Freezemarking - facts, information & feedback

[rj]

Thanks all for your replies so far. Mods are going to sticky so that this can be added to and provide more info for those who are worried. So far all seems very positive!

Good point re strays etc Susan. Sometime horses get out, someone finds them & puts into nearest field. They can stay there for days (or weeks in one case) while frantic owner searches the country. It gets tricky if horses stray over police force areas, cos they aren't that good at exchanging info all the time!

[Zuzan]

Can I ask a question... is freezemarking visible underneath full winter coat?.. it just occured to me after the countryfile thread because Adam had to clip to see the brands....

and Yes I can see Susan's point about straying.... again I think this is a pretty low risk in my particular case... for reasons of local geography and the fact Neets lives in a herd she has little if no reason to stray... I am content to let her loose graze unfenced banks around the farm which she could technically leave.. but she doesn't becasse she still likes to be close to the herd. But reallistically most people aren't in this situation so given a more "normal" set of parameters yes freezemarking is a good idea.

[Karon]

On my chestnuts the freezemark is definitely visible. Rash's (grey) can be seen as a bald mark although I ought to clip it off really (forgot....). Shef's can be seen in summer but not in winter (again, I must clip it off.....) - she does get a very long coat.

[Zuzan]

thanks Karon

[rj]

The 2 horses stolen from near me were found in a field 60 miles away. Their freezemarks weren't immediately visible, because of winter coats (should be kept clipped if poss), but the people who found them knew that if they were Cassie & Cameo they would both have marks. So they went & looked, and sure enough found the ID's and were able to tell police & owners immediately that they definitely were the right horses. The were back home the next morning. Otherwise they might not have bothered to say there were 2 horses (skewbald cobs - not many of them around!) which looked a bit like..... etc!

[Karon]

The Freezemark is visible on mine, too (as well as the creezemark - I really must check my typing!). Now corrected

[DebbieR]

Which company: Farmkey
Location (ie town): Congleton, Cheshire
Date marked: Jan 2009
Yes/No & marks out of 10 for the following. Give details if 'No':
Were the arrangements made promptly & efficiently? Yes 10/10
Were you provided with enough information regarding the process? Yes 10/10
Was your horse handled politely, respectfully, and competently? Yes 9/10 Operative was quick & efficient without rushing. Would use her again.
Was the operative polite and respectful to you. Yes 10/10
Any other comments. We checked with our vet about sedation beforehand but he felt it wouldn't be necessary, which turned out to be the case.
I had the mark done under the saddle despite RJ & Susan's recommendations, I'd definitely go for the shoulder in future for better visibility under saddle. The mark healed quite quickly, gave no discomfort when I started riding again and is visible even unclipped with a Winter coat.
We were fortunate enough to get a £10 off voucher from YHL the year before. We also tried to get others on the yard interested so we could all benefit from a lower rate per horse but unfortunately no one was interested.
Would you be prepared for the company to contact you and discuss? Yes

[Jenny (& the boys)]

Which company: Freezemark
Location (ie town): Oxford(ish)
Date marked: End of 2009

Yes/No & marks out of 10 for the following. Give details if 'No':
Were the arrangements made promptly & efficiently? 10/10 - Yes, very helpful, very efficient.

Were you provided with enough information regarding the process? 8/10 - Yes on here! The company website was good but I learnt more from the DGers. The pre-freezemarking training advice was great

Was your horse handled politely, respectfully, and competently? 2/10. I'm certainly not quiet about how my freezemarking went. As requested at the time of booking I had warned of my horses special ability to take umbridge to many things and if we worked in a certain way it would be fine. They were all sedated with sedalin and things were looking good. The operative turned up, banged and pulled the horses around and ended up what seemed like ignoring my email. All were broken out of their sedation and out of three horses done, 2 ended up being twitched because the operative seemingly got peeved and gave up.

