The distinct white brands blazoned on the neck of every standardbred in the country will soon be a thing of the past.
Instead of owners and trainers brushing their horse’s mane away to read the freeze-branded symbols, they will soon be reaching for microchip scanners instead.
Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) plans do away with the practice of freeze branding horses and implement a microchipping programme, chief executive Edward Rennell said.
No firm date has been set on the roll-out of the new practice.
‘‘Strategically, we will move to microchipping eventually; we will be reviewing options to move to that.’’
The move has been endorsed by Dunedin equine veterinary specialist Dr Peter Gillespie.
‘‘I have always been a supporter of it in harness,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s just a great idea.’’
Dr Gillespie is experienced with microchipping procedures in thoroughbred foals and describes it as a reasonably painless for the horses.
‘‘It is not very painful at all.’’
‘‘The chip is the size of a grain of rice and goes into the upper neck.’’
The procedure was an improvement on the traditional freeze-branding method, which was less comfortable for the horse, Dr Gillespie said.
The bonus would be that horses would become more sought-after in their post-racing careers.
The image-driven demands of horse showing and other equine sports meant people sometimes overlooked standardbred horses for other breeds that did not have what was seen as a detracting white brand on their necks.
HRNZ is holding back from making the change immediately for two reasons: its perception of the reliability of microchipping and the cost breeders would incur.
‘‘You would want more certainty on microchipping and it not moving in the horse’s body before that.
‘‘What we don’t want to do is microchipping and freeze-branding — that would then expose the breeders to two lots of cost.
‘‘The plan is to carefully work through it to the point where it is completely reliable and then we would move to it. It should then be cost-neutral to our breeders. We certainly don’t want to expose the industry to additional costs.’’
HRNZ’s approach differs from that of the New Zealand thoroughbred industry and many of the world’s racing jurisdictions, where microchipping is an established practice.
Many of those use both microchipping and freeze branding in conjunction.
Harness Racing Australia has begun a joint microchipping and freeze-branding programme this season.
Rennell sees the change happening in the immediate future, yet he is reluctant to predict a specific date.
‘‘It is not going to happen in the next 12 months, I believe.’’
