Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

Binky-Answer896 t1_j2gkfs0 wrote

Yes. If by some unlucky chance, a mare foals on Dec 31 or earlier, there’s a lot of scrambling to keep it under wraps for a day. Otherwise, for racing purposes, the foal becomes a yearling when it’s one day old.

This is an extremely rare occurrence except for the occasional premie though. Mares are bred to foal Feb - May in the Northern hemisphere, with occasional outliers in Jan or June. Horses foaled in May or June are usually not physically mature enough to race as two-year-olds, obviously, so you try for Feb and March foals.

130

Asha_Brea t1_j2g5oae wrote

Humans that have throroughbread horses celebrate their horses birthday on January 1st.

I would be pretty surprised if horses understood the concept of time to celebrate birthdays, and even then, have a calendar that matchs the ones human use.

90

zirfeld t1_j2hd2jd wrote

"So Secretariat, shall we meet again on January 7th?"

"I don't know, what's a January?"

"Let's just say a week from now."

"Cool. What's a week?"

"It's when the sun goes down and comes up again 7 times."

"Got it. I can only count to three though."

"I'll just swing by when I feel like it."

"Sounds good."

10

Binky-Answer896 t1_j2ij5hk wrote

Secretariat was a March 30 foal. Still considered an auspicious date for foaling.

2

zirfeld t1_j2iwj57 wrote

It's not the real Secretariat. The horse parents just named their boy after a hero of their childhood, just as humans do.

And neither hat any idea of calenders. They noted down the birthday as "the day that started with rain and then it cleared up and became quite warm and then the nice lady with carrots came along".

4

ChangeSalty2225 t1_j2j8lkb wrote

It’s for race conditions. There are races confined to specific ages of horse.

1

bleunt t1_j2g8xo4 wrote

TIL horses are Steam users.

14

TheCloudFestival t1_j2g6ejx wrote

Racehorses and the monarch of Britain have two birthdays per year.

I'll let you fill in the gaps.

6

Col_Sm1tty t1_j2g7qh7 wrote

Is that the gap between my ears then? I've never heard of any of this drivel previously....

11

Chris_TO79 t1_j2g6sun wrote

Does that mean the ones from the southern hemisphere celebrate theirs on NYE? J/K

2

WinoWithAKnife t1_j2gddye wrote

I believe they are recorded as July August 1st

4

bree78911 t1_j2gw8o4 wrote

I think it is August 1st? My mum used to always say on August 1 that it was the horses birthday. She was probably wrong lol I've thought this my entire life

Edit Nope it's definitely August 1 in Australia.

8

opiate_lifer t1_j2gkaq3 wrote

I was gonna say pretty sure horses don't even understand the concept of a birthday.

2

DavoTB t1_j2h6qg9 wrote

Right. Most horses probably don’t appreciate gifts or cakes with candles either.

1

Parmenion87 t1_j2i8eir wrote

Back when I worked as a path assistant I wondered why so many patients had birthdays that were the 1st of Jan. I realised that orphans with unknown dates of birth are assigned the 1st of Jan as birthdays (at least in Australia). Not sure if it's still the practice, but certainly used to be.

2

ravs1973 t1_j2g81tn wrote

If anyone is ever doing the tourist thing in Ireland I can highly recommend a visit to the national stud and Japanese Gardens in Kildare. This is one of the the more savoury things you learn during a great day out.

1