I own/have owned horses that were branded. I consider brands a great theft deterrent. I now own one horse not branded. I would like to have a hot or freeze brand done.
Anyone know who to contact? I tried the standardbred people, but apparently the USTA limits to only doing brands on their breed and the person would not do mine.
The horse is microchipped, but bays are a dime a dozen.
Check with ranchers (if any) in your area or with state ag dept. Brands here are to be registered with the state ag dept to avoid duplications…they are owner specific so duplications are not a good idea. You might also check with your local BLM office if there is one around. Freeze brands are much easier to do, easier on the horse and give a nicer looking brand as there isn’t generally scarring. You can also do a chemical brand…shave the skin, apply the approved brand stencil and paint on chemical or shave the area and dip the approved brand into the chemical and apply to skin. Much less reaction from the horse so brands stay a lot neater. Another thought…who does the breed brands in your area…the ones for Holsteiner or other breeds?
I’ve thought for years that microchipping is fine BUT nothing tells the possible thief that the horse IS chipped (unless you post signs to that effect on the place) and that a univeral “this horse is chipped” kind of brand would be a good idea. Not all stolen horses go through sales or places where a scanner might be…they are either kept by the person doing the stealing because he just wanted that particular horse or many are sold on private sales with no scanner involved, without papers obviously (or faked) and often at far under what their real value would be.
Another thought…you could do hoof brands…one on each hoof about every three months so they grow out over the year but at least one is always readable. Hard to duplicate or change, not highly visible, not a lot of stress to the horse to get them done (farrier might be able to do) and probably don’t have to be ag dept registered.
All reproductive vets around here do it for their clients free and for a small charge for non-clients, as part of the TSCRA branding clinics, as it is considered a good theft deterrent.
They use the same dry ice for freeze branding they use for AI bottles, so they generally have some on hand.
In our SW and W states, livestock brands and that includes horse brands are registered in counties in TX and states in other places, so check with your court house if your state has brand regulations and what those are.
Here we register brands and reregister again every five years, ours are coming due this summer again for the whole county.
My state requires registration of the brand also. The regs say a certificate of brand is prima facia evdience of ownership. Thus why I want one. However, already asked vet. Does not do branding.
The search continues…
[QUOTE=pluvinel;5658933]
My state requires registration of the brand also. The regs say a certificate of brand is prima facia evdience of ownership. Thus why I want one. However, already asked vet. Does not do branding.
The search continues…[/QUOTE]
you need to look for a freeze branding company simular to ours in uk
www.farmkey.co.uk here our all our horses/ponies are passported and mircro chipped by law
all my freezed marked horses are done on the schoulder and this isnt and hasnt ever been aproblem in the show ring i beleive by having them on the schoulder the horse recovers better as its not under the saddle and its a better deterant as again you can see it and its not hidden by the saddle all my horses rugs when in winter have my post code on them to you it would be zip code , i never put my horses names on anything like doors rugs or tack why---------- why give someone the advantage of knowing your horses name to be nicked
Hmmmm…Farmkey is very interesting…but we don’t seem to have such a service here in US…as far as I’ve been able to find by asking vets.
If anyone knows of a service or a person who does branding in the mid-Atlantic region of US (MD, DE, VA, PA, NJ) pls post.
I used this comlany many years ago. They do a freeze brand that is the same kind as the government mustangs… a line of symbols that identifies the year of birth, and a serial number. http://www.kryokineticsusa.com/
I have had a couple branded and what I do is hook up with a cattle guy on a day he is freeze branding. I put the last two digits of the year the horse was born on a hip so it is just a number brand. Just something to make my plain bay or chestnut marked.
If you are freeze branding a little ace is all you need. If you hot brand you will need a veterinarian to give a good sedation. Personally I would never hot brand a horse, it is extremely rough.
[QUOTE=SLW;5659404]
If you are freeze branding a little ace is all you need. If you hot brand you will need a veterinarian to give a good sedation. Personally I would never hot brand a horse, it is extremely rough.[/QUOTE]
Actually I would choose hot branding over freeze branding, from what I have seen. Perhaps the freeze folks were not competent, had a bad day, but those brands were NASTY. Slow to heal, running, oozy for quite awhile. Have seen the same healing problems with freeze branding on a number of horses after they were done by various people. Sure takes a LOT longer to heal with the freeze branding.
