Changing a horse's name. Have you done it?

[Gayla]

I do not like my horse's name she came with. Her name is Grace. I like the name just fine and a friend of mine has a daughter named Grace and it is a perfect and beautiful name for her. But it is just not right for my mare. But it feels kind of dorly to just start calling her something else and telling the barn owner where she lives to change her name. What do you think? Leave it alone? Or pick her a name that really fits her?

[Curb Appeal]

Pick a new name. She's a horse, so doubt she cares at all what her name is.

I have changed names on both of my horses. My first was AQHA registered as Bugs Lady Luv and her breeders called her Lovie....ick. I never changed her registered name, but I showed her as Cheyenne Autumn and her barn name was Autumn.

My 2nd horse was Curb Appeal, barn name, Kirby. I changed his barn name to Grady.

My friend has a paint who was called Lacie, she changed her barn name to Gracie.

[PalominoMorgan]

Changed my mare's name from "Suuuuunshiiiiiine" to Casey. She pins her ears and ignores you if you try to call her Sunshine in the nasally way her previous owner said it.

[paw]

My current horse came with "ABC". Huh? He's now happily "Buddy". Took me a couple of weeks to figure it out, but he's definitely a Buddy. His show name is "Training Wheels".

Cairo (previous horse) was "Kayro" when he came, and raced under "Mr J. T." (or something like that).

Red Alert came with "Red", but he raced under "Bronze Copper" (which was a fair description of his color, but...).

Anyway, they don't much care, as long as you bring the treats.:winkgrin:

[dressagetraks]

I have no problems with changing a totally unsuitable name. My CB/Trak cross, who is sort of a dressage version of Annie Oakley in a horse suit - you can just see her prancing around the pasture announcing to the world, "Anything you can do, I can do BETTER!" - came to me with a registered name of Beau's Bonnie Babe and a stable name of Bonnie. :no: Of all the mares I have ever known, I think this one is the LEAST suitable for the name Bonnie. I've had some good friends who were Bonnies, and I've known one horse it fit very well, so nothing against the name. But not this horse.

She is now Cadence, answers to Kate, and loves it. I simply told trainer (who had been agent) and former owner within a few days of the transaction that I had changed her name. Trainer's response: "That's the PERFECT name for her."

Bonnie. I still can't believe that. This lofty, extravagant mover with a more than ample dose of attitude was called Bonnie.

Change the name and just tell others you changed it.

[Burbank]

my horse came with the barn name of Jr, did not fit him so changed it to Warrior which really doesn't fit his slightly wimpy personality but matches his registered name much better.

[LuvMyNSH]

I've changed the name of pretty much every horse I've ever owned. The horse doesn't care.

[Coreene]

Oliver's registered name is Loewenherz, and they called him Loewe or Louie. I changed it to Oliver even before I brought him home.

[Alibhai's Alibar]

I do not like my horse's name she came with. Her name is Grace. I like the name just fine and a friend of mine has a daughter named Grace and it is a perfect and beautiful name for her. But it is just not right for my mare. But it feels kind of dorky to just start calling her something else and telling the barn owner where she lives to change her name. What do you think? Leave it alone? Or pick her a name that really fits her?

If you're going to change it, my advice is to change it quickly and assertively. I've known a few people who gingerly changed their horses' names a few weeks after purchasing them and years later, my friends STILL call the horses by their old names :lol:

In a perfect world, I'd always keep a horse's name or gently modify it, but sometimes horses simply have awful names.

On the other hand, even the strangest names sound normal after a while. I thought Alibar was an oddball name but it totally grew on me and I really liked it.

A boarder at my barn had a mare named Piglet and after a few weeks, I was able to say her name without giggling :D

Good luck with whatever you choose and congratulations on your new mare.

[FindersKeepers]

I changed my girl's name. When I bought her, her barn name was Princess. My trainer actually told me the only way she would let me bring her home, is if I promised to change her name immediately. Now, she does think she is a princess, and that name does fit her, and I do often say to her "How's my princess???" BUT Bailey fits her much better.

