Help Reading A Tattoo? JC has Been Sending Me in Circles

[anon15718925]

Here’s one w/digits 3089 foaled in '02, registered as Cochis, only other one I can find and I’ve checked as far back as '02 and as far up as 2011 taking a broad interpretation of “give or take”

Description: * [Triangular star; thin stripe beginning in center of face, ending on bridge of nose. Median cowlick at top of eye level.](javascript: display (1))*

https://www.registry.jockeyclub.com/registry.cfm?page=tattooIdServicesAction

This one’s probably more of a stretch, lol - foaled in '02 and apparently wound up in Mexico per pedigree query: https://www.pedigreequery.com/cochis

EDIT: markings definitely don’t match at all.

[anon15718925]

@polopony re-read your post and noticed the dark patch - if I’m not totally mistaken that’s somewhat common on chestnut horses, varnish mark or something like that is one term for it. Just a darker-colored spot on their coat.

[Simkie]

I’m curious how you’re seeing 8 as the third number? I agree with you on the 3, and 0 is good for the second number, but the third stamp we can see is really clearly a 9 by my eye? It’s the clearest stamp on the lip. The fourth number could definitely be an 8, we can see the round bottom, so I’ve also looked at 3, 5, 6.

When I search on this horse, I look for “into the left nostril” and white on the top lip. She may even have a small bit of white on the bottom lip. She also has a single cowlick above eye level that is either center or slightly to left.

Anything that says the stripe ends on the bridge of nose is very clearly not her. The cowlick is another good rule out.

[anon15718925]

Honestly the more I look at the tat the less sure I am what it actually reads. Looked like a 3089, but it also looks like the 3 could’ve started life as an 8. I thought it looked like a 3089 my first good look at it in the pic where it looked clearest but yeah. I give up searching the JC site - have to get dinner. I was barely finding anything for 3089 as a partial tat.

I don’t have a log in for the AQHA and not sure what type of tattoo look up they have.

Looking again, the 9 looks pointy like it might be a 4 but I don’t think the JC tattoos have the 4 pointed at the top like that do they?

Edit: Thought the one foaled in '08 might’ve been right until I realized the stripe ended on the wrong side of her face.

[Simkie]

This digit looks like an 8 to you?

I think it’s so interesting how we all view things differently!

[anon15718925]

The one next to it and OMG DUUUUUH on my part I was flipping the 9/4 and the faded thing that might’ve been an 8 (wihch now also looks like a 3.) So sorry!

Looking at the numbers my guesses are:

3098
8098
3048
8048
3093
8093
3043
8043

Edit: Again sorry - my brain just like, flipped the order I had them in when I typed what I thought it looked like and went to start searching.

[Simkie]

Jockey Club tattoos begin with a letter, then a number 0-5, then four additional numbers 0-9. So that first number we can see can’t be an 8 if this is a JC TB and that’s the first number after the letter.

Here are all my guesses. That second number might be a 2 stamped upside down (mistakes happen!) but I can’t get anything to pop there, either.

[anon15718925]

How have I owned an OTTB and just now relearned that oh yeah, JC tats start w/0-5? My brain is dumb today.

My OTTB when I was a teenager had a 4 in his tat but I can’t remember and don’t have any pics to see whether it was pointed or open at the top.

There’s something to the right (left on the horse, right viewing the photo) of the smudgy possible 3/8 next to the 9/4 that looks like a splotch of tattoo ink that might’ve been a number at one point but there’s not enough left to tell what it is.

If the loop of the 9/4 weren’t so clear I’d almost say it looked a bit like a “7” but it pretty obviously isn’t.

[Simkie]

@anon15718925

4 in his tat but I can’t remember and don’t have any pics to see whether it was pointed or open at the top.

4s are open at the top, they don’t connect That 9 is definitely a 9! At least one thing is clear

[Texarkana]

@anon15718925

She looks like a TB to me but I’ve not seen any racing Arabs. If she’s not TB, could she possibly be a QH - I’ve seen racing QHs who don’t look at all like what most picture when they think of a QH. (Worked as barn security on the backside of a TB & QH track a few years back in my mid-20s and saw plenty of both.)

I know very little about QH racing but don’t they race a lot of appendixes, too? That would be a possibility.

https://www.aqha.com/-/horse-identification-methods

https://www.americanappendix.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=395235&module_id=251551

[anon15718925]

Oh good thanks! I’m like, “okay, I know my guy had a 4 but he died in 2013 and I don’t have pics of his tat on hand to confirm what 4 looks like” (my guy had a really clear, easy-to-read tattoo, not sure how considering how some end up looking)

[anon15718925]

Yeah the little I know from looking up pedigrees of horses I’d see when I worked at the track, a lot of racing QHs have a ton of TB blood and/or are appendixes.

There was one QH I remember seeing who practically looked like warmblood. He wasn’t much good at racing (think it was because of the short distances and he was a huge horse with a correspondingly big stride if I remember what I was told right) but he was pretty. Big black horse, probably 17 hands, built like a tank, black with a wide white blaze (probably borderline bald face as it went over one eye for sure what I remember). Last I knew, and this was when I was still working there, he’d been sold to someone as a potential jumper. But I don’t think if anyone just saw him outside of a QH racing barn that their first thought looking at him would’ve been “QH.”

[anon15718925]

My observation as someone who admittedly isn’t an expert at all on racing let alone QH racing which I myself don’t follow is there’s a lot of variation in what racing-bred QHs look like. Some are practically pony height, others look a lot like TBs.

[Simkie]

This isn’t a JC set of stamps but it’s not terribly far off.

Murdoch's – Stone Manufacturing - 3/8" Tattoo Digits 0-9 Number Set

1 is footed and raftered
3 has a flat top
4 is open at the top and the horizontal cross comes over the vertical line but (unlike these stamps) the short vertical is upright, it doesn’t lean back into the digit
6 (unlike these stamps) has a straight vertical line, it does not curl over the “belly”
7 (unlike these stamps) has a straight vertical line, it doesn’t come under the horizontal
8 (slightly different than these stamps) looks like an S with a straight line / connecting the two ends
9 (unlike these stamps) has a straight vertical line, it doesn’t come under the “head”

[halo]

I dont think theres enough digits there for a TB. A QH tattoo is one fewer than a TB, which is what it looks like to me.

[Simkie]

@halo

I dont think theres enough digits there for a TB. A QH tattoo is one fewer than a TB, which is what it looks like to me.

Right. If this is TB, the letter is faded into oblivion. The last digit is also faded into nearly oblivion, so it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.

But sure, she could be QH. They’re a lot less fun to research, because you have to CALL, and the person you get on the phone may or may not be helpful & willing to run through a bunch of possibles… :-/

[Polopony20]

Ahh this is so fun to read. I never considered she could be a QH. Would you guys like a sideveiw full body pic? I could snap one when I go to turn out tonight! I’m planning on getting a JC DNA kit for her, so we’ll see, but until then, feel free to keep guessing lol!

Anyone else think that second number could be a 3 or 0 with a 7 layered over as if it was a correction?

[Simkie]

@Polopony20

Anyone else think that second number could be a 3 or 0 with a 7 layered over as if it was a correction?

Nope, don’t think so… 7s have a straight vertical. Like an upside down “L”.

If you’re taking more pictures, can I please see the heels? I know you said there’s no white but please can I seeit?

[jvanrens]

Why not consider the possibility she’s a QH? They can have attitude and ability too.

[Polopony20]

Ahh, I just got back from getting full body pics I’ll get you heel pics tomorrow lol