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

It's a funny mix at the yard I ride at: there is a pony suitably called Breezy who can clear a room with her breezes. :D
Then there's McQueen, Magpie, but also Stella, Noddy and Findlay.
 
Ooh I like the 'horsey' names.. loved a good Brandy, Ebony even a Jupiter. Now I have a pony called Star (I renamed her, she was called Tinkerbell but I didn't like it!) and I have a Cora. I was unsure of the name at the start but I decided to keep it - she really suits Cora!
 
The first horse I rode at a riding school was probably foaled in about 1950. He was very elderly and had a docked tail. His name was Bing. Those of you of a similar age to me will know who he was called after. The rest of the horses and ponies had a mix of human and non human names. Candy Phantom Diana Puck Shandy Brandy Heidi Spot etc. My horses have had both types of name, some human, some not.
 
Both before and between the wars my grandfather had a lot of horses with people names and others named after people/events. I still love the name Dreyfus which was one of his horses.
 
Nearly all of mine have had human names, my first pony was called Noddy... Not sure if that's human or not? I know someone nicknamed Noddy! instead of Harry which is odd. Don't know what I prefer, I think human probably, but as long as it suits the horse then it's fine!

I've got one called Smokey at the moment, (which was my grandads nickname)but definitely not a typical human name! I recently had a Guinness.
 
I love bad horse names. I've either owned or looked after the following - Colin, Adam, Barbara, Steve, Marblehead, Plop, Dave, Carrot, Brian, Potato, Mildred, Francis, Marcus, Nigel, Reginald, Alfred, Rory, Banana, and my horse of a lifetime was called Roy.

I also love slightly more interesting names - I used to look after a horse called Legend for example, and that really suited him, and the famous Starzaan who I stole my name from!


But, on the whole, I love a good comedy horse name.

ETA we have also had a 134 because that was his lot number and it stuck, and, more recently, Black Mare, who was, incidentally, a black mare, and we were not feeling terribly inventive at the time of purchase!
 
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One of the riding schools I helped at had a mixture of names.

There were typical pony/horsey names; Blue, Pickles, Comet, Bee, Eclipse, Bonnie, Herbie, Foggy, Mischief... they also had some human names; Jimmy, Ted, Sophie, Lucie, William, Chester.

Then there were a few odd ones. Astra and MyGirl were mother and daughter, Flinders Jane (but was just referred to as Flinders), Paella (an Iberian). And the worst one (poor horse), Gaylord!

I think I prefer non-human names. My first loan horse was called Spider, which I think is a great name. Also had a Barney and Bruno. My first horse was called Tom and now I have a Bowser!
 
It doesn't really matter what you call them, they always end up with another nickname by way of their personality!

Fig = Snoff
Nova = Viper

We've got Bruce/Sprout and Goofy/Square too.

In the past: Duchess, Isla, Pip, Murf, Blue, Daisy, Kyri, Rubi, Paddy, Syeman, Baby.
 
I love human names but they have to be human names that are completely out of fashion. Unfortunately, the names I choose seem to come back into fashion as soon as I choose them.

There were no kids called Archie when I named him (he was an Andy but I have too many friends called Andy, it's just too normal a name so I had to change it) but within a year every other little boy I met seemed to be called Archie. It's the same with my dog Mabel. At first people used to laugh and say "Oh I had a great Aunt Mabel" now they say "There's a little girl in my daughter's class called Mabel!" I loved Ralph and Reg for a while too but there are loads of Ralphs and Reggies now.

My favourite at the moment is Malcolm. I can just imagine a horse called Malcolm or maybe Derek or Gordon. I like Hilda and Maude for girls.

ETA: Colin would be good if one of my OH's best mates wasn't a Colin. He's only in his 30s!
 
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I worked at a yard in Australia many years ago where if you didn't get in quickly with a name when a new horse came on the yard it got stuck with....

Baymare
White sock
Orange
Creamypony
Tubby
& a fair few more I can't remember!
 
