When I moved here from the east coast many years
ago I never heard of a brand inspection. Then, when I did hear of it I thought
it was only for horses that were branded. After a year or two I realized that I
needed this for my two mares that were transported here by a commercial hauler.
I had all the health certificates and coggins as well as registration papers on
one mare. I also had the paperwork from the commercial hauler with the sizeable
bill in my name.
When I finally called the brand inspector to the
ranch, he loudly proclaimed that none of that was good enough to prove that I
owned these mares. He threatened to throw me in jail! He did 'go away' but I did
not have my brand inspection.
I then called another brand inspector in
the area, showed him all the same paperwork and he kindly provided me with
lifetime brand inspections on these two mares. WHEW. I ALWAYS use this second
brand inspector when horses come and go from the ranch now. Many of them are on
a big power trip and the sad part is, they DO have the power to make your life
miserable.
The sick part of this is that here in Wyoming
the stupid brand inspection papers describe the horse....sorta. i.e. one bay
mare with star.......WOW, now how many bay mares with stars are there in the
county, let alone the entire state! Or, one grey mare......yup, tells you a lot,
don't it????
Needless to say, all my horses have brand
inspections that I got from the second guy.
An interesting side note: back in the fall I was
driving down the highway and here came two loose horses galloping down the road.
Tractor trailers are whizzing by as well as traffic in general......speed limit
is 65mph. I pulled over and ushered the horses off the highway into
someone's somewhat fenced in yard. The horses were all cranked up and I couldn't
get near them at that time. No one else stopped to help me. I stayed with the
horses for quite a while and then decided that I would not be able to catch them
at this time. I hopped in my car and dashed home to my ranch (about 2 miles
away) and kept my fingers crossed that the horses would stay where they were and
graze. Made a quick call to the sheriff's office and rounded up my husband. Told
him to bring a long rope so we could rope off the driveway leading to this
house. The rest of the yard was fenced except for the driveway. Pretty soon
along comes the BAD brand inspector dude. YIKES. He claimed that he knew all the
horses in the area and he knew where these horses came from and that he would go
to their house and get someone to come and pick them up. Well, after 45" to an
hour, he still hadn't come back and we were just sitting there. (like we had
nothing better to do). I then sent my husband home to hook up the horse trailer
and I stayed and finally caught the horses.
I figured since the brand inspector and the cops
knew I had the horses it would be easier and safer to just haul them to my place
and when the owner discovered his missing horses he could just come and pick
them up. Just as we were about to load the horses into the trailer the brand
inspector reappears. He says "What are you doing?"
He told me that he could arrest me for rustling
horses and furthermore that the owner of the horses could sue me if anything
happened to the horses while in my custody!
Here I was trying to be a good
samaritan.....saving the horses from a really ugly accident as well as any
motorists and he yells at me for basically trying to do the right thing. He also
told me to never call the sheriff's office for incidents like this but that HE
had all the power in this situation. Fortunately, somehow the owner of the
horses got word that they had escaped and he showed up with his trailer and took
them home.
I got a polite "thank you" from him.
I know that if my animals (horses, dogs, etc)
ever got into that kind of situation that I would want someone to step up to the
plate and at least make an effort to try and do the right thing.
So, bottom line, there are 'good' brand
inspectors and 'nasty, power hungry brand inspectors' out there. They DO have
the power to make your life miserable. Even if you 'win' in the end, it could
sure screw up your trip.
