Identifying your Standardbred horse

Finding information on your Standardbred horse

Sometimes Standardbreds can be bought from auctions, or maybe you see one in a field and find out that the owner hasn't been doing a lot with the horse and wants to sell it (and doesn't know too much about the horse's history). There are some resources that you can explore to find out more about your Standardbred horse below.

Standardbred tattoos:

There are always five characters in the tattoo (either a letter and four numbers or two letters and three numbers). The first letter indicates the year of birth.

If the first letter is: Then the horse was born in:

A 1982

B 1983

C 1984

D 1985

E 1986

F 1987

G 1988

H 1989

J 1990

K 1991

L 1992

M 1993

N 1994

P 1995

R 1996

S 1997

T 1998

V 1999

W 2000

X 2001

Z 2002

Standardbred horse
tattoo look-up:

The United States Trotting Association
has a tattoo research service.

Ask questions of
the current owner:

- what is known of the horse's history?
- has the horse ever raced?
- are there registration papers?
- age, sire or dam, country of birth, racing name?
- how long has the owner had the horse?
- has the horse been ridden?
- any contact information for previous owners?

Post in our Forum

Sometimes other Standardbred owners
might have information or seen the horse.
You never know!

Standardbred horse