Her registered name is Oka No Marker...yea, that would work in the hunter ring... so the first few shows I took her to, I called her Bailey, until I came up with Finders Keepers.

That all being said... I cannot for certain say that all of her near disasters and bad luck have NOT been caused by the name change since I purchased her... :confused:

[equineartworks]

Dumplin' is staying Dumplin' it suits him perfectly because he is my little squishy dumply-man :lol:

[partlycloudy]

Since one of my horses came to me with the name 'Dink' and another 'Didler' :no:umm yes I changed them.
Since we buy/sell alot of horses coming up with good names can be hard. We went for a regional bend for awhile (naming them after the county they came from).
We bought a lovely clyd/tb 2 yr old froma mennonite once. When we inquired after his name, the fellow sad 'Oh he's got no name'. We should have called him 'America', but he became 'Winter Solstice' since I bought him on Dec. 21 (and he was a very light grey)

[arabhorse2]

I don't change a horse's registered name, however much I might not like it. If you ever sell the animal, it'd be hard to trace its whereabouts if his/her name changes every time someone gets a wild hair up their bum.

Barn names? Yeah, go ahead and change 'em. I changed Mack's name from Mick. He LOOKS like a Mack, and it's close enough to Mick that he answers to it.

Cloud and Casper will keep their barn names, even though I'm going to have Cloud registered without the name "Cloud" anywhere in his registered name. Haven't yet decided what it'll be, but I have a few possibilities. ;)

Cloud's show name will be his registered name. It's always amused and confused me in equal parts, when people give their horses show names different from their registered names.

[ASB Stars]

I have often changed show names. The ASHA doesn't recognize it if you show a horse in anything other than their registered name, but, as they are seldom recognizing anything that I do with ASB sport horses, it has never been an issue.

Now, barn names, I am funny about changing. If I buy or adopt a horse who doesn't come with a nickname, I'll usually make one up from their registered name,if I know it. Poizen is Zoni, Borealis is Bo, Aurora Blue is Rory, etc. If I call out to the horses in a given paddock, by their name, they will respond by name- in other words, the whole group will only come if I call all of them, generally.

I have a couple of horses who came directly from the breeders, who had nicknames when they came, that have nothing to do with their registered names. I've never changed those, either. Now, I do have silly pet names for a number of them, and they do respond to those. Poor things!

[Scaramouch]

I changed both my horse's show name and barn name but veeerrrryyy slooowwwwwllly. Moose had been called Legs and/or Junior by his old owner. I was never going to call him Junior because a) I haven't known him since foalhood and b) it sounds like what you would call some bratty little human child. Legs was never a name that thrilled me, so now that I've realized that he is definitely a Moose, I only call him that when I'm pissed with him. My dad still uses it, though.

I'd had him for two years before I changed his show name - his JC name, F.T. Strawberry Wine. Good God what a mouthful, but then again I like one word names. So now he shows as Acheron. Which sounds like "Akron" if the announcer is talking too fast but I don't think the beastie really minds that much.

So yes ... change it, she's your horse!

[Amchara]

The miniature mare I got last spring came with the name Tiny. I rolled my eyes at her and apologized that she had been called an adjective for X amount of years. Later on that day my mom suggested that we call her Tina, but I had to be a cool kid and spell it Teena :lol:.

Has anyone noticed horses living up to their names?

[Rivendell Horses]

I"ve changed them. so i don't see why you couldnt.

Angel, my ottb didn't come with a name, and i later found out (got her jc papers) that her reg. name is alianza. We had been calling her Angel since i bought her, and she answered to that immediately.

Whimsey also was nameless (auction purchase) as far as i know being that she was supposedly a PMU baby.

Sebastian another auction baby was also nameless.

My horse Pippin his owners were calling "Shivers" which umm...yea not going to happen.

Cowboy has always been cowboy so that will stay (bought him from my friend who named him. but it suits his personality).

My sale horses came with names that i changed. Remy was "Popeye" (ugh), i couldnt think of a name and then i gor Remy. Went home, walked over to his paddock and yelled "remy" at him. He came up and over to that (lol) so that was his name.

