It’s a conformation issue in this case 
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When I showed the state circuit as a teenager, an ex-friend of mine bought a dapple gray grade horse, no white markings, and had him registered Pinto just so she could show against me in the Paint/Pinto classes.
Some judges literally walked up to her in the line-up and said, “I didn’t pin you because this horse doesn’t belong in this class.”
Meanwhile, my very clearly chestnut and white Pinto mare was cleaning up. I don’t think there was a single year she didn’t beat that gelding in the year-end awards for breed classes. I really miss that mare. She’s buried in my pasture, in fact.
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I remembered this random factoid yesterday and started wondering if it was something unique to this particular trainer or if it’s common or even possibly the norm….
I was a barn rat in my teens, at one specific trainer-owned H/J barn. I lessoned there and eventually became enough of a fixture that I was trusted to hack some of the horses on days the owners couldn’t make it out. I also became somewhat in demand as a groom; my weekends were usually booked, lol.
Anyway, whenever a client got a new horse that didn’t have a show name, the trainer supplied the name. Not the owner - one of my school friends got a new four year old filly and had a list of names she liked. The trainer named the horse something else entirely; it was a nice name so owner didn’t complain. But other juniors were not so happy with the trainer’s choice - one girl’s OTTB got a football related name she didn’t even get, since she didn’t follow football. AFAIK it was just the pony kids and junior riders who got assigned names.
If the horse was already showing under another name it wasn’t changed…except once, and it cost another friend a year end local association championship because the proper procedure wasn’t followed and the points accumulated up until that discovery didn’t count.
Maybe I’m weird, but I always felt like naming rights should belong to the owner. I can see letting the trainer have some input to prevent a client picking a rude name that’s going to be associated with that barn.
Is that level of control normal?
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Naming rights belong to the breeder. It is a slap in the face of the breeder to change a horse’s name just so the new owner can live out her horsey fantasy.
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This was in the early-mid 80s; some of the horses were purpose bred TBs but there were a few OTTBs too. Some came from a dealer who trainer did a lot of business with. Warmbloods hadn’t yet become a thing in the h/j scene. This barn did a lot on the local circuit with maybe 6-7 rated shows every year.
My friend with the 4yo TB bought from a breeder in MD, but I don’t believe they wanted to maintain naming rights. Horse was not Jockey Club registered.
And really - how many hunters are on record as “unrecorded breeding”? Someone is naming them when they come stateside and it’s probably not the breeder.
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About names. There’s a certain high end strata of registered horses whose names commemorate their farms (Thistle Acres Farm Wild Hot Rocket), or denote their bloodlines (Smart Little Leo Dunnit Again) or race horse puns. Also warmbloods with initial letters for year or lineage. In these cases, if the horse was competing in what he was purpose bred for, there can be a courtesy or even a requirement that his registered name is used.
But no race horse breeder cares that his 15 year old gelding is competing in some kiddie’s cross rails class as Pookie Snickerdoodle, no reiner trainer cares that his retired futurity horse is competing in any English pursuit as Bob.
And most horses don’t come with a “meaningful” name, some breeders leave it up to the buyer to even register
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Total bs.
Sorry you decided to sidetrack this thread into a controversy / dispute.
If the breeder wants the horse to keep the name, then keep the horse.
If I bought the horse, I’m paying the upkeep on the horse, I’m showing the horse – it’s my horse. I name my horse.
If the breeder is nice about it I can happily cooperate and make sure the breeder gets their recognition in the initials. Can help go through some procedure for getting a name change recognized, but not pay for it.
Anyone who sells the horse, 100% sells the horse, including the right to the name.
I’ve changed all of my horse’s names. No one communicated with me about it, no one expressed that they cared.
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You’re correct on the bolded part.
The trainer’s students who buy a new horse can be casually informed that if they don’t get involved promptly, before show entries are filled out, the trainer may put in a name they don’t want. With a smile and a laugh, just so that they are informed, since it doesn’t seem that this trainer is asking their client.
There is no obligation for any client to bend the knee to the trainer. It is beyond time this went out of style with the abuse trainers used to heap on their paying clients.
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I actually prefer breeders that have a prefix or suffix, as a lot of names breeders come up with are just bad (and who can blame them when you have to come up with 10 names that start with the same letter every year?!). I’m happy to keep a pre/suffix and the first letter if it’s in accordance with breed convention, but I like all of my names (horses and dogs!) to have a theme.
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The person who owns the horse has the final say in what’s registered with USEF. IMO, if there’s a breeder prefix/suffix, that should be honored, but the name belongs to the owner. Folks who buy horses with History generally keep the show name if the record’s good.
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I like my TBs to keep their JC names but Lordy some of them are bad 
. I think it is good to keep the registered name (whatever it may be) on record, even if the horse is shown as something else. This way someone can look the horse up on USEF and see where it is, and it keeps some traceability.
I’m not letting a kid ride a horse named “A Few Good Men” or “Promiscuous”… and the political names I see coming off the track have to go ASAP too 
.
At the end of the day, the horse belongs to the owner, and they’re allowed to name it whatever. Keeping a suffix or prefix is courteous, but changing the name is by no means a “slap in the face” to the breeder. Changing the recorded breeding though… that’s sketchy to me.
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I should caveat with the fact that I buy all of mine as unstarted, so there’s no show record before I change the name.
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I’m sorry, but if my trainer tried to choose my horse’s show name for me, that would be their absolute last action as my trainer.
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Also, given the prejudice against OTTBs in some disciplines, I can definitely see changing the show name. If you have a gorgeous, big, slow-going TB that gets those “looks like a warmblood” comments (which I know drives TB-lovers crazy), I don’t think it’s a slap in the face to not stick with the show name of HenrysBlazinCannonfire or whatever.
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Also some of us don’t want to spend the rest of our horse’s natural life explaining their crackpot JC name. 
My OTTB’s JC name includes the word ‘caboose’. No wonder he never won a race. 
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Agree! Same for the QH names, though that may get me roasted. Plenty of appendixes and straight QHs that do just fine in USHJA hunters, but Zips Docs Chips Bar None can create some bias 
. Or just… don’t fit the hunter vibe. Especially when the trend is to one word names in the hunters.
I’ll likely keep my Speightstown’s JC, but thought about using “Appealing” if he turns into a nice hunter (his dam line has Appealing Skier). He seems to want to event, though, in which case his JC will fit just fine.
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I really like “Appealing”! @fivestrideline
LOL!!! @OverandOnward --“Caboose” is definitely high on the list of “unintentional self-fulfilling prophesies”
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My OTTB’s (long gone) JC name was Biter’s Choice… he was a biter. It got changed to Crackerjack for the hunter ring. Biter’s Choice is just a weird name that makes no sense!
My now happily retired hunter’s registered name is Chaos. I was not entering the hunter ring on a Chaos.
My current hunter’s name is his registered name from the breeder. Not one I’d choose but not really terrible- I couldn’t be bothered to change it.
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I did change my ottb’s name. There was no way I was showing on a horse named Satanic Flush!! Just.not.doing.it!!
Out of Miss Fourflusher by Crimson Satan…
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I knew a Chaos, but that was his barn name. Show name was Mischief Maker.
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