Was the operative polite and respectful to you.
7/10. Yes, pleasant enough

Any other comments.
Before freezemarking I was trying to find out about horses reactions to it because I was thinking about full sedation with two of them. I would impore anyone who has the gut feeling to sedate to do so if safe. If you're unsure of how your horse will react or you think they might not handle it then sedate. If I have more horses done in the future (that is if I accumulate anymore!) this is what I will be doing.

My experience wasn't too good but I don't want it to put people off. Freezemarking is, to me, an essential part of horse ownership and has put my mind at rest. I know if they ever are stolen or escape I have a pretty good chance of getting them back. Thats worth the morning of worry in my eyes.

Would you be prepared for the company to contact you and discuss? Yes, I spoke to the company afterwards and they dealt with my issues very well.

[Susan]

Jenny thanks for that. it is about worts and all. But as you said it was important.
Sadly like any service and skill we dont always get the person we want and need. I have seen a few bad vets handling horses. I have seen bad dentist and I cant count how many bad farriers. It will happen.
I agree if you think there might be an issue sedation is to be considered.

Ref Freezemarks and winter coats. Flynn is a grey and his isnt that visable but I make it so by clipping that area, all year round.

[calekio]

Questionnaire (copy, paste & complete):
Which company: Farmkey
Location (ie town): Bournemouth
Date marked: Feb 2005
Yes/No & marks out of 10 for the following. Give details if 'No':
Were the arrangements made promptly & efficiently? Yes 10/10
Were you provided with enough information regarding the process? Yes 10/10
Was your horse handled politely, respectfully, and competently? Very much yes 10/10
Was the operative polite and respectful to you. Yes 10/10
Any other comments.
I had 5 miniatures marked in one go. One mare was heavily pregnant and several of them were nervous and the marker was very calm with them an happy to take a few minutes to let them settle down. I had 2 of the ponies sedated since i knew they would be differicult to mark.
After the marking one ponies mark didn't come out properly and the marker came out a further 2 times to try to remark, again extremely helpful, calm and patience and this is free within the first 12 months. And was happy to come out and check a pony free of charge who's mark went a little bit funny.
Would you be prepared for the company to contact you and discuss? yes

[amber]

Which company: Farmkey
Location (ie town): blackburn,...
Date marked: 2005
Yes/No & marks out of 10 for the following. Give details if 'No':
Were the arrangements made promptly & efficiently?.......Yes...10/10
Were you provided with enough information regarding the process?....Yes..10/10
Was your horse handled politely, respectfully, and competently?.......Yes... 9/10 (and he did have a tantrum when we got to the 3rd mark out of the 4!!... Farmkey Lady was great and let me handle my horse the way he needed to be handled and not with any 'bully boy' tactics...)..
Was the operative polite and respectful to you?........ Yes,.. 10/10, lovely lady who just happened to have the same breed of horse that i have, so we hit it off straight away!
Any other comments.... When my boy came into my life, i knew that he'd stay with me under he was '6 foot under' so to speak!,.. so Farmkey was the ultimate deterrent i could possibly do for him, to keep the theives at bay... It was worth every penny... and i'd rather have a 'marked' horse,... than no horse at all... My life would end if he went missing.. I did pay an extra £25 i think it was then,... for our own 'private reg'!!
Would you be prepared for the company to contact you and discuss?.. Yes..

Amber x

[kerpug]

Which company: Farmkey
Location (ie town): Deeside
Date marked:2007


Were the arrangements made promptly & efficiently? Yes

Were you provided with enough information regarding the process? Yes

Was your horse handled politely, respectfully, and competently? Yes

Was the operative polite and respectful to you. Yes

Any other comments. I had him freezemarked under saddle first but beacause he was overweight and roan in colour, I wasn't happy with 1st mark. Same lady came out 3 times in total. 2nd time went for shoulder mark, i asked for it to be bald too cos of his colouring. On 3rd visit we agreed that we would leave it as it was as shoulder mark was very good and no need to make it a bald mark...also he had lost weight and saddle mark was visable. As this was all under 12month guarentee no extra charge was made. Everyone was very friendly and helpful. I'm made up that i've got 2 marks but would always have a shoulder mark from now on.

