When he dried, it was almost non existent. When I went home I Googled different kinds of horse brands and there it was:
This is the brand for the American Warmblood Society.
I now was even more curious, so the next day I went out to graze him again. I wet the fur on his stifle on the left side and took some pictures with the camera on my phone. Here's the best picture I took:
Look at this very carefully. Now look at this picture:
Look more carefully at the area circled in white.
Do you see these lines and points? I added the actual brand to the picture to now help visualize.
Now I slid the brand into place. It seems to line up to what I saw.
Could my horse really have this brand? Would it be this size on a full-grown horse? I couldn't find many pictures online of horses with this brand to compare the size, it does seem a little large but I just don't know...
I know there are cases where horses are branded but the brands are so faint as to be almost impossible to see unless the horse is shaved to the skin. I don't feel like shaving off a patch of Joey's hair right now to look, but maybe if I body clip him in the fall all will be revealed. (I didn't clip him last winter so it would make sense that I wouldn't have noticed this then.)
And what would it mean if he is branded as an American Warmblood? I received no papers for him when I bought him but the brand would mean he is registered and passed some kind of inspection to have it, wouldn't it? So would there be some way to track him down or would that be a waste of time? Anyone familiar with these brands and especially the American Warmblood Society with any insight would be very welcome. :)
I love Joey no matter what he is. But if he is branded, how cool!
4 comments:
I'm a lurker here, but I definitely felt the need to post a response here for this!
While I didn't have an American Warmblood, I had that same thing happen to me with a horse I owned a while ago. He was sold to me as a Swedish Warmblood, but he had no papers. I got him in the summer. It wasn't until that fall/winter that we noticed when his winter coat was fluffed up you could see a brand.
I took a shot in the dark and emailed the Mid Atlantic contact at the Swedish Warmblood Association of North America, and she forwarded my email on to the secretary of the SWANA. Turns out, the secretary was friends with the lady who originally imported my horse from Sweden when he was 3 (he was 15 when I got him)! She was able to get me a copy of his papers, and even had a VHS tape of him when he was 3 or 4 that she mailed me.
So, while you might not have much information on him currently, it can't hurt to email someone at the American Warmblood Society. You never know what you might find out! :)
I have a 13 year old blood pay paint mare. She has a LW branded on her left shoulder. when I got her has a two year old I could see it in the summer with no problems. Now that she is 13 I have to search high and low to see any sign of it, even with her summer coat. However, on her papers, the picture they used shows the brand very clearly. So you know what... he really could have a brand!
My friend's mare is branded AW, and the brand is pretty big. Bigger than I'd think. It could be!
Having been to a bunch of different inspections over the years and looking at Joey I totally think that the AWS might have registered him. It is one of the biggest registries and their requirements are based on the horse themselves, not their parentage. It is odd that the brand is so faint because those freeze brands are usually super clear. You can shoot an e-mail to them asking if there is a horse with the full name you got him with registered. If they have him it might cost you a little money and some time to get him registered to your name, but it can be done!
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