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One of the rescue horses is Hanoverian, but she has no brand. Another is a Trak, and he has the antlers. The TB has a lip tattoo. How is it decided who gets branded, and who doesn't? Is it breed specific (like the Hanoverians have a set of criteria, etc.). I'm guessing only JC registered TBs gets tattoos, but does the presence of a tattoo mean the horse has raced?

Things have changed with Hanoverians since I dealt with them, they used to do different brand for TB crosses. With TB he would have to be on the track to be tattooed even if he never raced. Could have just trained at the track. GOV does not brand at all, microchips instead.

What's GOV?

Racing TBs and QHs have to get tattooed before their first official work. They have to record official gate works before they are allowed to race.

So if one has a tattoo, it raced or got very close to racing (sometimes, they have a tat but never started).

GOV= German Oldenburg Verband

Info on Hanoverian branding: https://hanoverian.org/ahs-brands/

So if not branded, the horse was probably either not inspected or did not qualify for the main book.

The US branch of GOV essentially lost the rights to the Oldenburg brand to the IHS, so when you see a horse with the crowned O, it is Oldenburg N.A., rather than GOV.

PaulaO wrote:One of the rescue horses is Hanoverian, but she has no brand.

Sometimes a brand can be practically invisible. In the last 7 years with theTheNewWelsh, I've only been able to see his brand maybe a total of 4-5 times. It's so weak/shallow, I can only tell it's there if he's between summer and winter coat and all his hair is standig up in the sun... (It would probably show if clipped, though, but I don't clip).