I have perfected THE most boring way to name horses: don’t bother. I’ll explain, via Hand Gallop’s blog hop: What’s in a Name?

What’s the origin of your horse’s show name and barn name?

I’ve owned four horses over the years, and only one of them I actually named myself. And the barn names and show names for all of them have been the same names. It’s not that I don’t think of show names–I’m into football-themed show names right now, like Play Action, Pick Six, or West Coast O–I’ve just never given my horses show names.

Anchor’s show name was Moor Anchor because that was his registered AQHA name and I just went with it. And then later little kids showed him as Anchor. The name fit him perfectly.

Gallop? Why?

I had an OTTB chestnut who I called Red. Super creative there, and my understanding is he was called Little Red at the track, so that’s what went on his halter nameplate.

Sweetest horse and scared of EVERYTHING

My black OTTB that I showed in the Low and High Adult Amateur jumpers is the only horse I truly named myself, and I named him Leo because I was reading Anna Karenina (by Leo Tolstoy. See what I did?) at the time. I registered his show name as Leo. People would ask me if I named him after Leonardo DiCaprio, because the movie Titanic was a very big deal at the time. I still haven’t seen it.

Jumped it ALL. And my heel physically can not do this any more.

I can’t remember Red’s registered racing name, and I never even looked up Leo’s. Eli’s is Carlisle’s Elysium, so it’s easy to see where the name Eli comes from. He came to the farm as a sale horse named Eli and that’s what I show him as (or try to–we’ve only done one show and the rest keep getting rained out!). I suspect he’s been called Eli his whole life. YAWN.

I ALMOST called him Play Action. But my trainer did my entries for me. Eli it is!

You can also take this as a little sneak peak at upcoming biographies of Red and Leo!