Shamus, was being called "Chico" another ugh name. When i brought him home, and was riding him the first time, the radio in my head started to play "when irish eyes are smiling" and Shamus popped into my head after that. lol. so that is where his name came from. (granted my mom yelled at me for not spelling his name correctly, but that is ok)
And he had really pretty blue eyes :)

:)

Jen
www.rivendellhorsefarm.com

[millwrightmomma]

Go ahead and change it.
We get auction horses, and have no idea what their names are/were.

Horses living up to their names: Oh Ya.....XENA warrior princess!! QH X Arabian, FRISKY a hackney pony just seething ponytude. Work her daily you are OK, give her a break, look out :), HEIDIPRINZ, a registered trakaner who we call Prinz....calm cool collected, wants his food delivered on time, and will accept hugs kisses and treats.

[HighFlyinBey++]

I got my first horse when I was 13. He came with the name Hillbilly & called Bill. At the time, I simply could not be seen riding a horse English with such an awful name *cue dramatic music* :lol: He became Sir William & I called him Will.

I sold him 6 years later & the family went back to calling him Bill. I still can't see how you can call a horse you love a word for something you hate to get, especially since he was always healthy!

I bought him back from them 11 years later & went back to calling him Will until he died two years ago. He was a character. Looking back on it, Hillbilly did suit him, but never "Bill." Blech.

My other horses fit the both their barn & registered names very well.

[GreyHunterHorse]

Mine is a lovely animal....but came with the name Harry! I sometimes wish I changed it but it does fit his goofy persona. Plus I get grief for mispronouncing it "Hairy" instead of "Hahrry" -- I have a funny accent I guess.

But, if you don't like it change it. She will recognize your voice, not what you're calling her. I know, cause my horse responds to all *kinds* of things!!! :lol::eek::yes:

[trubandloki]

I see nothing wrong with changing a horses name if you do not like the one they came with.
But I warn you, if the horse has been at the barn for a bit it will probably be next to impossible to do.

I managed to easily change the name of one gelding I bought that came with the name Pinky (his registered name was Pinky's Alley). I think it only stuck because when I brought him to the boarding barn I told them I did not know his name and had to come up with one.

My current boy I tried to change his name after owning him for a few months of everyone knowing him as Trouble. No matter how hard I tried to make the new name stick, it just would not. So he stayed Trouble.

[tikidoc]

Interesting to see lots of people supportive of changing names. When I posted about maybe changing my OTTB rescue's name, I got jumped on for thinking about it...

[Thomas_1]

Here it's considered extreme bad luck to change a horse's name.

Ordinarily though it's not something I would ever do.

I famously changed one though in the early 80's. It was my fei horse driving trials horse and I changed it's name from Nigger to Guinness.

[ddashaq]

I consider the changing of a name to be very unlucky. My horse came with the name Shaq which I am not wild about. However, I am superstitious, so he is still Shaq. I just added to it, sometimes he is called Shaqtastic or Shaqly, and my BO calls him Shaqtacular.

[li'l bit]

My then 18 yr. old pony came with the name of "Jenny". My son and I decided to change it back to her registered name of Diva. She immediately began to respond to us when we called her Diva, as opposed to ignoring Jenny.

[Coreene]

My then 18 yr. old pony came with the name of "Jenny". My son and I decided to change it back to her registered name of Diva. She immediately began to respond to us when we called her Diva, as opposed to ignoring Jenny.My guess is that there are a lot of us on this BB who would respond to that! :lol:

[Lady Counselor]

Guess it's all about whether or not you believe in that superstition.
In racing, you never called your racehorses by their registered name. (claiming horses) You used a barn name. I retired several of these guys over the years and their barn name became their name. Who is going to run around yelling, "Come here Firstsaturdayinmay!" instead of "C'mere Junior!"
I brought home a roly poly foundation QH years and years ago. His name is Poco Allen Whiz. I didn't like any aspect of it, so I planned on renaming him "Edgar Allen Poe-ny"
When I was showing him to someone in the barn, my comment to them was, "Isn't he just a little Sherman Tank?"
He's now 31 and answers to the name Sherman.

