(New picture of Miss Abigail (Abby) with her big baby belly. She is due on the 28th of this month! Still lookin' a little rough in her winter clothes.)
I dont know about you but I LOVE unique horse names! Over the years I've known (or owned) horses with common names like Abby, Ellie, Rocky, Tucker, Trooper, Tonto, Dusty, Rusty, Musty, Blue, Little Blue, Old Blue, New Blue (those "blues" were actually owned by the same person!) Comanche, Cowboy, Sugar, Honey... etc. etc. etc.
As horsemen we're not always the most creative folk when it comes to naming our horses... or children actually... I actually knew a chuck wagon racer who had three kids named Dusty, Colt and Blaze. Seriously.
As horsemen we're not always the most creative folk when it comes to naming our horses... or children actually... I actually knew a chuck wagon racer who had three kids named Dusty, Colt and Blaze. Seriously.
(Look at that belly!)Most of the horse I've owned have come to me with common names. Up until Ellie I was in the habit of changing a horses name to something unique but then some ol'cowboy I knew told me that it was ill luck to change a horses name and so, as I'd had a string of "ill" luck, I figured that when i bought my next horse I'd just stick with what came and just hope and pray I didn't end up with another Tonto... and so Abby stayed "Abby" until Marcy, the wonderful lady who has her on a breeding lease took to calling her Abigail. I fell in love with that name for my sweet little mare and I feel like I snuck by that name change rule as we haven't changed her name so much as expanded upon it:)
In the past I may have gone a little too unique...even my friends couldn't remember the uniquely titled Gala, Shaunti (shawn-tee), Keo (Key-o) or Loachan (Low-can). But over the years I've run into a few horses (and dogs) with unique, fun and creative names that suited the horses well.
(Looks like she could use a day at the spa!) Crayola- a wildly marked paint.
Truck- a 1400 pound Appy on a 15.3HH frame.
Taikya (ta-kie-a)- a beautiful gray half Arab
Tonka- a big buckskin
Jablo- (hab-low) a gorgeous imported Hanoverian
Sparrow- a doe eyed blood bay fresian cross
Grissom- I havent met this hunter/jumper TB yet but I LOVE the name.
Ready- a TB lesson horse I rode as a teen
("I may be a porker but I still have me one fine lookin' ass!")I know I've come across so many more but for some reason they're just not coming to me now.
What are some cool and unique names you've come across or come up with yourself? One you cant wait to use? Or are you scared that someone might "steal" it:) Like that baby name you told your bridesmaid?
I had a foal that fell in the tank when he was born. Luckily, my brother pulled onto the yard about the time it happened & we rescued the little guy. We registered him Maxis Tink Tank, barn name "Tank".
ReplyDeleteWe kind of got stuck in the colors for awhile. We have Blue & Ginger, who we call "Red". We had a pali we called "Yellow Boy" and a black colt we called "Black". Most had real names, but the colors just kind of stuck... Our herd today is Blue, Ginger, Baby, Windy and Butter.
My OTTB raced under the name "Read My Legs" - LOL! Really funny because he never won much. Now he is just known as "Legs" - always takes some explaining. My vet used to write "Leggs" on his coggins and it would piss me off; he's a horse, not pantyhose! Now he does it just to get a rise out of me :o)
ReplyDeleteDoes Shooter qualify? I dunno. I'm sure there other Shooters out there. What with all the 'gun' names becoming vogue since Playgun.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I've ever heard of another Beretta yet.
My brother really got into unusual names there for awhile-Honky Tonk, Hollywood(there is NO 'Hollywood' in her breeding), Roan Dog and Electra??
My mom is very unoriginal-Nod, Bunny and Snip.
Myself, I just like a name that rolls off of the tongue easily. I like it when the name comes out in two syllables when you are calling them. If it doesn't-like Moon's name, I have a tendency to elongate it so it will. LOL
Miss Abigail looks like a very content mother-to-be. Cannot wait to see pics of that baby. WOW!!
hehe Love the horse names! I still think Midori is fairly original. Haven't run across another horse by that name. She came with the name Dora, so Midori wasn't a HUGE change. She's not registered so I can call her anything I want at shows...this year it's Midori with a Twist!
