Freeae Branding

[Wayne/Elaine Delbeke <delbekew@sprynet.com>]

We freeze brand all our horses.  We usually put them in a stall with
crunchies in a bucket. They usually don't even stop eating.  Takes
longer to clip the area to be branded than to do the branding. We use
dry ice and methanol bath to cool the irons.  Normally hold for about 45

seconds.  The bays and get a nice white brand when the hair regrows.

The greys are a problem though.  The brand can be quite indistinct if
you don't hold it on long enough to kill a good portion of the hair
folicles so it looks more like a regular brand.  70 to 90 seconds is
required, especially for thick skinned horses. (note - this may be
different if using liquid nitrogen as it is a lot colder)

We did our Canadien stud this spring and after two sheddings (summer
coat and back to winter) he has shed his brand.  Because he is black I
only held the brand on for about 45 seconds. I was expecting a white
brand to grow in but only got a few grey hairs.  Now it is barely
visible.  He has thicker skin than his Arabian kin.  A thinner skinned
Arabian mare I did at the same time has a white brand with most of the
hair in the middle missing.  Skin thickness can have quite an impact on
the appearance.

The nice thing about the freeze branding is that it does not seem to
bother them at all when it is applied.  If done correctly, the brand
will swell a bit and show the brand pattern quite distinctly a few
minutes after it is done.  There will be some general swelling and
itchiness for a few days, and sometimes there is some skin loss much
like people get from frostbite.

Works very well.

Anyone with access to a welder, a bit of scrap iron, and a grinder can
make branding irons.  We have two sets - one the legal size for our
Province and one set a "titch" smaller because my wife likes the little
ones. We have two letters and a bar on one brand.

The stockyards in Alberta check the brand registry of branded horses ...

but no one looks for microchips.  So we freeze brand our horses once
they are two and a bit (so the brand doesn't grow too much as they
grow).

PS - there is a very good detailed description of how to freeze brand on

the Alberta Government Agricultural web site called "Ropin the Web".
http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/agdex/400/26-00.html#freeze

Wayne Delbeke