Horse Naming Protocol

[Briney Deep]

I'm not naming names because that's not the point of this thread. If an admin or moderator asks, then I'll give them the link to the ranch in question. Otherwise, I'm not naming names, I just want an answer from the rest of the community. I've even added an opinion poll.

I've been doing nothing but running events to raise money for my horses, so during one of these events I noticed one of the horses had the "MK" (Misty Knoll) ranch brand in its name. I thought "Oh, cool, my friend Misty Knoll is joining in on my.... wait a minute!"

The horse was named "MK", so the owner claims, because it has an MK dye color. I checked the rest of his/her ranch horses and saw that there was not one but two of these horses with "MK" in their name. So I messaged them to ask about it via private message.

They claim " Names of horses are your own business. There isn't a rule on what you name your horses." I personally think it's dishonest (if you sell it) and misleading to name a horse with a ranch brand prefix when the horses were not foaled at "MK".

What are your opinions on this?

[freedom_seeker]

I think it's dishonest. And severely frowned upon. Someone even tried to claim that they were Misty once. This has been talked about before and Misty knows that there are imposter Misty's.

[Sick]

...this is why I never put my "brand" (WnW and AoN, depending on the ranch the foal was born at) in a horse's name unless I bred the horse for someone else and they SPECIFICALLY REQUEST it. Otherwise I rely only on the Shield thingy that links to my ranch.

People can fake a brand in a horse's name, but they can't fake that dern link.

That said, while it is VERY dishonourable to do that (put someone else's brand in their horse's name) there isn't any specific rule that I can think of against it in the game...correct me if I'm wrong here, people.

[Quinnley]

I like having my brand on horses that I bred from my bloodlines. Horses that I buy I will often brand with mine because they become part of my bloodlines and it helps me keep track of them.
I prefer selling branded/names horses if I like the way the foal turned out. It annoys me when people try to claim they bred the horses, even though my shield brand is on it.

[Missing]

I think it is downright dirty to name your horse with someone else's brand, especially if you know it is theirs. >.> Just my one and a half cents.

[MistyKnoll]

grrr...

In the last two years I have had sooo much trouble with people naming their horses with MK just so that they'd get noticed. It is dishonest and lazy to try and gain from other people's hard work. And that is what I think you do by naming your horses with someone else's brand name. Some people do it by accident, that's different.. but if you KNOW someone else has the same brand, don't use it.. duh!

[Briney Deep]

Her response...

The way you worded the poll of course no one would say yes.. LOL I am not naming my horses after the MK brand..they are all branded with my brand..and it is for color purposes only. So unless the ADMINISTRATION says I can't name my horses that it really doesn't matter does it. it is for their COLOR..I do not sell them.

Do you all think I has misworded this in any way? I've posted exactly what she told me. And I stated to her it's misleading to name your horse with "MK" soley because of its color.

Her original response to my asking was "That helps me know their Color.. it is a rare color and do not want to make a mistake in breeding or selling"

If I know this correctly ranch prefixes are not for color but to signify where the mare/stallion was foaled. Are there variations on this that I'm not aware of?

[Sick]

Working backwards because my brain says so. I haven't slept in a while, can you tell?

If I know this correctly ranch prefixes are not for color but to signify where the mare/stallion was foaled. Are there variations on this that I'm not aware of?

...actually, yes. I for one, as I said, do NOT like putting my "ranch brand" in the horse's name unless someone is buying or recieving the horse and would like me to do so, on a horse I have bred for them or something. THEN it's cool.

I also use a variant of brands with my Welshies. They're pure to foundation. I like to designate them as such by putting |têr| in their names, like a "brand." That way if I am scrolling my horses, and I see...say...|têr| Cymylog, I know she is pure to foundation.

I have known people who used their ranch brands thusly...if the horse was bred on their ranch, the name would be...say...*BRAND* John Doe...but if the horse was BOUGHT and was unnamed, they would name him John Doe *BRAND*.

