Possible brand?

[frostyfingers]

My horse has a 3 branded above his left stiflef, nothing else just the number. He has come to me on a white Irish passport with breeding completely unknown. Is this number likely to mean anything or as my friend puts it " was he just the 3rd grey in the row"?!

 

[Cortez]

Yes, obviously it means something, the question is what? Do you have a picture (of the horse, not necessarily the brand) as that would be a clue as to his origins, as I can assure you he's not an Irish bred horse.

 

[AandK]

Sounds like a strange place to brand a horse? All the ones I have seen are on their thigh.

 

[frostyfingers]

Hopefully this will work. If you look at his left thigh (thank you AndK, much more accurate description of the placing!) you can see a whiter patch with a white "line" - just to the left of the line is the 3 - nothing else! Build wise he's quite narrow. This isn't the best conformation picture as he'd just heard the local shoot and was whirling about a bit. Here's a link to a pic of him head on.http://www.eslphotography.co.uk/oldridge-30-dec/h6e56e779#h6e56e779 Any ideas as to his origins would be great. As I said his passport is very vague, "breeder details not known".

 

[Cortez]

Not "strange" at all, that is where most horses are branded........He looks like a sort of halfbred, perhaps Polish/Hungarian/Czech? Deffo NOT Irish!

 

[Shay]

I would be intrigued to know why he is definitely not Irish. He looks like my ISH - except for the brand. Your one's head is bigger - but ISH's are all cross breeds anyway. I'm not sure why someone selling lower value animals (as in no recorded breeding - no insult to your lad, he looks lovely!) would import to Ireland simply to passport there. If he was bred there, recorded breeding or not, then he is Irish?

 

[Cortez]

He's not Irish, we don't brand horses here. He could have come in with a dealer's load from eastern Europe; I've had horses in the past that have been bought for meat and come from Poland, Russia, Czech Republic (I have a friend in the meat trade that occassionally let's me know if there is something "special" in a load). An Irish passport is available for any equine that is kept in Ireland; some of my undocumented Spanish horses have had white books, and they are always "breeding not recorded", which is slightly annoying since they have pedigrees going back to Ferdinand and Isabella!

 

[crabbymare]

are you able to get a photo of the brand mark? that may help someone recognise it if there may be a foreign brand that looks like a 3 but part is not showing on him

 

[frostyfingers]

This is really interesting! When asked his breeding I always just say "mixed, unknown" but it would be good to find out more. I'll get a pic of the whole area (won't be for a day or two) and hopefully you might be able to see something.

 

[frostyfingers]

Here it is:

 

[paddi22]

yeah i've never really seen an irish branded horse. would be very curious what his origins were.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

A quick Google search ...

Polish Warmblood (Wielkopolski)

Polish foals born in a national stud farm have a numerical brand under the saddle:
The right side is the number of stud farm.
The left side is the foal's number.
Foals from private breeders (regional breeding) are branded on the left leg (thigh)

 

[ashlingm]

Get him scanned for a microchip! I bet he has more than one!

I have a cob with 2...one Danish chip and one Irish chip so it's something I'm am fairly aware of. It could be a case that his passport was lost and it was cheaper to re-register him and get a white book, or they wanted to change his age etc.

I have never, ever seen a branded Irish horse.

 

[frostyfingers]

Thank you - it had never occurred to me that he might have come from Poland. Next time I have the vet out I'll ask him to bring the scanner, so far only the passport chip has turned up but who knows! I'll have to have a dig around and see if I can find out more.

 

[JulesRules]

Interesting about the Polish branding as my girl is a Malopolski (another polish warmblood type) and came fully passported with all of her breeding registered, but isn't branded.

She came from a non state breeder.

OP - if you do find another chip and manage to get more information you might be able to find out more on the Polish stud database:

http://pedigree.pzhk.pl