H&H Asks: personalised freezemarks
FREEZEmarking is vital in protecting horses against theft, so when it came to H&H’s attention that you could personalise your horse’s freezemark, we decided to find out more.
What has changed?
INSTEAD of choosing a sequential three-character freezemark, it is now possible to select a mark that is personal to you.
Freezemark’s managing director, Mary Awre, who introduced freezemarking to the UK, says: “The main thing is that people get their horses freezemarked to protect them from theft and, if the one thing to persuade them to do this is by allowing them to choose a mark, that is absolutely fine.”
“By allowing owners a choice of mark we have provided a fashionable and fun way of safeguarding horses from the ever-present dangers of theft.”
The only stipulation is that each mark has to be unique. They can be anything between two and five characters and examples of some of the marks already chosen are “007”, “Bess” and “Elvis”.
Who has them?
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EVENT rider Vickie Weston had been unsure about having her 12-year-old gelding Winston freezemarked until she heard she could personalise it.
“I chose ‘WIN’ because it’s short for Winston, and he’s quite successful!” says Vickie, who has received many compliments from fellow competitors at horse trials.
“I have another eventer called Snoopy and I’m thinking of having him marked with ‘SNOOP’, if he’ll stand still long enough.”
Vickie had Winston freezemarked in 2005 and has gradually seen more people having it done in the past two years.
“I don’t think many people realise you can personalise them,” she says.
Information
Freezemark Tel: 01295 690090 www.freezemark.biz
This Q&A was first published in Horse & Hound (29 November, ’07)