In contrast, watched a hot brander for one of the European registries, cowboys doing new purchased horses, no fuss, no muss, no sedation needed. Horse chose when to move away from the iron. No forced restraints at all, horse was led over to the person with the iron, stood quiet, got branded, moved away from the heat, branding was done. Brands were clean after being done, healed with no drainage, haired back in over a short time. Easy to read when healed.
You might want to check for a real “western” type tack store, ask them. With the cowboy shooters, team penning, roping, you might be able to connect with folks who actually brand their horses, have the skill to do a good job. Cattle have thicker hides than horses. So how long the iron is held on is not the same, along with correct heat color of the iron.
I would like to get our horses done, because bays are a dime a dozen. Stolen, ALL horses look “big” to non-horse folks, whether 14H or 17H. With him branded, you can have any observer check brown and red horses for a “monagram” and find him out of a group.
My hunch is that you saw poor freeze branding techniques. 12-15 seconds on the flesh, the skin peels and white hair grows in.
That is amazing how you describe seeing horses hot branded with no restraints and just standing there given how much thinner their skin is when compared to cattle. Pretty neat. Heck, even when I’ve seen cattle hot branded they don’t stand there with foot cocked and relaxed. 
I do agree that the hot brand is easier to read.
Maybe the vet schools do branding?
Mine are freeze branded, and it went really smoothly - twitched, not sedates, and their brands look great. I used a guy that travels just in the southeast. You should probably post on a local board to find out who is good.
You can have your own freeze brand made at http://www.lhbrandingirons.com/
I freeze brans my own horses with our custom brand. We do not have to register brands in Maryland.
It is simple and easy to do and not painful like HOT branding.
Good luck!
foal branding vs. horse…
I watched about 15-20 foals get branded last summer (hot) and honestly they were oblivious (although at least half were restrained).
That said, you cannot see my yearling’s brand 
I kept hoping it would re-appear when she shedded out this summer, but it isn’t visible (if I work at it I can find it by feel).
She’s your typical bay with a tiny star, so I am rather disappointed about it, as I too like branding as a theft deterent/recognition tool.
I don’t know if this is a common problem with foals being branded vs. adult horses?
The Dutch don’t brand anymore- I feel like branding is a thing of the past. I think a microchip is sufficient. I had a bay horse stolen, and I can tell you the brand had nothing to do with why he was found and returned.
We freeze brand our horses and they have pretty well all turned out great. Our vet used to do them for us, but we find we actually do a better job. Only about 20 seconds ensuring that the area is well frozen.
We sedate and then apply the brand. Goes quickly and heals extremely well. A few minutes later, the brand is “swollen” and then subsides. Skin peels and hair comes back in white.
Here is a link to one of our branded horses: http://www.northernhorse.com/diamondr/?listingid=13&page=horses-for-sale&listings=horses-for-sale
(Not an ad since the horse has been sold but I haven’t updated the site yet.) 
Nancy!
Everyone and their dog brands horses here, have for decades and I have never heard of one bleeding or any such gruesome stories.
Someone was not doing something right there.
We used to hot brand and we only twitched some horses, others were distracted by scratching on them and they didn’t know they were branded, happen so fast, by the time they felt the hot brand and they moved, the branding was over.
With freeze branding, we don’t do anything, the branding iron just pushes lightly on the horse for some 30 seconds in colored horses, 60 on gray ones, so if your horse knows to stand there quietly, no need to restrain it.
Our vet puts them in the stocks, shaves the area, cleans it with alcohol and brands, no horse ever moved, if the person at the head is doing their job keeping the horse’s attention.
With freeze brands, the area will be lightly swollen for a couple of days, then the upper levels of skin will peel off in the shape of the brand, but not the lower ones, so there is no reason for the brand to seep or get infected or any such, the skin is not breached.
I can’t imagine who is branding in some of those stories where horses fight or brands have problems.:no:
This thread is about six years old, Denver Williams. Any particular reason to dig it up again, especially as your first post here?
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