The mark is called a freeze brand. Liquid nitrogen chills an iron until the cold kills the color in the hair, and the government writes a registration code in white along the left side of the neck of every wild horse it removes from the range. The brand exists so that a mustang can be identified as a protected animal of the United States for the rest of its life, at any distance, in any light. In August of 2026, the place where you can read those white characters most clearly is the dirt lot of a livestock auction yard, on horses standing quietly beside the trucks that run south.

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