A rose by any other name

[racaille]

... is still a rose, right? But I'm starting to think that a horse's name is somehow connected to its character. My vet said his horse Diabolo was indeed the devil incarnate so he called his new mare Caline (cuddle) yuk, but you get the point. You all know that I have Ruffian, Riff-raff or Scum, depending on who is translating .....

In fact, I have four horses and haven't named a single one of them. I am happy with Sam but Paco has the same bog-standard name as half the Spanish types down here and Dr Evil's real name is Triangle So I am taking the decision here and now that my next horse will either have a name I love or I will change it. To quote the vet: Give a horse a name it can live up to, not down to (are you listening Racaille ?)

So I shall go for something brave and fearless-sounding, something that inspires confidence. I love police horse names (they always sound solid and courageous) military/naval ranks or names from mythology. Deffo having a gelding again, luckily it's easier to find something imposing and male. But as for the name itself I shall be bound by the French convention that it starts with the initial of the year - eg all horses born in the same year as Rac have names that start with R. Paco came from Spain and is therefore out of kilter but should have a name that starts with I - I would have called him Icarus, Icare (ee-car) in French. Yes, I like pretentious!

So, would you change/have you changed a horse's name? Why? From what to what? And what kind of names do you favour?

[brigadier]

Ben to Toudle ( but named by my son after Disney character)
Sophar got Sam just because it was practical and suited him.
Prudence got Floss or Flossy as its a pet name I use and I kept calling her it.
I usually tend to leave horses names as they are but I do agree horses tend to live up or down to their names. Invariably I use pet names if the name is long winded so I have had a 'Pinky' (hee hee)

Im not really into pretentious names, but I do like a solid name. I always tend to think of racehorse type names as opposed to pet names. I like Connaught for a gelding (Con for short)and not really sure for a mare, would have to know the mare first I think.

[pboy]

I changed my old TB's name, but only because it was so ugly (Wadge, short for Wadger's End). I called him Marley as it was a calm, solid name - he never quite lived up to it!

Similarly our mare's passport name was Azafata (pronounced Ath-a-fart-a) which means air hostess. I thought it sounded ugly done we called her Tercera she was our third horse. We called our foal Capitan as it seemed to match the air hostess theme

Our others all have pretty decent-sounding names. Pocholo is just a Spanish name, though I've since heard that it was the name of one of Franco's generals. Indio means 'Indian'. Cantinero is the best as it means Bartender! Oh and Galeno means 'physician'.

[pboy]

I meant to add - a friend of mine owns Cantinero's half-brother. He's called Hercules, one for you Rac! Of course he's quite dainty and not at all warrior-like

[fleabitten]

Had to chuckle at 'scum' and 'bartender'!

Never changed any names that mine had. I didnt like princess as a name i thought it was a bit silly and kieran was a funny one although you could see where it came from (kilkieran lad - i found out that theres a village in galway called kilkieran so i wondered was he born there or did they just pick it!)

[haffyfan]

Never changed one but we named harry as he was referred to as the haflinger, and his papers (surprisingly!) never turned up so no idea what he was originally named or even if he hails from uk or whether he came over from Belguim etc (My friend had two years ago when she ran her stables that came to the UK this way...Harry could even be one of them as she didn't keep them long as they were wild as the hills and totally unsuitable for a riding school).

My OH chose it and he's certainly lived up it in terms of his Houdini tendencies. I wanted to call him Tarquin and it's still my favourite horses name and hails back to one at the RS i went to as a young child. My Oh wouldn't let me but if Pen ever has a colt it will be Tarquin or Decorum.

Murph was already named and it suits him down to the ground and Pen i'm not sure about as not sure what a Penny should be like?

[solomon]

I thought Peter was a funny name for a horse but it means Rock and he kind of is my rock. Feeling like I am banging my head with it sometimes! He is a straight forward plain horse. Very honest. Peter does really suit him. Also gets called mr P Petie petie-pants mr Peterkin! Oh and pistol pete! Don't ask!

