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| Why Brand your Horse? |
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Your Brand Protects Your Livestock
Why do we need horse ID? Is it important to identify your horse? If you had to prove a horse at the sale barn was yours could you? What if the horse had registration papers for a horse with the same markings as yours? Without specific identification information about your horse, is is difficult for helpful search volunteers or law enforcement to remove your horse from the person with possession. Be prepared to supply positive ID if needed. Branding is very important in proving ownership of lost or stolen animals. An unbranded animal is called a "slick," and is almost impossible to legally identify. No other way is as easily visible as branding, not only for identification, but as a deterrent to theft. Other methods such as implanted computer chips are positive identification, if a new owner is aware of them, but hot or freeze brands are highly visible and hard to alter. "Trust your neighbors, but brand your stock." |
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THE BASIC PROCESS
A cold iron is prepared in liquid nitrogen. The area of the horse to be branded is shaved, and the branding iron is applied carefully. A swelling shows the brand about 10 minutes after it was applied. The cold process has killed cells that produce color pigment, so the result of the brand will be white hair growth where the iron was placed. The process is considered complete, with the brand showing up at its best, in about three months. |
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What to Expect:
5 to 10 Minutes - Swelled pattern shows (resembles frostbite, and is two or three times larger than indented pattern) 5 Days - Swelled pattern disappears 1 Month - top layer of skin sheds 2 Months - white hair starts growing in 3 Months - white hair growth complete |
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Freeze Branding is a permanet marking procedure that involves minimal discomfort to your horse, it is the process of using a super cold branding iron to alter the color pigment producing cells. The result is that white hair, instead of colored hair, grows at the brand site. On gray or white horses, the iron is left on a few seconds longer in order to completely remove hair growth, and as a result the brand will remain the color of the horses skin. (i.e. gray with black skin will have a black brand, however a paint horse that may have pink skin, will result in a pink brand). The markings will last throughout the lifetime of the horse. It is a procedure that is well worth the investment in added identity security for your horse. |
| Another distinct advantage of freeze branding is that a freeze brand remains clearly visible and easy to read even in wintertime, many hot brands are not as easily seen and sometimes undetectable in winter months and made nearly illegible by a long winter hair coat. Lastly, freeze branding has the distinct advantage of being painless or nearly painless to the animal during the branding process. Freeze Branding leaves no open sores, open wounds nor does it require any follow up care. Simply leave the brand alone and let it develope. No medications, no salve, and no treatment needed. |
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