12yr old homebred sold and then changed name - is this not confusing for him?

My father rode lots of different horses and called them all Moses (or a cuss word when they weren't concentrating). Their stable names were irrelevant once he was on board! They all knew who he meant.

And all cars were called Deidre
 
When I call mine I will also be looking at the horse I’m calling and walking towards her so my body language may give away who I’m talking to. All of the horses in the field have very different sounding names but TBH they usually come over anyway because they are nosey. Other than Squeege. He usually needs to be called over.

Tali’s full name is Vinitali so I just shortened it but everyone else’s names stayed the same.
 
I can call Mim separately from Miri, when they are in the field and she will come reliably. Miri it's hit and miss but they seem to have worked out that one short noise (Mim) is small horse, and two longer noises (Meeeereeeee) is big horse. They may not have a concept of a name in terms of their identity, but they do know when I'm calling them.

I changed Mimosa's nickname from Mozie to Mim. We had a Rosie in the field, and she was Nosy-Rosie, Rosie-Posy, all sorts of rhyming nicknames. I didn't want to confuse her with Mozie on top of all that, and Mim was rising 3. She definitely responds to Mim.

I think Arthas is very different to Oakley at 12. It's a totally different noise.
 
poiuytrewq said:
I've just changed a name, not offically so i tell myself its all ok! I did feel a but guilty about it but i mixed and matched for a while and as above most of us use nicknames etc.

I do perfer Oakley though, Its a much nicer name!
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My husband is quite upset that she has changed his name, as he was the last foal out of our best mare and was born under the big oak tree in the field so Oakley was a very fitting name for him as we always had intentions of keeping him which the new owner knew about. I said to him at the end of the day it would be very hypocritical of us to be angry or upset as he is now her horse and that’s what happens when you sell, you give up the rights to an opinion of the horse or what you think, no matter what age the horse is (as of course it’s a lot easier when they’re foals and you haven’t grown too attached to them!) But I would be lying if I said I’m not a little bit sad and disappointed that he doesn’t have a different variation of the name Oakley just to keep it close to the reason for naming him, but even so the most important thing is he’s gone to a lovely home and will be used to his new name in no time without confusion!
 
When I groomed on a yard, I wore my hard toed Western boots and called all the livery horses Chapo, as in the song. Chapo my pony. It made me feel happy and competent and I believed that it made them feel the same.
 
LadyGascoyne said:
I can call Mim separately from Miri, when they are in the field and she will come reliably. Miri it's hit and miss but they seem to have worked out that one short noise (Mim) is small horse, and two longer noises (Meeeereeeee) is big horse. They may not have a concept of a name in terms of their identity, but they do know when I'm calling them.

I changed Mimosa's nickname from Mozie to Mim. We had a Rosie in the field, and she was Nosy-Rosie, Rosie-Posy, all sorts of rhyming nicknames. I didn't want to confuse her with Mozie on top of all that, and Mim was rising 3. She definitely responds to Mim.

I think Arthas is very different to Oakley at 12. It's a totally different noise.
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Yes I do agree! Most of ours definitely know when you’re calling them by their individual names, we have some very different names and some very similar names. Like Otis and Orion are very similar but Otis understands he has the tisss sound in his name, so he comes to call but Orion is still learning his name. Whereas Nora and Nevaeh are very different so both know their individual names.

But I do think Arthas is a totally different noise to Oakley aswell, hence my worry that after 12yrs of Oakley he’s going to be thinking who the heck is Arthas!
 
Peglo said:
When I call mine I will also be looking at the horse I’m calling and walking towards her so my body language may give away who I’m talking to. All of the horses in the field have very different sounding names but TBH they usually come over anyway because they are nosey.
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If the horse is out of sight when called then it has to rely totally on it's name (or some other spoken word) to realise it is being summoned. It can't see any body language. It will do when it gets into sight but not initially.
 
LadyGascoyne said:
I can call Mim separately from Miri, when they are in the field and she will come reliably. Miri it's hit and miss but they seem to have worked out that one short noise (Mim) is small horse, and two longer noises (Meeeereeeee) is big horse. They may not have a concept of a name in terms of their identity, but they do know when I'm calling them.

I changed Mimosa's nickname from Mozie to Mim. We had a Rosie in the field, and she was Nosy-Rosie, Rosie-Posy, all sorts of rhyming nicknames. I didn't want to confuse her with Mozie on top of all that, and Mim was rising 3. She definitely responds to Mim.

I think Arthas is very different to Oakley at 12. It's a totally different noise.
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Sorry posted the same reply twice!
 
Whether a horse knows his name or not probably depends on how it is used. I train my horse the way I train my dog. So it is always: " X over", "X stay" for instance. I make sure I use the name to get their attention before any commands. I realised I had to be very careful how I spoke to my horse when he became convinced he was called Good Boy!
 
I actually just shout “horses” often in the morning! I think it’s my shout and my voice they respond too. I can’t shout all their names. Or I’ll yell one name and they all respond.
 
TheresaW said:
My old boy Mac, as he was know to me when I bought him, was previously Copper according to his vet records.

Dolly was Dolly when I bought her, but I found out later she used to be Coral. She was never a Coral 🤣

I’m not sure anyone knows what Ollie was called before Clodagh got him and subsequently named him.

Charlie came to me as Max on loan. When he was signed over to me, I changed his name immediately as not a Max Verstappen fan at all.
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He was Ollie when I got him. I usually called him YLS. 🤣🤣.
I must stop being rude! He was a fabulous companion to my youngster.
 
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