Would you be prepared for the company to contact you and discuss? Yes

[2 bays & a grey:D]

Which company: Freezemark
Location: Essex
Date marked: 13.02.10
arrangements made promptly: Yes 10/10
Information: Yes 7/10, I think the website could be more infotmative, Farmkey have a better website
Horse handled politely: Yes 10/10 but they didn't really need handling as they were sedated.
Operative Polite: Yes, 10/10 patient as Bronte was being a pain before she had been sedated, plus she had to wait around for me because I had been a numpty and had to sort something out
I found the service to be efficient and the operative was exactly on time. I would use them again.

Yes ok to contact

[Deleted]

Which company: Farmkey
Location: Essex
Date marked: Can't remember but it was about 2 years ago now
arrangements made promptly: Yes
Information: Yes
Horse handled politely: Yes, brilliant, can't fault her. explained her temperament and she suggested possibly twitching, I wasked if we could see how it went and she said to have pockets full of feed and she would move around with her if she got upset (having the shoulder done). Seren was good until she started to get bored and impatient for food and waving the leg that was being marked in the air for food (the freezemarking was that bad lol).
Operative Polite: Yes

No waiting around, in fact she was a bit early and I was still getting Seren in from the field. very polite and explained everything and very good info for after care.

Need to get rosie pony freezemarked and will definitely use Farmkey again

[gypsydust]

Which company: Freezemark
Location (ie town): Basingstoke/Reading (Hampshire)
Date marked: Erm, one was Jan 2007? and the other was spring 2009 or thereabouts
Yes/No & marks out of 10 for the following. Give details if 'No':
Were the arrangements made promptly & efficiently? Yes - very easy company to deal with. They held personalised marks (JAY and TNGL - for Jay and Tangle) for me both times, and were happy to give advice on getting Tangle done (who was a yearling at the time). It took a while to get a date sorted for Jay due to Christmas/local operative being off sick - but I was kept informed throughout.
Were you provided with enough information regarding the process? Yes
Was your horse handled politely, respectfully, and competently? Yes - a very no nonsense lady, and Jay did have to be twitched (and she's not great about twitches) - in hindsight I wish I had just got her sedated as she is a total drama queen about most things, but I didn't know she was going to be such a problem! I spent a lot of time working to prepare her - introducing clippers, using a poop-scoop rake as a branding iron lol! She was fine for the clipping etc, just really didn't like the marks being pressed/held on her shoulder! Also in hindsight if we had had more time to take for Jay to 'accept' the new person, she might have been better - but she was allowed to sniff the branding irons before they were held on her, it wasn't a complete 'rush job'. I also hadn't owned her long at the time, which probably didn't help, as she didn't know/trust me as she does now.
Was the operative polite and respectful to you? Yes.
Any other comments.
Would you be prepared for the company to contact you and discuss? Yes, if they wanted to!

Fair enough - it was not a pleasant day for Jay, bless her (Tangle was fidgety so her mark is wonky, but altogether much more co-operative - Jay's mark is remarkably straight considering how she was rearing and plunging around!!!) BUT would I have it done again - yes, definitely. It's such a good visual deterrant, and as others have said, if the worst DOES happen, it's so much easier to say 'orange horse with JAY on it's shoulder...'. Jay HAS got away from me twice out hacking, where I have fallen off - first time luckily I caught her again and second time she made her way safely back to the yard - but either time it could have ended a lot worse - it's not just them being stolen you have to think about!

I have to say, with any horse now tho I would probably just opt to have a vet sedate them for it, Tangle is as bombproof and accepting as they come and even she clearly didn't like the procedure very much. I have Jay sedated to have her teeth done - not because she is particularly difficult any more thanks to my lovely and patient vet - but just because it's easier to do and nicer for her if she is not stressed.