Naming a Canadian Horse

Horse Name

What's in a name

You can tell a lot about a Canadian Horse just from its name. Each name contains three parts which must be included in the following order - the herd name, the sire's name and the horse's given name.

The Herd Name

Canadian Horse breeders register a herd name with the Canadian Horse Breeders Association to use when naming all foals born to mares they own or lease. This herd name must be unique as it identifies your breeding program from all other breeders of Canadian horses. This herd name may be your farm name, your last name or any unique name that has not already been registered. This name can also be a compound name.

The same herd name in two horse’s name does not necessarily mean that both horses are related to each other, for example: “Maple Lane Thomy Ellie” and “Maple Lane Duc Athena” are not related at all, but “Maple Lane” (herd name) means that both mares were owned or leased by the same individual/farm at the time they were bred.

The Common Sire’s Name

The sire's name is the second portion of the horse’s full registered name. For example: “Maple Lane Rebel Windsor” and “Maple Lane Rebel Sally Ann” were both sired by the same stallion “Maple Lane Duc Midnite Rebel”.

The Horse’s Given Name

The horses given name forms the last part of its full registered name. For example: “Maple Lane Thunder Boy Legacy” where “Legacy” is the given name.

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Assignment of Letters

A different letter of the alphabet is assigned to each year and foal's name must start with the assigned letter of the year the foal is born. For example, the letter 'S' was assigned for 2006, the letter 'T' for 2007 and the letter 'U' for 2008.

The next letter in the alphabet is used the following year. There are some letters that are not assigned, they are: I, O, Q and V. These unassigned letters were thought to cause confusion with other existing alphabetical letters when tattooing a horse. Tattooing is rarely used these days and has been replaced with microchip technology.

This naming procedure has been enforced in recent years, but that has not always been the case. Many older horses do not have names beginning with the letter assigned to the year of their birth.

Conditions and Restrictions

At the time of registration the herd name must be the one of the owner or leaser of the mare at the time the breeding took place.

All stallion’s given name must be unique. This is to ensure that when looking at a horses name there will be no confusion on who sired the horse in question. Multiple geldings and /or mares can have the same given name as long as the combination of herd name and stallion name is different for every identical given name. This is possible as their names are not used in future genealogical reference to any offspring.

Once the year letter comes around again and an owner wishes to register a stallion with a given name that has already been used, said name must be followed by a 2nd, 3rd, etc…

The subject must be: for a stallion, the only one registered with said name and for a mare or gelding, the only one registered with said complete name.

There is also a length limitation for the full registered name of a horse. It cannot exceed 30 characters including spaces. Care must be taken not to choose too lengthy a herd or stallion name given the 30 character limit which includes the alloted number of available characters for the new given name of a foal.  

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Future Letter Assignments

Year	Letter
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013	U W X Y Z A