Please people

[LynnWalker]

What people have to remember is that freezemarks are visible to all!
Not everyone knows what a bay, skewbald, piebald, whatever horse looks like.
To most of Joe public horses are either racehorse, shetlands or shires.!

But most people can read numbers!!

And when your horse is stolen believe me you want every set of eyes possible to be on the look out. Horsey or non horsey.

I belive that if I had got Toby freezemarked he would be home by now. He is microchipped, but scanners are not used at auctions and worse not at slaughter houses. Yes some MC horses are recovered, but very few compared to freezemarking.

As for it looking ugly - thats what I thought and I (Toby) has paid the price for that.

So just think carefully is what I am saying. If you are quite happy not knowing who has your horse, if they are fed, watered, rugged, treated well or even dead - then you can ignore me and others who advocate freezemarking.

No it wont stop theft, but it will make it a damn sight harder for thieving b*stards to sell your horse on, or hide them.

 

[Donkeymad]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you sure Freezemark have a 100% success rate? I thought there was a bit of a tizwoz a while ago about a freezemarked horse getting sold & ending up at an abbatoir without the papers being checked or any questions asked?

[/ QUOTE ]


Freezemark.biz have a 100% recovery rate, farmkey have a 90 odd % recovery rate.

Henryhorn, I agree, Freezemarking or microchiping should be at the owners choice - but that choice will be taken away with the new law, as ALL equines born after 01/01/09 will HAVE to be chipped. No choice there then.
One of my donkeys and now my new mule have microchips, it did not stop me having a 'normal' freezemark on the donk, and the mule will IDC.

Absolutely no point get irate or upset about the issue.

 

[christi]

the girl i bought my horse from gave me all the micro chip paper work with her .. when vet came to do jags i got her to scan her for the chip .. but vet could not find it .. so i decided to get her done again .. at next visit for jags vet checked for the original chip again and Found it... so now shes chipped twice and freezemarked now ..

 

[sarah23]

[ QUOTE ]
As for it looking ugly - thats what I thought and I (Toby) has paid the price for that.

So just think carefully is what I am saying. If you are quite happy not knowing who has your horse, if they are fed, watered, rugged, treated well or even dead - then you can ignore me and others who advocate freezemarking.

No it wont stop theft, but it will make it a damn sight harder for thieving b*stards to sell your horse on, or hide them.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't like the look of horses freezemarked either, but i have had all mine done and the sole reason for this is if they were ever stolen then my hosre has more chance of coming home to me. This is far more important to me than worrying about a white mark on them which most of the time you can't see anyway with saddle and rugs on.

 

[henryhorn]

My final word on the subject , wouldn't it be interesting to know exactly how many horses in the Uk carry freezemarks as of now?
Looking round my herd many of the one/two horse owners have their horses freezemarked, but the majority of owners like me with twenty or more don't..
I racked my brains to think locally who has theirs done and I don't think any of the hunt horses are, or any of the stallions at local studs, so I'm not in a minority..
What about racehorses, never seen them freezemarked unless I've missed it, but all will be microchipped.
Ours are all micro'd as foals and will stay that way unless legislation forces me to add a freezemark.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

I know a few Point-to-pointers who are freezemarked.

 

[JM07]

i'm with you HH...

I have 11 at my yard, the yard down the lane has 5, a big yard in the next village has uwards of 30.....and only 3 are marked.

i don't think it's as popular or as neccesary as folk "think" it may be.

 

[c7mlm]

mine is freezemarked on saddle area. i don't even take any notice of it anymore it has been there so long. she is having a foal soon and that will be microchipped and freezemarked.

 

[the watcher]

I think the fact that only the minority of owner have their horses freezemarked does not have a direct correlation to how good an idea it is.

When you own horses there are a multitude of things to pay for, I choose to pay for freezemarking before, say, a new bridle or bit - others have different priorities. In addition so many people genuinely believe it will never happen to them. Most of them will be right, and therefore they confirm to themselves that there is no point in additional security measures.

For those unfortunate people whose horses have been stolen, or disappeared on loan, they are probably all wishing they had done something more to make their horse more identifiable.

 

[PennywithHenry]

Years ago my parents bought a little bay mare from a sale who was ridden in the ring. Off they go to pay and was handed the pony, minus the tack with a cotton sheet chucked on it. My mum removed the sheet for some reason, probably suspicion, as the men selling it didn't look the sort to bother with that sort of stuff....low and behold there's a freezemark, sellers long gone.

Got it home and checked it out, it had been stolen a few days before. The owners came and collected her the next day, so relieved. She was a plain little mare, no white markings etc, I wouldn't have classed her as "distinguishable" in the slightes, and back when stolen horses weren't as widely publicised as they are now I have no doubt none of us would be any the wiser.

Since that episode I've always ensured that all of mine are freezemarked.