Unlucky Horse
Logic puzzles require you to think. You will have to be logical in your reasoning.
Seven horses in a farm in Kentucky,
Of three blacks, the oldest is a daddy;
Of two browns, the 3 year old male is called BILLY,
And the horse SNOWY is white as a lily.
Of two half-sister mares, the black won in the Derby,
She's a shade lighter than her daughter, BEAUTY;
BEAUTY and her cousin LUCKY, both half the age of their auntie,
But faster than either ROCKY or SUNNY.
Three of the horses are ready for the Derby,
A horse must be three years to be an entry;
Maybe this year the farm gets lucky,
Their stallion's loss last year was a pity.
CHALLENGE: Describe the horse that lost in last year's Derby.
HintFor purposes of this riddle the following terms are defined as:
Mare- female horse
Stallion- mature male horse
Derby- a race for three year old horses.
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Answer
SNOWY, a 4 year old male white horse lost last year.
The Derby is for three year old horses. Therefore only a current four year old horse could have lost last year.
SNOWY is the only horse which could have been three last year (four this year).
The farm is preparing three of the seven horses for this years Derby. There must therefore be at least three 3-year old horses among the seven. BILLY is 3-years old. Necessarily, BEAUTY and her cousin LUCKY must be 3 years old both. (They are of the same age).
Beauty's mom could not be three because she won in the Derby before. The oldest black is even older than BEAUTY's mom.
BEAUTY's aunt could not be three. If she were, then SNOWY must also be three to complete the three entries this year. This would mean that no horse would be four years old as BEAUTY and LUCKY would be one and a half years old. BEAUTY's mom won in the DERBY as a three year old, she could not win and lose at the same time. (The riddle suggests that the farm did not win last year so the mom must be over 5 years old).
In sum, if BILLY, BEAUTY, and LUCKY are three years old, their aunt must be six. BEAUTY's mom must be five or more. The oldest black must be older than the black mom. Only SNOWY could be four this year.
SNOWY is white (given), 4 years as deduced, and male from the fact that it was a stallion which lost last year.
The names of BEAUTY's mom and aunt and that of the oldest black are immaterial. The same is true with the color of lucky.
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Comments
od-1   
Mar 06, 2003
| WOW THAT WAS TOUGH.I'M GLAD YOU DIDN'T ASK WHO'S ON FIRST. |
ninjaxdream
Mar 06, 2003
| Good one, don't even have a clue |
icehaven
Apr 05, 2003
| Confusing. I was completely STUMPED!! |
inudbz 
Apr 14, 2003
| didnt get the answer |
griphook
Apr 23, 2003
| Thanks. |
nickadeemus
Jul 19, 2003
| i took a wild guess and got it right, mwahaha |
kellymu
Oct 27, 2003
| Why couldn't Rocky or Sunny be four this year and male and lost the Derby last year?  We know very little about them. |
griphook
Apr 15, 2004
| got to love horses. they are really smart  |
I_am_the_Omega 
Jul 13, 2004
| The "three year old" requirement was very ambiguous. I thought you meant [i]at least[/i] 3. After I saw the answer, it was incredibly easy to go back and actually prove it was true. So, you should've been more clear. |
scramble
Sep 27, 2004
| grip requests to know the reason for the correction. Was the original erroneous in anyway? |
miyukina
Dec 21, 2005
| reminded me why my 2rd grade maths teacher pushed us on "=, < and >" equation marks... |
(user deleted)
Feb 15, 2006
| Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but to arrive at the answer given, you have to make the assumption (not stated in the problem) that SNOWY is not the Aunt. Is that correct? |
griphook
Feb 18, 2006
| not really... pm me if you need more explanation |
(user deleted)
Aug 31, 2006
| I agree with the comment above....not enough info on Rocky or Sunny, why couldn't it have been one of these horses? |
griphook
Nov 26, 2006
| For as long as it works |
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