By Amber Heintzberger
In the American “wild west,” branding was a neces- sity. Livestock was branded to identify ownership. If cattle—or horses, for that matter—with one rancher’s brand wandered into the wrong herd, a brand helped their owner reclaim his property.
T
oday, branding horses can take a variety of forms and is done for a number of reasons. For sport horses, brands can offer security, identification and even prestige.
ID Options Branding is certainly not the only way to identify a horse: tattoos and microchipping are also commonly used. Thor- oughbred racehorses are tattooed on the inside of their upper lip; Quarter Horses, Arabians and Standardbreds are also commonly tattooed. Alternately, freeze brands are sometimes used with
certain breeds, such as Arabians, Mustangs and Morgans. This involves using a super cold brand dipped in liquid nitrogen, which destroys the animal’s pigment-producing hair follicles so that hair grows back white. Freeze brands often consist of a series of letters and numbers along the crest of the horse’s neck or on the shoulder. In some cases, individual owners
TOP: The Hanoverian branding iron with their signature ‘H’ along with a number underneath designating the year the horse was born.
Photos by Amber Heintzberger (except the photo of Maryanna Haymon, p. 26).
freeze brand their horses and register the information as a means of identification. Microchipping is becoming an increasingly standard
practice. Thanks to a 2009 mandate, all horses in the Euro- pean Union must be microchipped within six months of birth. Not only does this help identify competition animals, but it helps record the health history of animals that can potentially end up going to slaughter for human consumption, as horse meat is popular in some European countries. Some people are advocating for microchipping to
become a requirement for all horses competing in U.S. Eques- trian Federation-approved competitions. Currently, any horse that receives a new FEI passport must be microchipped, and the chip must be compatible with either the 11784 or 11785 international standard. Horses with passports and already competing were “grandfathered” in, so this requirement does not apply to them. If this does become a USEF requirement, it stands to
reason that over time breed registries will likely adopt the same requirement. So, given all this, is branding now an outdated means of
identification?
Brands = Prestige? Warmbloods are inspected to ensure quality standards for breeding and performance stock, and to recognize supe- rior horses within the breed. Inspections also help educate members on conformation and movement, and also give
Warmbloods Today 23
HOT TOPIC Branding
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