I carry the brand of distinction
For all to see.
That signifies I am a horse
For performance or company.

From The Standardbred by Catrina Godden

Today, with the Standardbred finally gaining the popularity it so richly deserves as a breed in the show ring, a burning issue, pardon the pun!, has been raised. To brand show, non-racing stock or not? Many people see the Standardbreds unique brand as ugly, unsightly and just plain horrible. But in fact it is a treasure trove of information and a mark of distinction that identifies the horse as a purebred Standardbred. An unmistakable tattoo of belonging and a semaphore to represent solidarity to a special group of horse people. Standardbred people!

Ostracized because of a mark

As a wee slip of a girl, I was taught to ride by a Standardbred, Simon Son. Now how this mountain of a horse ever did this is truly a testimony to the nature of the breed. Simon was not a riding horse after all, being almost straight from the race track, “an ol” trottin’ horse” was all he was, and didn’t the local neighbourhood pony kids let me know this fact! And what clue gave his heritage away? His brand! So Simon and I were ostracized, all because of a mark on his neck. But I secretly believe that it was because Simon would generally whip their pretty little butts in most areas and if he had performed poorly as they expected a Standardbred to, we probably would have been tolerated. But I didn’t care, because Simon was a safe mount and I loved him, but the stigma was there as far as they were concerned.

And it seems this misplaced stigma hasn’t changed. As an adult I showed coloured Standardbreds as a way of exposing this colour type to the general population, with mixed reactions. But the general consensus by show people to my horses and their solid coloured cousins, was that they would do better if their brands were blacked over so as not to identify them as Standardbreds.

Unsightly or history?

Now it seems there is dissention amongst the ranks of Standardbred show owners! Why do we need to have an “unsightly” freeze brand our horses if they are not going to race? The answer is simple, because they are Standardbreds.

The freeze brand of a Standardbred records a lot of interesting information about the horse. His history is now displayed in an artistic format known as Alpha Angle symbols (Australia)*. I have always thought that it looks like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, very mysterious, and coincidently the Egyptians are believed to be the first civilization to use branding as a means of identification.

The information disclosed in the freeze brand to anyone who can decipher the

The author with Simon.

 
symbols will tell you in which state the horse was born, year of foaling, and where in the population born that year his foal registration falls, and most importantly the S at the beginning of the brand denotes Standardbred!

Armed with the information the brand has revealed, you can then look up your horse on the Harness Racing site** and discover, how they may trace back to the great Messenger, or a grandsire may have won the Interdominion, or a half sibling may have won a million! So that “horrible” mark can be your first steps on a great historical adventure, a valuable tool in researching your horses heritage.

So the next time the question of to brand or not to brand is raised, or whether to black out that “ugly” mark, just remember what this noble mark means; history, willingness, sturdiness, companionship, courage; all the hallmarks of being a Standardbred.

• More Information on Freeze Branding
  for Australia & New Zealand
• Australian Breeding Information