My boy's freezemarking is up for renewal - is it worth taking it out again?

[fruitbeard]

Just wondering what people think of freeze marking in general - I had my boy done 5 years ago and took out the extended coverage, which has just run out.

He's out on loan atm and his loaners aren't bothered about it, I'm somewhat skint and could do with saving the money, but am a bit worried about letting it lapse and something happening to him...

Have to say I wasn't impressed with the freezemarking process at the time - they had to come back and redo him as it didn't show up properly and even now the last 2 digits are a bit blurry.

Aargh, what to do, what to do....

Sorry I've never had a horse freeze-marked so I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean you have to pay to keep them on the register or something? I always assumed that once they were done that was it for life and they were just put in a file somewhere.

The shetland we look after has a freezemark and I've never been able to work out what it says even with her summer coat. Hopefully her owner knows otherwise it will be a fat lot of good if she goes missing .

I also thought it was for life?

The brand is there for life, and I think the owner to whom the freezemarked horse belongs is still recorded, but the help from Farmkey should the horse be stolen has to be renewed. I have never renewed, I had mine freezemarked more as a prevention, and if your horse was stolen, the police would still be able to recognise your horse based on the freezemark.

Oops, managed to forget I'd posted this!

Thanks for the replies - yes, the extra money is to keep your horse on a register so that if anyone steals him and tries to sell him, the new owner can check through Farmkey that the horse is legit or if he goes missing he can be returned to you.

I'm inclining towards Manatee's pov, tbh...

Thanks again

My horses was freezemarked before we bought him but I've not kept up with his registrations and we've not had other horses done.

However they are all microchipped which seems a better, more modern method because the number is on his passport and any vet can track you down using it.

Microchipping is fine if you happen to have someone with a microchip reader check them out. Freezemarking is great as if your horse has been stolen you can say 'Freezemark XYZ1' and everyone can look out for that and recognise it, they don't need anything special to see it.

I need to have one of mine redone (the freezemark lady did say it may well need doing again when she did it) and I think I'll renew as Farmkey do apparently have a good network for advertising stolen horses and checking at markets, etc.