[4whitefeet]

I've never changed a horse's name, because the ones that I have had, their names fit them pretty well, and I've always believed it to be bad luck. Gramps always said that if you changed their names, you would have problems with them.

As far as horses living up to their names, I know several people that should have been more careful with the names they chose for their equines.
Names like Rowdy, Firecracker, Lightnening, Trickster, and my favorite "Blister.";)
I like calming names like Cookie, Peanut, Patches, Maggie, Ginger, something that you know will keep you out of the ER.:) Hopefully.

[FancyFree]

Here it's considered extreme bad luck to change a horse's name.

Ordinarily though it's not something I would ever do.

I famously changed one though in the early 80's. It was my fei horse driving trials horse and I changed it's name from Nigger to Guinness.

Well you were completely justified with that name change. I've never changed a horse's name because I have also heard it's bad luck. I've had to tolerate a couple stupid names, such as my user name which was an OTTB I owned. :lol:

[LuvMyNSH]

Gramps always said that if you changed their names, you would have problems with them.


I had such bad luck that I ended up with a bunch of jackets, plaques and more ribbons than I have room to hang. :lol:

People are this superstitious? Seriously?

So if a horse has had 5 or 6 name changes and is still a great horse, does that mean he's super extra, extra lucky, like a little horsey pot of gold? ;)

[unbridledoaks]

I would do it if you aren't happy with it. I have done it with a few that I have bought. Even changed their registered names. Some are just horrible, I just can't get past what people will name their horses!

[chai]

Sometimes it's the kindest thing you can do! Who could have looked at my mare as a cute little newborn and hung the name, 'Squig's Impudence' on her?? She has a beautiful name now, as far from that one as possible.

[Diamondindykin]

I have never personally changed a horses name as I also believe that it is bad luck but my trainer bought a new filly this fall and her registered name was Light My Chic Lips!!! Now my trainer is a reining trainer and a cowboy. Can you see a big cowboy entering the show pen and them announcing, "Here we have Bob and Light My Chic Lips"?!?!?! They obviously renamed her to something not so flashy.

[Trevelyan96]

I've changed 2 barn names and one registered name.

We got a 17 year old arabian came with the barn name 'dude' ick! Changed it to Cisco, and he seemed to like it better! His registered name was Majestic Wind... awfully pretentious, so we just showed his as Cisco as well.

An 18 year old appy mare came with the barn name 'Nag'. Ick again. We changed hers to Cissy, although as time went on we realized that 'nag' was actually quite accurate. Horse was a royal PITA, the only horse I've actually ever wanted to put a bullet into.

Rico's JC name is 'Red Wrecker'. NOT having that, so we'll show him as Razzaro.

Travis came with his barn name, but never got a JC name, and I didn't have his papers. It took 10 years, but finally got him registered as Trevelyan.

The only horse who's names I kept were Annie's. JC Annie Mactagish, and ironically she came with the worst luck of any horse I've ever owned. I had her 6 years and was only able to ride her about 10 times. Smartest, most difficult horse I've ever dealth with, but I still miss her.

[actcasual]

Here it's considered extreme bad luck to change a horse's name.

Ordinarily though it's not something I would ever do.

I famously changed one though in the early 80's. It was my fei horse driving trials horse and I changed it's name from Nigger to Guinness.

I was told early on it was bad luck to change a name and the only time I've done it was for same reason. Bought a BIG bodied dark brown mare who was named for a certain African American talk show host and it just seemed better to go to something that sounded a bit less racially-motivated.


Interesting to see lots of people supportive of changing names. When I posted about maybe changing my OTTB rescue's name, I got jumped on for thinking about it....

I'm struggling with this one, too. As "underground" as OTTBs have gotten on the show circuit, it seems like maybe showing them under the registered/race name is good for the breed.

