When horses and ponies had proper 'horsey' names....

[LeneHorse]

I will admit to being of a certain age but I remember back in the day horses and ponies hardly ever had 'human' names. We had a Pixie, a Punch and a Taffy when we were kids, and in our local area there were Sinbad, Brandy, Oberon, Cola, Star, Misty, Brandy and various others. And all the pony books we read had horses and ponies with lovely names like Sirius or Moonlight. Now everything at our yard, including my own, seems to have a human boys or girls name.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing - you would feel a bit daft going down the field and shouting for 'Sirius'. Just wondered if anyone else has noticed this trend.

 

[Sukistokes2]

I think names go in trends and it will all go full circle....

I have Kevin, Moses and Muffin (Ffin)

But have had Star, Red, Pip , Rossi and Fred ( which I think has always been a pretty standed pony name)

 

[Greylegs]

I agree - human names are the thing nowadays. On our yard currently, we have two boys called Sidney (referred to as Big Sid and Little Sid), as well as Jack, William, Bertie, Edward and Peter. Amongst the girls are Madelaine, Marjory, Lilly and Sadie.

 

[Rowreach]

My horse when I bought him was called Bracken. I couldn't have coped with that, but because it is bad luck to change a horse's name, I use a derivative from his registered name, which doesn't count as changing it

I have to say I prefer human names for animals.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Not a fan of human names for horses! Those of mine with them came with the - Pippa, Max, Lucy, Lance, Gerry and Jeff. The others are Ranger, Freebie, Rains, Flint, Charm, Firefly, SOS and Gray. Lance is short for Lancelot. Jeff is short for Jefertiti and Gerry is so because his Welsh name has more consonants than anything else!

 

[skint1]

All but one of ours have had human name (or stable name in the case our ex racers)

 

[SatansLittleHelper]

I really don't like human names for animals but am currently stuck with the name Jess for the horse :/ I'd have changed it but I had her on loan for a while first so couldn't and by the time I bought her I was used to it lol.
I suppose my parrots have human ish names...Sonny Boy, Felix, Monty and Koko.
But the dogs are Hudson, Rio, Memphis and Yoshi

 

[Shay]

I'm another one preferring animal type names rather than human ones. I've run PC camps with a Lolly ridden by Molly. A Molly ridden by Sam (same camp - I was doomed that year!). A Saffy ridden by Sassy. A Nellie ridden by Hugh. A Jo ridden by Jack. A Holly ridden by the same Hugh - then later Lisa. Actually I think the Molly previously with Lolly had Holly at one camp too....

Good thing all the kids look alike in their uniforms and wearing a hat!

 

[Ellietotz]

I really don't like human names for animals but am currently stuck with the name Jess for the horse :/ I'd have changed it but I had her on loan for a while first so couldn't and by the time I bought her I was used to it lol.
I suppose my parrots have human ish names...Sonny Boy, Felix, Monty and Koko.
But the dogs are Hudson, Rio, Memphis and Yoshi

I had a goldfish that I called Boris. I thought it was hilarious!

 

[poiuytrewq]

I like human names, I especially like horses with surnames 😂 Mine does on his passport. I didn't realise til I actually had him and thought is was hilarious.
We have some weird names at work- shortened forms of passport names but where unable to do that have some decent human names!

 

[only_me]

I much prefer proper actual names like Billy, Ralph, Stan etc. rather than "animal" names of cola or firefly. Tbh animal names make me think of riding school ponies

I really want to call a horse "Colin" or perhaps Alfred

 

[Kezzabell2]

Agreed when I was little they were all Gypsy, Jasper, Monty, Magic etc

I now have a Sam and a Jeremy and I did have a Kelsey until September last year but her original name was Kelly! I would love to have a monty or Jasper again! but they don't seem to exist any more!

 

[Kezzabell2]

I much prefer proper actual names like Billy, Ralph, Stan etc. rather than "animal" names of cola or firefly. Tbh animal names make me think of riding school ponies

I really want to call a horse "Colin" or perhaps Alfred

my friend called her 2-4-1 baby Colin! he's now about 5

 

[poiuytrewq]

I much prefer proper actual names like Billy, Ralph, Stan etc. rather than "animal" names of cola or firefly. Tbh animal names make me think of riding school ponies

I really want to call a horse "Colin" or perhaps Alfred

Same actually, we had lots of non human names at the riding school I went to as a kid and names like that do remind me of those times!

