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Lip Tattoo Reading

Purchasing an ottb from someone who has no long-term history. Horse is a gelding, 16 hh, all black/dark,darkbrwn, no markings anywhere. Told he is a 2014 model which would make the first letter an R. If anyone has an eye for this please assist. I can get better pics after he arrives. Thanks in advance.

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Well, I’m not the greatest at reading them, but I gave it a shot. I can see R1 pretty clear but that doesn’t narrow things down much. So then I played with R1_ _ 2 (6, 8 or 0) at the end. Also R 15_ _ 6/8/0 and R16_ _6/8/0 and probably a few other combos I can’t remember now and wrote down anything that the numbers looked close. I could be way off, but here’s what made the write-down list. I’m curious to see what others read and/or what another pic of his tat looks like.

R12418 Greeley and Ben
R16126 Sand Harbor double diagonal cowlick atop eye level, right one higher
R15128 Absolutely Stylish median cowlick at eye level.
R18725 Wynn Time Double horizontal cowlick above eye level.

Why can’t the ones with wonky tats have at least one distinct marking? :rofl:

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Impressive. Thank goodness Standardbreds until recently had freezebrands, which for the most part, are much easier to read! I could have sworn that first letter was a K or an N, hence why I rarely respond to posts like this. :laughing: :rofl:

Good luck to Superman2022 with figuring out the history on your new horse.

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I see an N at first, too, but since that would be 4 years off on a horse (presumedly) that young, I looked harder. I think the top of the R is higher on the lip than you’d expect and fuzzy. I also did a little editing of the photo on my phone to try to make things clearer (or muddier). I could also be entirely wrong on all of it! :rofl:

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Greeley and Ben is still racing, so that’s at least one off the list! I don’t know why I know that, for some reason he’s always stuck out to me.

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No idea on the tattoo, but congratulations on the new horse!

May we please get pics of his whole body when he arrives, too? We loff new horses!

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Okey dokey! I didn’t look up anything past tattoos, so didn’t catch that.

The beginning is almost certainly R162, and the next thing looks to be very possibly an 8. I think the first two here are the best possibilities, although Datcatsa Gem is listed as just bay and not dark bay.

Datcatsa Gem R16284 No white markings. Median cowlick at eye level. (Raced on west coast)
Strong Spirit R16235 No white markings. Cowlick slightly to right at top of eye level. (This horse was foaled in NM and unraced)
Old Bailey R16245 No white markings. Median cowlick at top of eye level. (Appears to have raced in Japan so highly unlikely it’s him)
Radiant Rockstar R16250 No white markings. Median cowlick at eye level. (Raced on west coast)
War Ambassador R16262 No white markings. Cowlick slightly to left at top of eye level. (Raced in Indiana)
Hunca Rock R16271 No white markings. Cowlick slightly to left at top of eye level. (Raced in MD and apparently was at New Vocations in 2020: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=510055899675684 also pictured last in this article: https://eventingnation.com/weekly-ottb-wishlist-from-cosequin-times-are-tough-for-ottbs/)

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I just want to say, as someone who is no help in these situations, that I totally love these threads. Some of you are so good at getting something out of what looks like a blur to me and figuring out who these horses are. It is impressive and always makes me smile.

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I’m dumbfounded how many plain bay TB geldings were born in 2014!

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Yeah, that didn’t help!

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