I changed one’s name a few years back. Horse went from packer to trying to kill me four months later. I will not be changing names in the future if it is all avoidable.
A woman where I used to live acquired an OTTB and changed his name to In The Nude- as in “On course for their first trip is Ammy A riding In The Nude!”
I love a clever name. My horse’s dam was Tellmewhatyouknow and her barn name was Whisper. Her sire was Clever Secret. Get it? My mare’s sire was Inyureye and her name was Here’s Suds (Here’s suds in your eye, get it?) even though Here’s Suds, or Suds, was a goofy name. I just passed my eye over the name of a horse on the internet called Any Cat in a Storm. Great name! Gues what his breeding is.
And, I have always loved the name Whirlaway. OP, I would have a really hard time not using your horse’s JC name, Tapaway. Especially if it spoke to his breeding.
I am also superstitious and never change a name, although they may end up with some goofy nickname after awhile. I actually think your horse has a lovely name and there is history in it.
Good luck with your new horse!
[QUOTE=LetsGetThis948;8185905]
Thanks everyone!! His name is Tapaway, but I’d love to “rename” him D’Artagnan. The only thing I’m planning with him are low level hunter paces. He had a pretty bad sesamoid fx that will keep him from real showy h/j stuff and dressage doesn’t really appeal to me, so nothing super formal.[/QUOTE]
Good lord, he’s a Tapit (out of the Ikari mare Victory Road.) I’d keep the name that makes that obvious rather than make him the 6,000th horse with some Three Musketeers name. With a good, easy to pronounce name, no less, that makes it really obvious he’s by one of the hottest sires out there.
Barn names, I honestly don’t think the horses care much. Lucky’s I ‘kept’ because, well, the trainer straight-up laughed when I asked what they called him because what ELSE would you call a horse named “Lucky To Cope” as a barn name? But my old horse was registered Bold McKinnon, his race owners called him Bold, we mostly called him Benny like the h/j trainer we got him from did, but also called him Benjamin, Benjamin Bunny, etc. In as much as horses have any idea what you’re calling them he seemed to not care.
[QUOTE=IronwoodFarm;8186009]
I’d say that as a show name, announcers will have a much easier time with Tapaway than D’Artagnan. People are not as well read as you might imagine.[/QUOTE]
Ironwood is right.
Get ready to hear your horse announced as “Dart Tag Nan” :lol:
A friend showed her horse as Sophocles.
Cannot tell you how often that got mangled.
Most notably as “Sop Hockles”
Some JC names I can see changing…but I really like the name Tapaway.
I’ve kept the JC names for both of the OTTBs I’ve owned. Autumn’s Dream, barn name Dreamer (by Louis Quatorze out of Late Sailing) and Bobby D, barn name Bobby (by Deniro out of Shekincharm).
Add me to the list of those who would absolutely keep Tapaway.
Any horse can be (and many are :rolleyes:) named D’Artagnan. Yours is the only Tapaway.
I always change a horse’s name, always. I’ve never actually heard of it being a bad luck omen so have been happily renaming and having fabulous luck with my horses!
You have to use the name and say it and write it and explain it; make it be something you like b/c the horse doesn’t care!
Tapaway is pretty cool though…
Absolutely rename if you want! I always said I was against renaming until I bought a 5 y/o TB with a horrendous JC name. It was his barn name, show name, and JC name. Literally, people would laugh at me when I said it and stare at me when they realized I wasn’t joking. The little girls wanted me to keep it because “but it’s so funny!” Nope.
[QUOTE=hunter51;8187693]
Absolutely rename if you want! I always said I was against renaming until I bought a 5 y/o TB with a horrendous JC name. It was his barn name, show name, and JC name. Literally, people would laugh at me when I said it and stare at me when they realized I wasn’t joking. The little girls wanted me to keep it because “but it’s so funny!” Nope.[/QUOTE]
come on, what was it??
[QUOTE=LetsGetThis948;8185905]
Thanks everyone!! His name is Tapaway, but I’d love to “rename” him D’Artagnan.[/QUOTE]
Be prepared to have his name butchered by every show ring announcer should you ever win a ribbon…
I not only changed my new mare’s barn name from Dora to Stella but I don’t use her registered name of Scotch At Dawn G, I use Starry Night. If I showed her in breed classes I’d have to, and I of course had her papers transferred into my name. But I could not deal with people calling her Dora the Explorer.
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[QUOTE=Dewey;8185585]
I would keep his JC name unless it’s really terrible. Honor his past. Give him a new barn name if you like.[/QUOTE]
This is how I feel too.
Tapaway is a great name - and it is HIS name.
I would keep Tapaway.
I’ve heard at least 2 D’Artagnans at every Hunter show I have ever been to. Tapaway is unique, easy to say, it looks and sounds nice and gives a nod to his history 
That said, your horse, so you should do whatever you like with him, name and otherwise. I just brought home a filly named Pickles, and refused to tell anyone her old name so they couldn’t try to make it stick while I came up with a new one (Sierra).
I always keep the JC names as show names (but I’ve never had a really bad one to deal with), but since all my OTTBs have come sight-unseen straight off the track, I’ve never known what their barn names were.
I just picked what I thought was the most likely derivative of the JC name. (e.g. Cat on the Moon is Cat, Bo’s Typhoon is Bo-Bo.) Chances are, that’s what they were called at the track.
I love the name Tapaway, and I agree, the name D’Artagnan is used WAY too much already, Tapaway is a very unique name. It also showcases his excellent bloodlines!
I change names - I was in the business of “flipping” OTTBs so I just got a registered name and then we’d go from there. My two horses (both chesnut TB mares) have matching barn names - Lilly and Calla. Calla was supposed to be a sales horse, but I gave her a matching name so she of course had to stay.
Calla’s registered name is Candy Maid. It’s not awful, but it’s not great. I sure as heck wasn’t calling her “Candy” as a barn name. No stripper horses here, thank you very much. Her show name is “Hear Me Roar”, an ode to her sire Leroidesanimaux and also to her gender (the old song, “I am woman, hear me roar”). It is also Game of Thrones related, which I love.
Lilly was named Lilly because she was originally going to be a sales horse. Her registered name is Silly Street, which is, if I may say so, awful. Silly rhymed with Lilly and that was that. I met her, fell in love and by that time the name “Lilly” was already stuck in my head. Her show name is Make Believe because she is a princess unicorn pony.
I’ve always had bad luck w horsed I’ve renamed. Won’t to it again tbh. But if you want to, I don’t see why not. I do really like his JC name though.
I’ve never changed a registered name (to much work, and mine aren’t THAT horrible), but I have changed 3 of 5 barn names. No way am I having a pony named Trixie (ha!), or a Morgan called Mr. Pibb (they let the kids name him). The other’s name was Jordan, and I tried for the 5 months before he actually arrived, but it never stuck. So he’s Aries now.
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