 

[skint1]

This has got me thinking of the horses on my yard, there's 29 horses, 15 have human names, 14 have non-human names, though there is one in each category which I feel could be either way

 

[Jennie951]

I much prefer non-human names and although mine have been far from human, I can say at least 50% of them would not be my first choice. At the moment, I have a Fudge - which reminds me of what a child would call a pet rabbit. Prior to this, I've had Salmon, Venus, Candy and Jem.

 

[milliepops]

I much prefer proper actual names like Billy, Ralph, Stan etc. rather than "animal" names of cola or firefly. Tbh animal names make me think of riding school ponies

This ^^!

all my horses have had human names. First pony 25 years ago was Holly, since then I've had William, Reuben, then Millie and now Kira.

 

[Auslander]

I much prefer proper actual names like Billy, Ralph, Stan etc. rather than "animal" names of cola or firefly. Tbh animal names make me think of riding school ponies

I really want to call a horse "Colin" or perhaps Alfred

Alfred is an excellent name - not that I am biased!

I always wanted a horse with white socks, so that I could call it Kevin. Those who didn't grow up in the 80's may not find this as funny as I do!

 

[spacefaer]

I hate human names for horses - just off the top of my head, I've met a Colin (evil black TB), a Simon (also a TB), Eric, 2x William, Justin, Bobby, Milly, Molly, Ruth (Welsh cob), Edward, Lily (x2), Dave (TB) Rufus, Luke, Kelvin, Larry, George, Rupert (x2) Hamish (strangely not a Highland), Archie. When I ran a livery yard, there were so many horses with human names, it sounded more like I was running a prep school!

None of our current horses have human names. I have no problem changing their stable names

 

[Gift Horse]

It's not new though is it. My Grandad was delivering milk on a float pulled by a horse call Bonney 80yrs ago

 

[dulcie_dustyxx]

Well I have a Dusty, not sure where that comes in ;D I also have a Shannon too, and that's a proper people's name x

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

The riding school I went to had a pony called Blackie and another called Darkie. No way in high hell would you get away with that these days!

 

[DabDab]

Hmm, never really thought about it, but yes I agree, there's far less of the classic Missy, Magic, Sinbad, Lady, Ebony, Major, Flicker, Blue etc. that used to be the main stay of every yard. Ed, Bonny and Daisy have always been a popular human horse names though....

I've only actually owned 4 horses that were properly mine (as opposed to bought with the intention of selling on), and they have all had horse names. I've had a Missy, a Minty, then Dabs and now Arty. Though Arty is a funny one - it upsets my mother as to her generation that's a nickname for an Arthur, so "not appropriate for a girl horse"

 

[dulcie_dustyxx]

Haha a little grey called Farty Darty at my riding school as well as Little, Medium and Big Rosie as they all looked the same apart from breeds and obviously height

 

[Pinkvboots]

I prefer human names for horses and dogs, one of my horses registered names is Roe Arabi the stud that bred him called him Arabi and we just couldn't think of another name so that's what his called now, my other horse is Louis named by a previous owner, I have only ever named one of my own horses and I named her Grace, my very first horse was called Fenargo Fen for short which I thought was a nice name although not really a human name.

 

[Leo Walker]

I like human names, I especially like horses with surnames �� Mine does on his passport. I didn't realise til I actually had him and thought is was hilarious.
We have some weird names at work- shortened forms of passport names but where unable to do that have some decent human names!

Me too. I love my boys name. Hes Leo Walker, no idea why but I really like it. Hes the only horse I've owned as an adult that I havent changed the name of

 

[Rowreach]

I once bought a horse called Reg (he had a posh name as well) and I asked the bloke selling him why he was called Reg. He told me they were all called Reg - or Norman

A few years later a Norman arrived on the yard.

At one point we had four Bens, so they were all called by their owners' surnames.

 

[Feival]

I really don't like human names for animals but am currently stuck with the name Jess for the horse :/ I'd have changed it but I had her on loan for a while first so couldn't and by the time I bought her I was used to it lol.
I suppose my parrots have human ish names...Sonny Boy, Felix, Monty and Koko.
But the dogs are Hudson, Rio, Memphis and Yoshi

My cat that lived to 20yo was called Yoshi 😄

 

[Feival]

I have Buzz and Winnie. I've had in the past Bonnie, Mickey, Tia, Louis, Callie, Bambi, Felix, Drummer, George, Harley and Bumfluff.

 

[iknowmyvalue]

I've had Aero, Rosie and Henry. Although Henry used to be Pug! (his name was changed by a previous owner)

We have a pretty good mix of human/non-human names on our yard, and a few that could be either as you rarely hear them as human names now...