[racaille]

Lots to think about here! I love Connaught, Brig, just the sort of thing I had in mind although the French wouldn't be able to pronounce it (I know a pony called Sonja which as we know is pronounced Son-ya but here is it Son-jah )

I don't know why I fancy pretentious for a horse , I think it is a bid to get a bit of bravery/presence going, after 11 years with silly ol wuss Paco. Although I did have two Dalmatians called Troy and Zeus, I didn't choose either name and generally go for silly names for dogs. All my rescued boxers have had daft names to try to offset their scary look, particularly Percy who had cropped ears (poor bugger) and was originally called Rocky. FGS. My first white boxer was Beano, followed by bitches Clem and Ludo. Although I do fancy one called Styx ....

Sol, since my dad's name was Peter, I am bound to like it! Yup, I get pistol Pete ....

[brigadier]

Gosh what a coincidence-on FB someone is trying to trace a mare they bought recently. It reminded me of a lovely mare I was qualifying for P to P in the early nineties. she was owned by a rich old lady who had done lots of travelling and had had a rather splendid life. Sadly she was in the final stages of cancer, but her last wish was to see her five homebred fillies and colts make it to P to P, unfortunately her son wouldn't let her spend much money on this and they were doing nothing in the Trainer's field (well known P to P trainer) so the horses came to me and a couple of friends for us to do in our spare time. (Her carer knew one of us which is how we came to do it for her) I got two to do though ended up doing three as one was too sharp for the other girl. My favourite was a little chestnut mare called Hamba Khale (Amber) which is a Zulu word for farewell. She was very sweet, very sharp but incredibly honest and I had a lot of fun with her, sadly her owner died before she qualified and she was shipped off very quickly to sales where I lost track of her. I often think of her and wonder if she ever went on to do a job (she wouldn't have gone back to training) I hope she had a good life. I think I would use that name again as it brings back fond memories of a lovely mare.

[racaille]

Amber is a very pretty name, especially for a chestnut mare

[gnuton]

I had to change one horses name, only because they were both called Jazz. I bought the first Jazz, Jazz It Up, on a Sat and the second Jazz, Wa Jazz Par, on the Mon. I ended up changing the first Jazz to Hunter. He was only 18 months old when I bought him so it made sense to change his name and it only took a couple of times for me to call him Hunter before he knew his name and come when I called.

Now Jazz, being an Arab, was on the prancey side so he did reflect his name. As for Hunter, he is now 13 yo, and has finally settled well enough to be considered a steady, confident, somewhat bold boy.

The last boy I bought was a Thoroughbred/Percheron cross and after a couple of weeks of calling him, hey you, we finally decided on the name Keeper, He's A Keeper.

I had been trying to load him onto the trailer and he was having none of that. After struggling for a bit I stopped trying and had a wee think. So I told him he was a keeper, that I loved him and he would be staying here with us. I continued scratching him and petting him and telling him what a fine boy he was for a little while. Then thought I would just give it another shot at loading him into the trailer. This time he just walked right in. So after that we called Keeper.

[solomon]

Ah Gnuton that's a lovely story.

[zara]

My first pony was a 3 year old unbroken NF who didn't have a name; we called him Rebel (I was 8 at the time). My beautiful chestnut TB mare was called Miss Glad and answered to Glad or Gladys! I wasn't too keen and changed her name to Zara as I'd read the book "Zara" by Joyce Stranger. AJ has a very regal registered name and his previous owner called him AJ; when she bought him he was known as Murphy which doesn't really suit a black Arabian! Tordi is short for Tordito which means "little grey one" which doesn't suit him now a he resembles a tank!

AJ also has a number of other names in regular use most of which cannot be repeated but include Lucipher, Bealzibub, Prince of Darkness - you get the picture!

[racaille]

Talking of names: when the teenager was in the UK with Sam, one of the other girls asked her what Sam's racing name was and was told: Sophar.

There was a shocked silence. Then the girl gasped: 'SOFA?'

[brigadier]

Ah Rac I think I can picture which girl said that! Wonder how she is doing?