If a horse has a tattoo but did not race, does that mean it went into training but just never made it to the races? If a horse is not tattooed, does this mean it never went into training even at the farm?
OK here’s the break down…
A horse can’t run without a tattoo.
Horses can train and even get their gate cards before they have a tattoo.
Not having a tattoo doesn’t indicate that they didn’t train, only that they didn’t make it to a race.
~Emily
Thanks!
Can a tattoo be removed? A horse on another thread, who I once owned but who fell into a terrible situation but has now been rescued, seems to have “lost” his tattoo…
About the only way to remove a tattoo is to cut it out:( They do fade pretty badly over time, but you can usually see some remnance of it.
BTW, a horse can race without a tattoo, but it’s under very rare circumstances.
Adding to Bacchus’s correction, a horse may start once (race once) without a tattoo in most jurisdictions.
I’ve seen older lips that mottled so much that a tattoo is lost in the lip, but it is still there. I imagine even an attempt to cut out a tattoo (which may not work since the ink is into the skin) would show a scar. Some tattoos may be corrected, but not actually “erased”.
