Lo and Behold there on his quarters was a familar firebrand. I had noticed the mark during the spring after Nell shed her winter coat and we had been searching for a lead on what it may have meant. Suddenly out of the blue we find Aristo bearing the same mark and the excitement starts to build. Finally we have something on our horse without a past.
Whether it was fate or purely amazing luck a few moments later I came across this:
This is the brand for Westfalen Haflingers. Unfortunately the site is all in German so I cant tell you what that means. We sent emails to people who seem to have a connection in the hopes they understand english and can tell us more about the brand.
It is strange to think that my Nelly Noodles came all the way from Germany. We always had an incling that if she was british she would have come with more history and its not unusual for dealers to buy horses abroad and sell them for more over here. It is a shame that all her past was lost along the way but now at least there is a chance of finding out who bred her if there is a registry. I always wondered why Nell never really listened to me. It was probably because she speaks German! ;)
The most wonderful thing so far about finding her brand is that we now have proof that she is PURE haflinger. I always knew there must have been a mistake when we got the passport saying she was a cross. Hopefully on these facts and pictures alone we will be able to re-register her.
I'll update you as we get more information but even if we don't it has been wonderful just knowing where she came from.
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7 comments:
Thanks for the info on the Arabo-haflingers but we're pretty sure she's completely haffie. The brands unique to the Westfalen area and we had a feeling she wouldn't have that brand if she wasn't pure. We just wondered if anyone else knew if there was a specific registry but thanks for having a look anyway. Must log off, its already bed time here in UK!
I know nothing of Haflingers but found the brand interesting so I started to look up brands. I did find the World Haflinger Federation mentioned. Also inspections which gave a passport. I would think it would be possible to contact the registry and find out something.
http://www.haflingersgb.com/
The Pale Horseman said...
"The brands unique to the Westfalen area and we had a feeling she wouldn't have that brand if she wasn't pure."
No, that's not really correct. The Westfalen Haflinger also registers and brands "Edelbluthaflinger", which is Haflinger with Arab blood. I don't even think their brand is different, since they all fall under the same registry. I think it's just noted on the papers and in the registration records.
Back when I was young (30 years ago), there was a seperate registration for "Arabo-Haflinger". It looks like this has in the meantime now merged with the original Haflinger breeding, they call them now either
- "Haflinger", if the arab blood doesn't exceed a certain prozentage and
- "Edelbluthaflinger" if it does.
As far as I was able to find out so far is this:
They WANT to bring Arab blood into the breed, they just want to do it carefully and in small portions to keep the color and most of the Haflinger type but get some of the Arab's refinement for better value as a riding and sport horse.
On that same site, when you scroll down to the two pics next to each other, the two mares in hand at a breeedshow, the one on the left is titled:
"Siegerstute Haflinger
Amy von Aachen"
THAT one is is a pure Haflinger.
The one on the right, is titled:
"Siegerstute Edelbluthaflinger
Naila vom Ravelsberg von Nebos I"
Edelblut means she has hotblood in it.
If you look at the tables of the participants of the stallion testings on that same page, you see often a prozent value behind breed discription, that's the % of hotblood. A "pure" Haflinger is allowed a certain % of Arab blood, hence you got:
# 115 Haflinger (0,78%)
DE 441410867006
meaning this is a pure Haflinger with 0.78% arab blood.
If it's more then a certain % it will look like this:
#124 EB-Hafl. (3,91%)
DE 441410241706
EB stands for Edelblut. This horse has 3.91% Arab blood and is therefore over the limit and is now officially a "Edelbluthaflinger" not a "Haflinger".
The Westfalen Haflinger is not a different type of Haflinger, it's just the brand that breeders in that region use. Different regions have different brands, there's one for Haflingers bred in Bavaria, one for Haflingers bred in the region around hannover, Rheinland-Pfalz, Brandenburg, Westfalen, Schleswig-Holstein, Weser-Ems, Sachsen, Rheinland, Rheinland-Pfalz/Saar, Mecklenburg, Hessen and Baden-Wuertemberg. Remember: Germany itself is like twice the sice of Wisconsin, so we are talking about small regions. They don't have different stock. It usually depends on where the mare owner lives. Whichever region he's in, he will join that assocciation of breeders, and if he's for example in Westfalen, his Haflingers will then be registered and branded with the westphalian assocciation. But the mare could have easily be bred herself and branded in Bavaria while the stud the current owner uses could be from Hessen, the foal itself would then be branded westfalen haflinger, since that's the assocciation the breeder of the foal uses.
I do agree, she's rather course and does not seem to have any significant amount of arab blood in her, but that doesn't mean she can't have any. It is possible that she does.
I have not heard anything from the Assocciation yet and I am not too hopeful either, because I don't know what info you hope to get. It's just the brand that every registered Haflinger gets, they are not individual identifying nor do they identify the breeder or specific bloodlines. The number "99" underneath is probably her foal year or her presentation/branding year. I might be able to get that info.
However, there are probably many hundreds that got branded or were born the same year, and the assocciation does not own these horses. So they would have no info on who sold what horse to other countries unless the new owners would have kept up with the papers, which we know they didn't since she doesn't have any papers.
I did ask them though if they file any blood samples, but I doubt they do. That would be your best shot, if they do.
I will let you know as soon as I hear from them.
Snoopsincharge said: "The number "99" underneath is probably her foal year or her presentation/branding year."
That would still give us some info at least to either how old she really is or when she was in Germany. And if they have a registry for the horses branded in that year it is still possible to find her. The only problem would be identifying her as we're pretty sure Nell isn't her real name although her previous owner said it sounded similar.
Snoopsincharge said: "The number "99" underneath is probably her foal year or her presentation/branding year."
No, it's not. It's the last two digits in the "number part" of her German registration number, which would start with 41 or 42 for Westphalia, then a 5 digit number, followed by a two digit number, which is her birth year.
I'll send an e-mail to you, The Pale Horseman, and describe to you how and where you can (hopefully) get more information on your horse. I did this a couple of times in the 10 years that I was the registrar of the Swedish Haflinger Association, so I know it CAN work out, but does not always ... I'll send you the info and keep my fingers crossed that you actually get to know the true identity of your horse.
Best wishes from Sweden
Kerstin
Hi there. I have just found the exact same brand on my Haffy (with a number 32 instead of 99) and am now trying to trace it. I bought him in Spain in 2005 from a slaughterhouse, so I don't know any of his history and would really like to find some stuff out. I realise this is a very old post, but I was just wondering if you ever found out anything from your brand and if you could help me do the same.
Kind Regards,
Michelle
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