> However, there are other less painful ways of marking horses. Some
> endurance riders get pet ID tags and braid them into the mane.
I haven't seen a horse get freeze branded but I am told, FWIW, that it is
not painful. I have seen horses get hot branded and have had to deal with
them afterwards. This does hurt, not surprisingly, but they seemed to be
fine within about a week. It's not supposed to be a deep burn. They sure
were suspicious about any activity around their hips for a longer while
after (few weeks). The owner of these horses wanted all the horses branded
as two year olds - just as we were starting them - so - just as we were
trying to earn some trust - bam!. The trainer I was working for was really
grumpy about the whole deal. I have helped with tatooing racehorses, too,
and that doesn't seem to bother them much. The tatoo set up is like a
twitch with the space to put the tatoo built in (if that makes sense). The
whole tatoo is preset in a bar thingy. So, they are twitched, the ink
applied, tatoo needles go in, done. After awhile the tatoo fades and gets
blurry. The young ladies I work with get tatoos every once in awhile
(GROSS!) and they say it doesn't hurt much as long as it isn't over a bone.
Just remember that all of that is 30 year old information. (Well, except
for the human tatoos).
The huge problem with all of these is that it doesn't give the "finder" a
way to contact the owner. No one brands their home phone number onto their
horse. People move/get new phones. My horses are microchipped but not
everyone checks. However, if they do check, they will get a current phone
number, an alternate contact's phone number and the vet's number (in my case
I just put in my work number). If I move, I just call up the company and
change the information. When my dog ran off in panic over the fireworks, I
called them, checked on her information and they put an alert in my record.
My horses were pretty grumpy about the microchip but it didn't last long
(swishing tails, grumpy ears etc) - it's not much worse than a vaccine. It
is about the same sized needle as the needle used for collecting blood when
you donate.
Penny