ReplyDeleteBefore her I had a Fancy...definitely not original, but she came with that name. I do like it when I hear a new/original name...though I can't think of any right at the moment. We almost named Sugar Bonzai instead, but figured she was already a little spit fire, we needed a name she could grow into. lol I don't remember what her barn name was before, but it wasn't a good one. Mister came to us as Brushy. Ugh. There is a 16 hand tank of a paint pleasure horse at the arena I ride at that's named Nubby...cracks me up every single time I hear it.
My old rope horse came with the name Roo - the previous owner's kids named him.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for a post! Well, the horses we have now are as follows:
ReplyDeleteWag's Pride - Kadie
Wagtail Ladde - Ladde (pronounced Laddy)
Ahkoonkeneku - ready for this??
(pronounced aah-koon-kee-nee-koo) it's Nez Perce Indian for "the land above" - heaven - we call him Harley
Frosted Siri L - Siri (like cereal)
Affermative Shadow - Shad
used to have a mare named Flexy and my first pony I had when I was 3 - I called him Ringo (beatles fan, I guess)
I knew a buckskin named Tonka too.... I love Crayola for a paint! Your mare looks so big and ready to pop, can't wait to see pics of a foal!
ReplyDeleteA roper I know named his gorgeous QH 'Hooter Girl', I almost died. I love the names Madigan and Finn, but by far my favorite is Jackson my own horse. Lucky that I liked the name enough not to change it. Not sure how I feel about that, it does seem kind of unlucky..... but my friend just bought a horse named Cowboy and changed it to Traveler. I would have changed it too, especially since we ride English! LOL!
ReplyDeleteHaha, some people get very attached to names I guess. At the stables where my husband used to work, they would recycle horse names all the time. If a horse passed away, or was retired, and another one came along that looked like the previous one, they just gave it that name! It got very confusing. (He used to work at a rental/dude stable.) Right now we have a Maria, which is not exactly a "horse" name but fits her perfectly, and a Crow which I've never heard as a horse name before. Crow's registered name is actually "Dirty Chicken" which fits him perfectly too. I just love when the names actually fit the animal. I'd say we're pretty original right now.
ReplyDeleteMy first horse a grade mare was named by my dad Over Quota (was Furry when we got her)...Quota for short, because my dad said no horses and we got one! ( : For quite some time my favorite drink was a Midori Sour...so when I got a little rescue mare that they were calling momma, I renamed her Midori! The rest of horses have had "normal" names.
ReplyDeleteI have never changed a horses name. I did have to name one of my pony's once, she was severely neglected and the woman who saved her didn't know her name, so when we bought her, I got to name her. I was 10 yrs old and I named her Angel. My other horses nicknames were B.J. (Black Jack), Kitkat and Knotahe (pronounced Not-uh-he). Than of course I have Brandy, Fritzy and I did name Chance, I entered a name the Mustang contest for her, and my name was selected.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever bought a horse with a name I just didn't like, I would probably have to re-name it.
Abby is looking so pretty, and ready to have that baby!!
Horse names that have been in my life so far:
ReplyDeleteMirabella
Cookies N Cream
Bandit
Everybody Loves Raymond
The Irish Man
Tralee
Windy Blue
Baby
Choker
Sundance
Wanderer
Zahara
Tiny Tim
Wendy
Annie
Nemo
Glo
Flutterbug
Nadu
Zanzibar
Sora The Light
Sugarbear
Chloe
and more :]
WOW she is PREGO!
ReplyDeleteHow exciting I totally expect picture of the foal ASAP after he hits the ground. YES that was a prediction on the sex. LOL! I am so bad at that I probably just guaranteed her a filly.
