Branding

Q: How do I get my horse branded?

A: Fillout the online branding application on this website or contact the ATA office and request that one be sent by US mail. Complete the top half of the form and mail the entire form to the ATA office with the branding fee (check current fee schedule). (Please also include the one-time license fee of $50 if you have not had a horse branded before. The license fee for use of the double moose antler brand is necessary because the German Trakehner Verband holds the copyright to the double moose antler design.)

Q: Is inspection required in order to have a horse branded?

A: No, eligibility is determined by bloodlines. Purebred Trakehners are eligible to receive the double moose antler and under-bar ; part-bred Trakehners are eligible for the A T design. The A T brand does not require a license fee, only the branding fee of $60.

Q: Is branding mandatory?

A: Not at all, it is optional. We do encourage branding as a way to showcase the Trakehner breed and as identification and theft deterrent .

Q: Is branding available at all inspection sites?

A: We do our best to make branding available at as many inspections sites as possible, but we must know that there will be horses with already processed branding applications coming to the site. After your branding application has been processed it will be returned to you with a list of branding representatives. Please contact the representative nearest the inspection site to see if he or she is available to brand at the inspection. Be aware that our representatives are volunteers who are not paid. Please reimburse their travel expenses.

Q: What is the brand license for?

A: The license is a one-time fee for a permit to use a version of the Trakehner Verband's logo. Most of the licensing fee is forwarded to the Trakehner Verband at the beginning of the following year.

Q: Can I tranquilize my horse for the branding procedure?

A: Yes, although it is not recommended. The branding procedure is very quick, so unless your horse is very fidgety it should not require a tranquilizer.

Q: Is freeze branding an option? Why not?

A: No. The ATA Board of Trustees has investigated freeze branding thoroughly and determined that it is not feasible to offer it. The current branding irons are not suitable and it would be very expensive to order new irons for all the branding representatives. Freeze branding is more difficult to do correctly because the brand must be held in place much longer than a hot brand. Despite what intuition tells us, freeze-branding is painful and hot-branding is hardly painful at all.

Q: How do I become a branding representative?

A: Notify Branding Committee chairman, (see current chairman list), that you would like to learn branding at either the ATA annual meeting or another site convenient to one of them.

Q: What if my horse already has a brand from another breed registry?

A: If the horse already has a brand from another registry we cannot apply the ATA brand.

Q. What if my horse has been previously branded by the ATA but the brand is almost invisible. Can he or she be branded again?

A. Technically the answer is “yes”, but it is not at all a good idea. At some times of year you will always see two brands, since it is virtually impossible to exactly overlay a second brand on the first one. Some horses make good brands, while others do not. All branding representatives do their very best, but the results vary.

Q. At what age should I have my horse branded?

A. It can be done at any age, but the ideal time is while the foal is still at the mare's side, toward the end of the summer season. This results in an ideal sized brand at full maturity, and is the traditional time for branding of a foal.

Q. Is this a painful process for the horse? Seems like it must be.

A. No it really is not. A person should observe the process and examine the just-branded horse for tenderness to learn the answer personally. There is practically no sensitivity afterward and just a little during the actual branding. Horses are different from people.

Q. What about the European/Dutch dispute outlawing hot-branding?

A. We are watching that process, which is presently in moratorium. It appears to be a misguided political mistake and likely to be remedied.