[Kashi]

I changed my junior horse's name when he come from Holland. He didn't have a barn name, but his KWPN name was something like "Dorkus" (MAYBE Morkus). I just couldn't do it to the poor guy.

I just registered him under his new name with the then AHSA and that was that. Never looked back :)

[pandorasboxx]

Changed two barn names and kept the registered ones. They went from Blaze to Jazz and Ross to Rafiq.

The third horse I couldn't come up with a better barn name, which also happened to be part of his registered name and so Vulcan stuck.

[baileygreyhorse]

Two out of my three came to us with other names. Skipper got to keep his. Iago came with the name Spook. That was just wrong for a couple reasons. First, he is black and this was in the south. Nuff said. Second, I wasn't going to even suggest spooky behavior in a green broke horse. A few years later when we looked at Bailey, his name was Sidekick. Uh, nope. Turns out his name used to be Smokey (he's grey) but a man named Smokey bought him and changed his name to Sidekick. Again, I'm not using a name with a vice in it. My SIL was in middle school at the time and renamed him for "that cute boy on Party of Five." Whatever, it fit him.

[TBrescue]

Interesting to see lots of people supportive of changing names. When I posted about maybe changing my OTTB rescue's name, I got jumped on for thinking about it...

My horse was also a rescue and I hated what they were calling him (Russeo) , so I changed it to something that I liked better and really fit his personality but still sounded similar (Romeo) he's a total love bug. His show name is I believe in a thing called love. He's HUGE 16.2 1435 lbs and an 84 blanket. Last winter we had a pair of the stuffed "moose" antlers in the barn, I out them on his head and started calling him Moose....he really looked like one!!! It just stuck, he now answers to Moose and comes when he's called-he never even bothered to look my way when I called him Romeo. He's now Moose everywhere, the vet, chiro, smart pak.....Romeo is who he WAS.....now he's Moose and it totally fits him! It's almost like he chose his own name....he just waited til he liked what I was calling him!

[Woodland]

I can not even count the number of horses who's names i have changed. Some I did not know what they were called before they came too me. Others had names that did not fit or were named the same names as other horses I owned or people I knew.

Samples:

TNT to Chocolate

Lover Boy to Pepsi

Sizzle to Freckles

Bar Hop to Betsy

2K to Shane

Attaboy to MacTavish

Ronny to Teddy

Loser to Champ

Asia to Ruby

Missey(abouth the 7th Missey I have purchased) to Peaches

Knuckles to Pepper

Reckless to Tootsie

Buster(about the 11th Buster i have owned) to Sandy

Pabst to Panda

Schlitz to Soda

etc etc etc

I will not have derogatory or alcoholic names or repetitive names for my schoolies.

[TwoDreamRides]

Preston was Lenni when I got him. Registered as First Me-Lennium [First Son x Me-a My-a Mokos]. Valiant attempt on breeder's behalf, but just not gonna work for me, esp with a horse named My Mellennium in the same division..aka Mel. So he became Just Press Start aka Preston before he even got home.

Timi had no call name, just his race name of Simply Stylin. When he walked in the barn, everyone thought it was a 2 y/o filly... WRONG 5 y/o gelding was more like it. The name was pretty girly, too so I was between Satisfaction Guaranteed aka Guerrin and Always The Optimist aka Timi. 3 days later he almost died, and a nagging feeling I had kept him on IVs for 10 days, depleting my college kid bank account... but it helped me decide his name!

Josh and Alex both had their show names changed [First Impression became Just Joshin Around and Peverils Alexander became Just Relax] but not their barn names.

[chism]

I don't believe in changing names, the horses do know their names! I know I wouldn't like it if someone just started calling me Agnes one day. . I've only done it once and I feel crappy about it but I just had no choice. I got an OTTB at the track, registered name "Snake River". I asked his trainer what his barn name was and he said he just called him Snake. No way was I going to call a horse snake! My daughter named him Boomer because of a boomerang shaped star. It suits him, he's sweet & goofy. I believe in showing OTTB's under their registered names so the world can know what superstars these ex-racers can be, unfortunately I can't get my daughters to agree with me and they're doing all the showing right now. ;(
Of my 7 horses, I was only able to name one because I bought him as a weanling with no name, it's something SUPER original.... "Jake". lol.

