Official horse birthdays. :)

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FionaM12

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Following from the "combined age of rider and horse" thread, what is the official horse birthday? I always thought it was Jan 1st, but is that just thoroughbreds?

Assuming you don't know your horse's actual date of birth, when do you add a year to your horse's age?
 
Here it is 1 August, but that is quite early given that most are born September thru December.

I know when all of mine are as they are registered. However one I only know the month/year, but as I didn't breed her she has a Gotcha Day instead.
 
Traditionally it was 1st Jan for TBs and 1st May for all others.

Personally I just class my horse's birthday as the day she came home to me though :-)
 
Mr Levi's birthday is 25th April! this is in his passport and confirmed by breeder
My previous cob didn't have a birthday on his passport just 1st of January so we us to say it was the day we got him :)
 
All my other horses I've never know the date of their birthday, so always just said for example 'She's 9 this year' or whatever.
I'm finding it really difficult now though, I've now got my boy who I bred myself (first and only!) he was born 28th May 2013... I'm really struggling with people calling him a 2 year old! I'm like 'No! He's 20 months old!'
 
I thought it was 1st Jan and that's when I count mine as a year older but then my mind is in the showing world and that's when they are classed as a year older for showing classes (same for rider jockeys under some societies)

An interesting discussion on this on facebook recently with some outlandish answers that made my mind boggle!
 
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I always thought that 1st Jan was for TB's only although for mine I just use the date on their passport or the date I got them if the passport just had a year.
 
In terms for age classes and competing the horses birthday is from 1st Jan, for example, my horses actual birthday isnt until 17th March when she will be 4 but I can get out and compete now as its past the 1st Jan.
 
For most affiliated competitions it is 1 January so say for example you wanted to do the 5 year old class on 18 March 2015 and your horse was born on 28 June 2010 you would be able to do the 5 year old class even though technically your horse isn't quite 5 - you wouldn't be able to do the 4 year old class though.
 
Traditionally 1st Jan for TBs and 1st May for all other horses. As has been said though for showing classes a horse can be shown in its age class from the start of the year in which it is e.g. 4.
 
Pearlsacarolsinger said:
Traditionally 1st Jan for TBs and 1st May for all other horses. As has been said though for showing classes a horse can be shown in its age class from the start of the year in which it is e.g. 4.
Click to expand...

Not just showing but also for other disciplines eg. dressage, eventing, SJ, etc
 
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