Brands

What would you do if your horse was lost or stolen?

Do you have paperwork that proves you are the owner without a shadow of a doubt?

I don't.

Baby Chev with her dam, 2005

Chev's story is, for me, pretty heartbreaking.  She is by Classical Hancock, who apparently stood at the Turkey Track Ranch in TX, and also near Creswell, OR at some point.  My attempts at finding him over the years have failed.

She is out of a mare with a name something like Diamond Skip.  That can't be quite right though, because that registered name belongs to a stud.  She was a buckskin with a thin blaze, and supposedly a Doc O'Lena bred mare.

The girl who brought her to the auction had purchased the dam already bred.  They tried to get the papers on the mare for the sake of the foal, but the man who sold her to them wouldn't hand them over.

Eventually he admitted to switching the papers on another mare he had sold.

Besides that being incredibly illegal--somewhere out there is a buckskin mare being bred on with papers that aren't hers--it breaks my heart knowing I have a talented, lovely, pure-bred quarter horse and no way of obtaining her the papers she deserves.

It has closed off her ancestry to me forever.

It eliminates her from showing at any quarter horse shows, and, of course, renders her unable to be bred (even if she had the front legs and the show record to support that notion).  I'm certainly okay with the no-breeding thing--Lord knows there are plenty of nice horses in the world already--but not being able to paper her really annoys me.

Likely she'll carry the stigma of being a grade horse the rest of her life.

To counter her lack of papers, I've felt like she needs all the more training.  She needs to have something to fall back on--something you can only get through hard work and education.

In the meantime, she is a totally sorrel mare, with a nondescript star and snip.

Could I prove she was mine?  No.

I don't have a shred of paper to prove it, aside from the auction slip that's in my friend's name.

And that's why I'm going ahead with branding.

I've been combing through the huge, 196-page CD of abandoned Wyoming brands.  There are a few I like, but I think I might take a shot at designing my own.

 Available abandoned brands, page 1

It seems like a good use of most of my tax return this year.  Wyoming is a "brand state", so their laws are very strict regarding the transfer of animals with brands.  You can even get your truck and trailer impounded for transporting animals with brands for which you have no documentation.

Since I'm not stealing livestock, this is all very comforting for me.

Available abandoned brands, page 2

I've spent months researching branding procedure.  I've found a company in Texas to fabricate the freeze branding iron out of copper alloy to increase the chance that it will come out well.  I have a local vet lined up with many years of experience freeze branding who can dose out sedatives to help her stand still.

I'm ready.  Now all I need is a brand registered with the state of Wyoming.

Possible brand design--Crown Cee Bar

I've had a lot of people ask me why I'm wanting to brand my horse.

I have a few reasons, but these are the major ones:

1. A brand is a permanent form of ID that is not easily altered or removed.

2. A registered brand is prima facie evidence of ownership--it's like a title for your horse.

3. Brands deter theft.

4. Auctions and feedlots are required to check paperwork and ownership if a horse carries a brand.

I'm not considering microchipping at this point for a few reasons.  Microchips for horses aren't standard--very few large animal vets, stock yards, and auction houses have or use a chip scanner.  Also, there isn't a set location for chip placement, and a horse is a large animal.  During my 3 year stint at the veterinary hospital, I saw chips migrate everywhere.  Standard chip location for dogs and cats is in the scruff, at the base of the neck.  One ended up way down a dog's leg.  Imagine the subdermal surface area on a horse.  And lastly, if a chip is located, it's just a quick local-anesthesia nip to remove it.

All my kitties are chipped, though!

My gelding's freeze brand was the only way I was able to track down his history.  His papers were lost.  But his brand restored his identity, and I'll be forever grateful to his breeder for branding him.

Even at 25, his Arabian breed freeze brand, birth year and ID 

number were still clearly visable

So...what would you do if your horse was lost or stolen?  Could you prove ownership?  Would he be able to find his way back to you?