I understand the concept, but my point was that the actual birthdate is the most clear answer.
Age qualification is pretty well understood, even in human sports. It’s not the same as the birthdate though, so it shouldn’t really be used to define age.
I find it gets confusing because many people don’t actually know the birthdate of their horse.
So you’ve got one group using Jan 1, and another group going by the actual date of birth.
For example. I have a mare who is 3, she’ll turn 4 on May 17th. If she was for sale I would absolutely want to clarify that she’s “three turning/coming/rising four, born in 2017”. I wouldn’t want anyone thinking that she was a year younger and already wtc and popping over small jumps.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that age qualification is well understood either. I see questions every year from parents trying to figure out if their kid is A, B, or C eq.
I totally agree with you, the horse is the age the horse is, full stop. But the racing world is so, so strong in the history of horses, that it still permeates how people think/talk about horses today.
The idea that a horse is same age as the ENTIRE year cohort, rather than the day is just one more “old fashioned” practice that is still meandering about with not much value except to a subset of horse people.
It’s not just racehorses. All registries I’m familiar with consider all horses a year older on January 1st for show purposes where there are classes split by the horse’s age. It would get rather awkward tracking things if a horse shows in one age group for the first part of the year and switches part way through, especially for year end awards. 
For my horses I don’t have actual birthdays for, I always assume it’s sometime in the spring, maybe March - May. I’ll say “She’ll be 12 this spring” at this time of year. I currently have two unknown/assumed spring, one born April 24, 1994, and one rescue born sometime in December-ish (rescued at 6 months, and teeth were right on schedule with that strange birth date).
LOL fair enough. Not everyone gets it. I participate in a sport that has age groups. I understand that my competitors may or may not be the same age as the age group, because it defines everyone as of one specific date per year so that you compete in the same AG all season long…which I assume is the same for kids’ eq competition, otherwise they would qualify in two different divisions which wouldn’t make sense.
The age thing has driven me a bit mad in my search for a young horse this month. I went to see a “three-year old” and a “four-year old,” only to realise when I got to the barn that the three-year old was really two, and the four-year old was really three. Eventually, I gave up on the idea of buying a 3-rising-4 year old that was unbacked, because no one seems to sell those, and resigned myself to buying something that was 2 now and would turn 3 this year. Called a couple breeders and they described some awesome-sounding 2-year olds, but when I asked about the horses’ actual birthday, they were sping 2019. So you mean it’s a yearling? Right.
There’s not a great deal of difference in a horse who’s 10 turning 11, verses one who’s 11 turning 12, but there’s a world of difference between a yearling who’s rising 2, and a 2-year old who’s rising 3.
I think in a situation like yours (where you want a very specific thing) you need to ask for clarification on the age before asking anything else.
Yeah, I wised up to that pretty quick. The mare I am hopefully buying had her birth date on the breeder’s website, so I knew exactly how old she was before I even emailed the breeder.
It’s kind of a silly term to use with an aged horse. But I get it. I use “coming x” on all of my horses this time of the year. I have no idea off of the top of my head when any of their birthdays are without looking at their papers. All of mine show in the age classes, so in the spring in particular, I will often say “this is my coming-4yo” to mean that she’s not yet 4 even though she shows as a 4yo. There’s a world of difference between the ages from maybe 2-5. And really, I guess I even get it when they are older. To me it’s just a sign of someone trying very hard to convey an age accurately and is a shorter way of saying, “he’s still 10, but just about to turn 11.” I guess I do that with my kids too. My daughter just turned 13 and for the last month or so before her birthday I would tell people she was “turning 13,” because that seemed to more accurately convey where she is than just “12”…
These clarifications can be quite useful, although they seem silly. Several years ago I adopted a dog in April. The ad said the dog was two years old and his birthday is in June. I took that to mean the dog was about to turn 3, and therefore probably safely out of the chewing stage. After I got him and reviewed the paperwork, I realized he was about to turn 2. He was still full of silly puppy behaviour. A year can make a big difference at some stages of life. The puppy is now 9 years old and a sweet boy but I would not have gotten him if I knew he was still in puppy phase - it was a bit of a nightmare.
I mean, this is exactly why you use the term.
A horse born Spring 2019 is absolutely a 2 year old. If you want to stress that physically, he does not actually reach 2 years until April, then you say “rising 2 year old” these early months of the year.
I think it’s only really used in advertising anyway. I’ll use “rising” for youngsters and “coming” for seniors if I want to admit that Yes, okay, it’s older, but it’s not technically 15 yet 
If I saw this in an ad I would say the horse is currently 10 years old but not for long.
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