Apples, especially vigorous high nitrogen trees, hold green leaves until temperatures drop into low teens. At least around here they do as we have warm days all winter.

They do here also. Like fruitnut said it seems to be related to the vigor of the tree and no doubt nitrogen plays a role also. My seedling trees hold nice leaves longer than all the rest and I have two seedlings right now that still have leaves that look like early September foliage. We've had snow twice already.
The bend in the tree probably occurred while laying on it's side and the tree turning upward toward the sun.

Variety influences dormancy as well and later bearing types tend to lose their leaves last. My Braeburn certainly is more leafy now than most other apples in my orchard. Maybe that will mean the seedling tree will have similar fruit to Braeburn, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Tough apple to grow here in SE NY. I'm changing mine over to Winesap.

Tinbucket, I know this is not an answer to your question, and you may already know this, but just to be clear for those who read this thread: if you are growing a tree from seed it is not a Braeburn apple tree.

i know chances are it may not be true to parent.
However sometimes you get good apples that way.
I have seen some from seed that were as good as parent like Granny Smiths.
I took the seeds from several what appeared exceptional examples, of the apples.
Only one tree came up.

I didn't mean to discourage you, just address a common misconception. If you decide the new tree is good, please call it something other than Braeburn.

The chances of the seedling being the same as Braeburn is similar to the chances of your child being the same as you.

If you had said "we grew an apple tree from a Braeburn seed" I wouldn't have made my post in reply.

My later varieties do indeed hold their leaves longer as H'man says, but it seems rootstock vigor is a more powerful driver. I have Honeycrisp grafted onto seedling stock that still have beautiful (well maybe not beautiful) leaves while it's donor HC tree next to it has lost all of it's leaves. I have Goldrush and Improved Winesap grafted to the same tree and although their donors still have leaves they are cruddy looking already whereas they still look pretty good on the seedling.
We've twice had temps down to 9F and been sub 20 at night for what seemed like forever till today.

Johnny Appleseed demonstrated the unlikelihood of getting an fresh eating apple from seed in his enormous genetic experiment. Admittedly, he was using cider apple seeds. But conservatively of all the fresh eating varieties that arose from them you can estimate the odds at no better than 1 in 400 seeds that survive to maturity.