[downthecenterlinetheycome]

I changed 'Bob' to 'Tango'. My first horse. How do you look at a young, flighty, hot, green arab and call him Bob?

[Paragon]

I'm not an owner, but to chime in here, I have this weird aversion to changing names. Barn names, show names, whichever. It would have to be a pretty appalling given name for me to consider changing it. :)

[Drive NJ]

I don't know... I think the horse will let you know if he has a problem changing names or not. Ours aren't registered and we don't show so its just between them and us.

Princess became Gillian or Gilly
Rusty became Macrae
Candy became Harry
Mel stayed Mel with many variations
Cosmos Quest had already been switched to Kramer before we got him and morphed again to Ned.
Max would only answer to Max
Sergio was pretty relieved to become Alex
Cruiser became Cooper

The ones who were OK with name changes often seemed to answer better to the new name than the old

[HiddenStars826]

Uh, my horse's name is "Lit". Beat that. People ask me what his name is, I say "Lit". They say, "huh?" I say, "Lit!". They say, "Oh, like I'm Lit?" I roll my eyes and say yep.
It obviously came from his registered name (Litvinov) but for godsake, I don't know why they couldn't just have called him "Vinny". My vet laughs every time he sees him, and jokes that maybe I should get the horse "lit" so that he doesn't try to kill the vet every time he sees him!

I could have changed it, but I never thought about it until I had him for a year or so. And honestly by that point, I thought it was just funny. Especially when a friend wanted me to buy her horse (who looked just like Lit) and then told me his name was Smokey. She thought it was hysterical that I could have identical horses named Smokey and Lit. *sigh* I didn't end up buying him, though it really would have amused me to no end.

If you want to change the name, change it. Whenever we've bought a horse, we consider changing the name. Sometimes we just hate the original name, but many times the horse has had a rough past and its almost like by giving them a new name with their new life, its a fresh start.

[City Ponies]

Gayla - Just curious but what breed/age is this mare? I sold a Gracie a while back to a wackado Parelli lady and wondered what happened to her, so now everytime I hear about a Grace I kinda look and see if it might be her.

Rocky stayed Rocky (but myself and the vet had our own nicknames)
Joey to Simon/Goose (his snuggle name)
Magic to Chance
Molly to Grace
Indy might have had another name but she was in the meat pen and didn't even come with a coggins
Cody to Boston (or Bo)
Bud to Reno

[rideforthelaurels16]

When I bought Danny, he was called Drew..ugh. Danny is perfect for him; he's like a goofy, awkward kid who likes to pull pranks and be a bit of a twit :lol:

[RockinHorse]

Sometimes it's the kindest thing you can do! Who could have looked at my mare as a cute little newborn and hung the name, 'Squig's Impudence' on her??

Okay, this one made me laugh out loud :lol:

[LearnToFly]

Interesting to see lots of people supportive of changing names. When I posted about maybe changing my OTTB rescue's name, I got jumped on for thinking about it...

totally missed that thread! why?
My OTTB's show name changed from "U The Man Elvis" to "All Shook Up"
and his barn name from "rock star" to "Elvis"

I didn't think twice about it and slept like a baby :lol::lol:

[Carnelian]

My second horse came without a name or papers, and my father named him Pasquale after the little boy in the comic strip "Rose Is Rose." Sitting in 8th grade science class, the teacher was talking about stones and brought up Obsidian (black & shiny). Instantly decided that would be his show name.

When I sold him, Pasquale became Tory and shown as The Aviator. It was sad to see his name changed, but, honestly, not many people can handle a goofy name like Pasquale :)

On my recent purchase, I'm sticking with her barn name, but wanted to continue the tradition of semi-precious stones in show names...hence, Carnelian (exact shade of her chestnut coat). She's unregistered so I could do whatever I wanted to.

One horse I ride has the TB registered name Widowmaker. That's a rough one!