Lots of people use "brands" in different ways...to denote bloodline, colour, breeding or whatever the heck.

However knowingly copying someone else's brand just to know the horse's colour is pretty shady and very dishonourable.

Her original response to my asking was "That helps me know their Color.. it is a rare color and do not want to make a mistake in breeding or selling"

....uhhh, then spend three extra seconds making up a "colour denoting prefix/suffix" instead of copying someone else's. Like my |têr| "brand"...I'd be VERY peeved if someone was using it, exactly like that, and using it in a different way than I am.

Do you all think I has misworded this in any way? I've posted exactly what she told me. And I stated to her it's misleading to name your horse with "MK" soley because of its color.

No, it's pretty clear, pretty cut and dried. It also seems like the MK-colour-person is not the LEAST bit concerned with how them using MistyKnoll's brand makes other people feel. That speaks volumes to me.

The way you worded the poll of course no one would say yes..

...I'd honestly like to know how THEY would have worded it to get more "no" responces. Seriously.

LOL I am not naming my horses after the MK brand..they are all branded with my brand..and it is for color purposes only.

I must ask...are these MK-branded-but-not-MistyKnoll horses RELATED to MistyKnoll's horses? I'm...a little unclear here.

So unless the ADMINISTRATION says I can't name my horses that it really doesn't matter does it.

...well yeah that is in fact the long and short of it, right there.

[Alana]

I know one cant claim name brands as their own, but people who purposly use other well known brands and try and pass their horses off as being from the well known ranch really gets me in the mood to pummel someone hard...
I would really get upset is someone copyed my name brand, its just plan dishonest

[Lord Kerne]

With a game this huge and no way to search to see if someone else is ugina particular prefix, mistakes are bound to happen, especially when using normal characters. For instance, if using a brand that consists of two capital Roman letters, there are only 676 possible combinations...compared to hundreds of thousands of ranches on the game.

That said, if someone knows for a fact that someone else uses that affix, it's just basic courtesy to use something else.

Sick's got a good point with the link-brand, but there are two issues with that. First off, novices don't get one [unless I'm very mistaken]; and two, the characters that we can use in the link-brand are VERY limited. I was quite disappointed to discover I had to settle for G¤N rather than my lovely Ģ¤Ŋ.

[shannor]

You're right, novices don't get that shield brand.

[Aryn_Vernier]

They can still put a prefix before the horse name. That's what I did when I first started (back when my brand was †AV).

[MistyKnoll]

I would like to point something out... but I don't want anyone to think that I am trying to be self promoting in any way and I don't want anyone to think that I am completely full of myself.. but I guess that's the risk I have to take... in any case...

I want to point out that even though I do know that there is no rule against having the same ranch brand as someone else.. SOME ranches have been around longer and are more well-known.. and because of that, using their ranch brand on your own horses is just ridiculous. While its agitating for anyone to find that someone else has the same ranch brand as them.. just as its agitating to find out that someone has the same anything as yourself... using a ranch brand of a well-known ranch is misleading and ends up agitating more people than just the ranch owner. It causes problems other than just irritating the original owner of the ranch brand.

For example.. we've had a few cases people naming there horses MK just so that people would buy them... and there were a few people who actually bought the horses souly because they did indeed think that they were MK-bred. Another example was of a situation a few months ago that happened... someone actually named their ranch with the initials MK and thus got business like people making them a layout and people buying their horses and other such things BECAUSE those people THOUGHT they were dealing with me.

I have been a member of VHR for four years now and my bloodline is fairly well known in some groups... thus using my ranch brand instead of trying to come up with someone more original causes more problems than just ticking me off. And MK is not that original... its pretty easy to do something else.



I have MK as well as MK (P) and MK (F) because those are for pure horses and foundation horses.

[Sick]

MistyKnoll? Perhapse issue statements on your ranch that you are YOU, that the letters in a horse's name mean SQUAT, obey only the MK on the ranch brand shield thing.

Just a suggestion.

[MistyKnoll]

that doesn't fix the problem, I'm just saying.