How effective is 'freeze marking' a rug?

[floradora09]

My pony is microchipped and freeze marked, but he wears atleast one rug, as he's out 24/7. I've read somewhere that it's a good idea to mark the horse's freezemark on the rug, is this something I should think about doing? And, if so, how effective will it be in deterring thefts? He's an older and not particularly 'flashy' pony but I understand that he could still be taken. Thanks in advance

 

[ISHmad]

Some people put the freezemark on the rug to protect that as much as the pony. Anything that deters theft of any kind has to be worth doing.

 

[Shay]

Its more to protect the rug. We do put our postcodes on the rugs but Ned has a deep and abiding desire to be re-incarnated as a hippo so the postcode is normally obliterated under thick caked mud at the first opportunity!

 

[The_snoopster]

I bought signs from the companies that have freezemarked my horses, i have copied them and laminated them and have them placed on all my field gates.
This way any potential thieves know that security via freezemarks and microchips are in place.

 

[equineeyes]

Not about rugs but when my horses have full winter coats you can only see a bit of white hair from the freezemarks so I clip out the freeze mark area on a regular basis so that it is obvious they have one and it is readable. That way if, god forbid, they were taken and ended up in a sale or something every body could see the numbers.
Very good idea about the gate signs as well, Sussex Police have done one which has their logo on which is great.

 

[aduffield]

The more you make of the fact your horse is marked the better. Use ouside use gloss paint on your rugs, it will not damage them and lasts really well.

 

[KarynK]

It protects both the horse and the rug especially if the horse lives out, even on the darkest night with white paint it is obvious to anyone that the horse is marked, especially if they don't go near the yard to read the signs and a rug marked with gloss paint is useless for selling on!!

In my opinion it can be better than postcodes as it doesn't direct anyone to your home!

Thankfully true stranger horse theft is very rare and usually selective, There were around 120 stolen in 2008 and 2009 nationally, so if you have a type of horse or pony that is likely to be a target then the more you can do to protect the animal the better. This is also a sensible precaution if you consider loaning a horse too then if things go wrong you stand a much better chance of recovering the horse and equipment.

But as with everything it is a deterrent and there are exceptions, but having said that over the past two years as far as I can see there are around 5 horses in the above period with freeze brands that are stolen and still listed as missing compared to around 65 that are unmarked or just micro-chipped.