You talk about cool! Today we ran forty or so equines through the usual springtime vet thing/farrier thing. They got their West Nile virus, Potomac Horse Fever, encephalitis, rabies, and various other nasty stuff shots, Ivermectin (wormer), their teeth checked, their hooves trimmed, and some of the recently acquired horses and mules got their Diamond D brands. New this year is embossing—no more hot branding irons, freeze brands, or tattooing, but an actual embossing machine gave them raised brands. The other horses are going to be so jealous!
Photo: Hilary Hurley Painter
4 comments:
I can't find any information about this method of branding. Is it very new?
Actually I’m joking. The swelling is a reaction to a freeze brand; as the skin thaws it swells. Later, when the hair re-grows its pigment cells are killed and the hair comes in white, even on a white horse.
Dang! I wanted to find out how to emboss a horse.
The info I saw about branding said white horses are given an extra hard freeze to kill the hair follicles (since turning the hair white doesn't do much good). Is that right?
I’m not positive, but the hair doesn’t just become white, it becomes colorless. We had two very white horses whose brands contrasted very well.
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