Sorry if this has been answered before, or it is a silly question. 
I have noticed that a lot of horses coming from larger ‘companies’ have the initials of the barn name in front of their name. For instance, if the barn name is Rainbow Unicorn Farm and the horses name is Rainbow Unicorn, then the horses name is changed to RUF Rainbow Unicorn. At first I thought this was just how farms were naming their foals now, but then I realized that some adult horses that were being imported were being ‘renamed’ with the american farm they were imported through in front of their names. So what is going on? What are the rules with ‘renaming’ horses? Why do it?
It has to do with horse registries. You often cannot use the same name twice, so adding the letters makes it a different name. In your example, if there is already a Rainbow Unicorn in the registry, adding RUF Rainbow Unicorn constitutes a different name and, therefore, can be used. It is also good advertising! 
[QUOTE=StormyDay;8236816]
Sorry if this has been answered before, or it is a silly question. 
I have noticed that a lot of horses coming from larger ‘companies’ have the initials of the barn name in front of their name. For instance, if the barn name is Rainbow Unicorn Farm and the horses name is Rainbow Unicorn, then the horses name is changed to RUF Rainbow Unicorn. At first I thought this was just how farms were naming their foals now, but then I realized that some adult horses that were being imported were being ‘renamed’ with the american farm they were imported through in front of their names. So what is going on? What are the rules with ‘renaming’ horses? Why do it?[/QUOTE]
The rule is, there are no rules in regards to renaming horses. Didi is specifically talking about naming horses for registration, but that rule only applies when initially registering a horse.
I think what you are specifically talking about is when, for example, a horse is brought over from Europe with one name and then it is either changed in North America…or something is added to the name. A lot of times, it has to do with promotion, sponsorship and just plain advertising.
It’s just branding and marketing, the same way we have GLOCK’s Voice and Taylormade Temptation, and used to have the Eurocommerce horses. I’m sure there are plenty of other examples. Those entities tack their name onto every horse under their ownership/program, and so does the occasional farm in the US.
If it’s a suffix instead of prefix, that usually indicates who bred the horse.
Okay, thanks for the answer. I am not as familiar with warmblood registries, having dealt mainly with grown up warmbloods.
