Would you change a horses name?

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Gwena

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I have 1 more viewing on a lovely pony that I am rapidly falling in love with. The owner really wants us to have her & we're just waiting for her feet to be sorted before we ride her & make our final decision next week. So far the only negative is that her name is so similar to my name that I would like to change it! In her show name it has (along with 'my' human name & her stable name) the name Grace...which is ok. Do you listen to the old wives tale that it is unlucky to change a horses name? Or should we go for a name we really love?!
She doesn't seem to know her name btw.
 
My first pony was called Terrie... Where I bought him from the lady's daughter called him simba because of his long golden mane. I liked it so thats what I called him.

My current horse is called Red's Surprise, and again she was nicknamed Betty so thats her name xx
 
my boy was called luke when i first got him (from a dealer) i contacted the person who owned him before the dealer and she said she called him freddie! he didnt appear to know either name so i changed it to freddie as to me he seems more like a freddie than a luke!!

god knows what his stable name was in racing!!

if the horse doesnt know its name change it for something you like! its a horse im sure she doesnt mind what she's called!!! :)
 
Only if I really hated it. Luckily I really like Bree as a name, kinda like its short for breeze.

I take in a few rescue small animals and used to change their names, but more recently haven't bothered so much. So you end up with:

Fidget and Basil the chinchillas
Radar and Bucket (had lost her friend mop) the degu
Priscilla, Marmaduke, Stella and Guiness the guinea pigs.

It's all fine until you go to the vets. . . .
 
Dont change the name its bad luck!! I changed one of my horses and name and seem to have nothing but bad luck with her :( My new horse is called Emma the same as me (She was called that when I bought her!!) its causes great confusion at shows :D
 
I'm afraid I'm too superstitious. A friend of mine had a beautiful, chestnut ISH and she didn't like his original name so changed it to Reef. He got kissing spines and a problem with his SI and had to be put to sleep. When she bought her next horse . . . another lovely sport horse called Cuddles (no joke, that's what's on his passport) she decided not to tempt fate and left that as his name. Don't blame her really.

P
 
If she knew it I wouldn't change it - but I can see it getting a bit confusing what with my name too. (not going to put too much on here until she's mine!). Grace is an ok name but it doesn't really suit her as she's a purposeful breed and I wouldn't say particularly graceful!!! :rolleyes:

Its nice to hear that lost of people have changed horses names apart from Copperpot :(

So what sort of name for a beautiful black Fell?

ETA : lots of replies whilst I was posting - seems more people have had bad luck apart from Copperpot!
 
Horses have accidents and die all the time though. Ive lost 2 of my own and 2 ive looked after over the years for various things, all had the names theyd had since birth.
Yet Ive had umpteen horses that have had name changes and nothing bad has happened to them.
 
We recently got a new horse without a name, and I randomly chose a name for her. Weve traced her back and spookily, it looks like her old name differs from her new name by one vowel :D Spooky or what?
 
Capriole said:
Horses have accidents and die all the time though. Ive lost 2 of my own and 2 ive looked after over the years for various things, all had the names theyd had since birth.
Yet Ive had umpteen horses that have had name changes and nothing bad has happened to them.
Click to expand...

This is my usual thinking - but now I'm in the situation & everything seems too good to be true I'm worrying about pushing my luck!
 
I think my boy was called Bertie by his breeder, then Worzel by the Irish Dealer...didn't think either of them suited him so called him Enys, after Ennis where he came from in Ireland (though given the Cornish spelling).

It also turned out to be an anagram of my surname, which I didn;t realise at the time!
 
My wb mare is named Amy on her passport but but prevouis owners dauighter changed it to Saphire but left Amy on tghe passport......we kept her as Saphire but her nickname is Saffie, Saff, doodles or idoit horse when she is being silly with an added Saphire or when she is in one of her mareish moods we call her Amy:D:p, luckily Amy hasn't been out to play in a good few months:cool:
 
I've changed 1 of mine from Dawn to Charm as there was a lady called Dawn down the yard and it got too confusing! She's still going strong!
 
I never have as I've never needed to but if I bought a horse with some sort of ridiculous name I wouldn't hesitate to change it! My friend bought one called Marjorie...safe to say it was changed asap! I'm not superstitious at all so it hasn't bothered me
 
I'm not superstitious and would change a horses name if it was awful...or the same as mine or someone close to me.

We once bought one called prancer
 
Yes I've never had a problem with it, I call mine allsorts other than their actual real name anyway LOL I had one that changed name about 5 years after I first owned him, simply because the old guy that owned the yard I moved to took a shine to him and thought he looked like a Will and (much to my annoyance at the time) wouldnt use his real name, he used to tell everyone he was called Will! Eventually I gave in and started using it myself. He was then Will for another 15 years ish until he was pts 2 years ago aged 31, the only people that still used his real name was my parents!
 
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I bought a pony called Shera Celeste once and I changed it to Shantih - she lived up to the name!!! Next owner changed it to Gem and according to her, lived up to the new name.

I'd always change it if I didn't like it.
 
It's just a word that we use to identify a horse. Some horses learn the sound of their name if used enough but a horse doesn't know why it's called fred rather than bob and probably comes you yelling it's name across the field because it has a bond with you, you feed it yummy food and it likes a groom!

If you really believe that changing a name of an animal can bring bad luck then your stuck with what ever it's called now, otherwise you call your horse whatever you want and it will have no impact on the "luck" of that horse.

For those of you that have changed a name and then something bad has happend how do you know that the bad thing wouldn't have happened if you hadn't of changed the name?

I have changed the name of most of my horses...Oliver became Gulliver, Chaos became Indi, Popeye became Pye and Cally stayed Cally!!

Ok we are not competing at the Olympics and winning gold so in that respect we are unlucky but apart from that life carries on!!
 
Personally no I would not change my horses name.

I have given pet names some not dissimilar to their show names, some totally different, But would never change their main name.


The only one I had to give a new name , is my donkey whom I bought from Jamie Gray. She had no name when I bought her
 
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In the process of changing the passport name now.

Having purchased the lovely maxi cob Martha 3 weeks ago, and assuming her registered name was Martha, I was horrified to see her registered name of Hairy Mary on the passport she was imported from Ireland with.

The examining vet couldn't stop laughing and whispered to me that there was a very dirty song about Hairy Mary in Ireland !!!

I plan to show this mare and if anyone thinks I am allowing a commentator to announce, Mrs xxxxxxxxx riding Hairy Mary, they can think again.

So if anyone can think of a nice name for a dark liver chestnut maxi cob mare, ideally with an Irish twist please let me have your ideas.
 
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