t like the JC is down there flipping lips everytime a mare is covered.

Maybe I am just missing the big money upside of removing/switching a chip if there are other controls in place.

[rcloisonne]

[QUOTE=harvestmoon;7257633]
I agree, big freeze brands on the neck are unsightly.[/QUOTE]
I disagree and think a neck freeze brand is sort of a status symbol. I wanted all of my Arabs freeze branded. The AHR used to send people around to do it though branding was always optional. When I had my Arabs back in the '90s, the practice of freeze branding had been discontinued and it was impossible to find someone to do it.

If done properly, the brand is located closely under the mane and visible only if the mane is lifted. Of course it would show if the mane was braided as some show classes require.

A little OT but there was a grey Arab at one barn where we boarded, purchased in very bad condition by a couple who knew nothing about horses. Anyway, they only kept the horse for a few months and put her up for sale (horses were too much work! :rolleyes:). Advertised on Craig’s List as an Arab, a buyer came to look her over and lifted her mane. I was holding the horse because the owners were afraid of her.

Low and behold a freeze brand! Very easy to look up the symbols and the mare was identified (although the 1st number was hard to read as she was a grey and the brand has to be left on longer for greys so no hair grows back). Turns out the mare had a very valuable pedigree (straight Egyptian) and had produced 3 foals who became Class A winners at the Regional level. Somehow, she had fallen on hard times and lost her papers. The buyer bought her as soon as she got this information. All of that time, I had never thought to look under her mane.

It would be a good thing for all purebred horses to be tattooed ina visible spot, IMO. That way, they don’t loose their identity. This could potentially make them more valuable down the road. Personally, Ilike the symbol way of tattooing rather than numbers. The symbols can’t be altered. Here’s an example:

http://www.mustangs4us.com/brands.htm

[vineyridge]

Why would North Americans be less honest than Europeans and Australians? Weatherby’s has been microchipping TBs for at least a decade and the Aussies now do it as well instead of freeze branding. Seems to work for them.

[gypsymare]

I agree with not branding due to resale. There is a definite bias against Thoroughbreds in the show horse world and any marking visible from the judges seat could count against them.

I love the look of a nice freeze brand on an Arab or mustang, it’s a nod to their heritage, but I’m not trying to make them blend into a sea of Trakehners and Oldenburgs in a hunter ring.