Visitors to this website will notice that names are used for some of the horses. But these are not "official" names, and certainly the horses, which are wild animals, don't recognize these names. Names are used only to keep track of who's who for research and monitoring purposes. In the formal database, all the horses have four-digit numbers: the first two digits indicate the year of birth, and the second two digits identify the individual. However, when taking notes in the field, it's much easier to remember names which bring to mind particular characteristics, relationships or circumstances for each individual. For example, chestnut foals with similar face markings born during one year were named after eagles, hawks and falcons; and names such as "Goblin", "Hobgoblin" and "Hobbit" were used for similar-looking members of the same family band.


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Much of the research on the Sable Island horses is based on long-term observations and life histories of individual animals. Although field studies provide information about maternal relationships, paternity must be determined by genetic analysis of tissues collected after individuals die of natural causes. With this accumulated data it will be possible to develop `family trees' for many of the horses.


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