I don't think I give my ponies very unique names.... I just sorta go with what presents itself. Like Patrick - he reminded me of another horse I knew called Patrick.
Anyway I did once know this horse named "Safety Pin Saber" They called it "saber" I think that is unique.
Also at the barn we have a habit of providing horses with nick names - it seems they have to earn their show name. So we had this mare in the barn and I don't even know what her real name was from her owner (as she never visited the mare) but we called her Naive - because she didn't know any better about anything and it stuck.
I had a comment all typed out and then it disappeared!
ReplyDeleteNames of horses I have loved or owned followed by registered name if known:
Oats
Meade
Tejan
Bingo- Bingos Game Point
Snickers
Tristar
Crystal- Crystal Blue Image
Sunny
Taz- AB Joker
Charlie
Uno- Uno Amen
Casey- Watch Cowboy Zip
Maddie
And there was a palomino when I was a little girl who's name sounded like May-zju and I was told it was spanish for "midnight", only that's not the translation. I don't know the spelling either, but he was pasture boarded with us when I was seven.
Was Uno Amen an Arabian stallion? I had one of his foals, Ariel Amen, if so. Always wondered where he went!
DeleteAbby's gonna be a Mama in the next two days for sure! She looks beautiful...but ready!
ReplyDeleteMy first horse Dakotas Baby Doll was registered and so I just kept her name and always called her Baby Doll or Dolly.
My second horse, Apache wasn't really called anything but 'mare' or 'horse' by the owner I bought her from, though she thought that the folks she bought her from called her 'Sugar'.
I decided to change her name, even though she is as sweet as Sugar. I wanted a stronger name because of her beaten down look and her neglect that she had suffered through. I wanted to give her a new beginning. And because she looks like an Indian Pony, that name popped into my head the first time I considered buying her.
Maybe she even put that name into my head. Stranger things have hapened.
I think it fits her well. And we all call her 'Patchie Girl" as her nickname.
I used to ride a horse named Sushi every summer up in Utah at the Sundance Stables (Rober Redford's Ranch). I always found it funny thet Utah is landlocked yet I was riding a horse named after Japanese seafood! lol! She was a really great horse and I wish I could have bought her.
And then there was dear Rojo, my neighbor's horse, who was killed after he broke is leg. I spent a lot of time with that beautiful horse. Rojo means red in Spanish and he was the most gorgeous red bay. I will never forget him....
~Lisa
I have to chime in (just look at me as a late comer to the party and a returning equestrian):
ReplyDeleteMystic
Golden Boy (palomino, ya think?)
Desert Fox
Lil' Bit
Cevahir (Turkish)
Kelebek (Turkish)
Ceylon (Turkish)
City Player
I have friends that own a gorgeous big paint and has name is Skeeter (yes as in Mosquito)
ReplyDeleteThen there's "Two Bits" and "Two by Two" owned by two more friends.
The couple we're buying our place from have a horse named Piffy (I remember the first time she entered it last year at a jackpot... I was like "L has a horse named Piffy?!"
I remember someone owning an appy named Teaspoon. Oh and they owned a gelding named Tinky (he used to be a stud and I just thought that was such a NON masculine name! lol)
By and large though one of my fav names, because of its sound, but most unique looking names is my friend J's horse... can you say this? - Houyhnhnm
(its pronounced "win'em")
I had a mare named Skeeter Lady Babe. I think all the grandkids named her. That was her registered name. (Appy)
ReplyDeleteI now have Ronan after that hunky guy on Stargate Atlantis
Chester, my pony
Gunny: short of Segundo
Coraza a peruvian paso I had
Harper orginal name was Moonie Uck!
HardCase A nasty pony type
Banjo
Brandy
Joey first pony.
There used to be a horse on my yard, who went by the name 'Come On', and it could get a bit strange when you went to fetch him from the field - "Come on, umm, Come on..."!
ReplyDeleteOther good names were Honeymoon, Spider, Iepo (Dutch), Zarli, Bossman, Galaxy and Santa!