[saddleup]

We bought our son a horse for his 12th birthday and changed his name to Rocky. A few month's later everyone in the barn was calling a horse psychic with fun results, so I called her and asked if horses care if you change their names.

She said that some do, and some don't....so she'd ask him. Silence for a few seconds, then she said "He knows you've changed his name, and he's good with it. But, to be honest with you, he did prefer to be called 'Big Boy'".

That was his original name. I didn't tell her that, by design.

So while I've changed other horses' names since, I'm always a little bit reluctant to do so.

That said, my new horse was Tarzan when I bought him; he's now Banner.

[Carnelian]

Oh yeah, my father had a knack for goofy barn names. We also had a Guido and Cecil. He dabbled in resale projects so he got naming rights. I actually had to buy Pasquale from my father, and later learned he padded the purchase price to HIS OWN 14-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER by $500. Thanks, dad.

[ksetrider]

My horse's registered AQHA name was Romusar (Musing x Romar's Watchout). It was pronounced Ro-mo-Sar. I actually liked it and kept it...only changing his god-awful barn name of Corky (It reminded me of Picket Fences) to Sisco. After the third USEF horse show hearing him announced as "Row-moo-sir. Say the two outloud. You'll see the difference. One sounds regal, the other sounds dumpy. So, I quickly changed it formally to Sisco and he has been Sisco ever since.

On another note. I have a friend who "recycles" OTTBS. She always tries to keep their racing name. They are so fun. I'm trying to think of some... "Immeanonthegreen" and my favorite "Youhatemecauseyouain'tme"

[Snowflake]

My mare's name was Horny Snowflake. :rolleyes: Oh, yeah, it changed. But her barn name is still Snowflake, Snow, or Snowy Bowie...

[MVR]

Sometimes the circumstances of our horses rescue does not allow us any history on them. We happily name them once at the farm. They happily accept it!

[chestnutmarebeware]

I've both changed names and kept them and never had a problem either way. I never have changed a barn name if I knew it, but with two of my OTTBs all I knew were their JC names. On one I took an educated guess: Bo's Typhoon goes by Bo (even though she's a filly—it suits her), and made up the other: Oh Let's Dance became Peter (after my favorite hockey player:lol:)

I've also had mystery horses from rescues and auctions that I've named myself, and they picked up their new names (seemingly) happily.

I also support showing the OTTBs under their racing name, with the caveat that I've always liked the names my horses have come with (Cat on the Moon, in addition to the above). If I had a truly terrible one, I'd probably change it.

[didgery]

I've always changed names with every horse I've ever bought . . . most recently, I bought a horse and ended up keeping him on at his old boarding stable. The trainer, BO and fellow boarders were all very nice about his name change and some even told me that it would be a great way to give him a fresh start.

[Ibex]

Mine came with "Dora", which I assumed was just shortened from her registered name, and changed it to something else. Then a friend with small kids looked at her registered name and said the whole thing came from Dora the Explorer...

Note to self: always find out WHY a horse is named after Dora the Explorer before bringing it home... :eek:

[Im Natives Last]

Gayla - Just curious but what breed/age is this mare? I sold a Gracie a while back to a wackado Parelli lady and wondered what happened to her, so now everytime I hear about a Grace I kinda look and see if it might be her.

Rocky stayed Rocky (but myself and the vet had our own nicknames)
Joey to Simon/Goose (his snuggle name)
Magic to Chance
Molly to Grace
Indy might have had another name but she was in the meat pen and didn't even come with a coggins
Cody to Boston (or Bo)
Bud to Reno

I bought a Gracie about 4 years ago in NC. Chestnut TB. Could this be yours?? I change almost all of my names. Gracie became Peppermint, Laid Back became Dublin, TJ became Frosty, I could go on forever.

[Catalina]

I usually don't change the registered name unless it is really bad.

Black Stat became Roheryn (he is a chestnut)
Kaydee's Tyberious became Tyberious


I have only changed the barn name once.

My current horse's registered name is Constant Sorrow. His barn was Sorry. That got changed to Connor before I even bought him.