My first horse was Angie, my second (and current) is Gypsum. The second is unusual and I love it. Her breeder named her, but it's the sort of thing I would have chosen if I had named a horse myself.

Human names seem to be the most prevalent. The yard at the moment has Hannah, Gustav, Flora, Oscar, Lucy, Abbey, Barney, Zack. In the past, we've had Shane, Megan, Ollie, Cody, Lolly.

When I was a working student for a summer at a dressage yard in Upstate New York many years ago, Gypsum spent the entire two months being called "Your Mare" or "The Mare" by the barn owner. Don't think he used her name once. Everything else at the barn was a gelding or a stallion (one stallion, who was the best behaved of the lot).
 
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SEL said:
I worked at a yard in Australia many years ago where if you didn't get in quickly with a name when a new horse came on the yard it got stuck with....

Baymare
White sock
Orange
Creamypony
Tubby
& a fair few more I can't remember!
Click to expand...

That's it. From now on Arch will be known as White Nose and Mont as Wonky Leg.
 
My friend's horse of a lifetime was called My Mare - I know it was short for something fancy but I have no idea what that was.

My mare is called Madison which I hate and doesn't suit - she's always known as Mads. If I was naming her she would have been Barbara but never Babs.
 
Shay said:
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!
Click to expand...

I've just remembered. There was a kid in my riding club called Keegan who had a pony called...yup, Keegan.
 
Caol Ila said:
My first horse was Angie, my second (and current) is Gypsum. The second is unusual and I love it. Her breeder named her, but it's the sort of thing I would have chosen if I had named a horse myself.

Human names seem to be the most prevalent. The yard at the moment has Hannah, Gustav, Flora, Oscar, Lucy, Abbey, Barney, Zack. In the past, we've had Shane, Megan, Ollie, Cody, Lolly.

When I was a working student for a summer at a dressage yard in Upstate New York many years ago, Gypsum spent the entire two months being called "Your Mare" or "The Mare" by the barn owner. Don't think he used her name once. Everything else at the barn was a gelding or a stallion (one stallion, who was the best behaved of the lot).
Click to expand...

Gypsum is the stuff that makes up pleasterboard!
 
SEL said:
I worked at a yard in Australia many years ago where if you didn't get in quickly with a name when a new horse came on the yard it got stuck with....

Baymare
White sock
Orange
Creamypony
Tubby
& a fair few more I can't remember!
Click to expand...

And it still happens. :o When our ex-racers come in for training, the names don't always come with them. We can look them up from their brands but in the meantime they get stuck with such imaginative names as Brown Horse (often requiring an extra adjective, so we end up with Big Brown Horse and Little Brown Horse), That Nice One and Middle Box.

When they do come in with a name we only get told their daft racing names, not stable names. They'll usually end up with some abbreviated form of the racing name, so we don't often end up with human names.
 
In general, I'm not fussed what 'sort' of names horses have, but I do have a fondness for horses named after ships - I would absolutely call a heavyweight hunter Dreadnought, for example, or buy a child's pony called Pickle.
 
Mine was called Jack but I renamed him Boggle, just took one oook at him off the lorry and Boggle seemed to fit. Poor thing gets called Bog for short!
 
We have the typical on our yard, Silver, Guinness, Monty etc but we currently have a Sally, Ellie, Athena, Daisy and my all time favourite, an Emma 😂
I've had a Pride an Oliver and the current horsey is Fizz!
 
Humans names are pretty common round here...we've got an Alfie, a Henry, a Rosie, a Holly, a Luke, an Ellie, a Lenny and a William (not just just horses)

our neighbours had goldfish called colin and mr fish! I always thought those were hilarious names!!

I've heard of a cat called John too but how stupid must you feel standing outside your door banging a tin of whiskas yelling 'JOHN! JOHN!' ?!?!?

At a riding school I used to go to they had a pony called Dennis, he was a lovely horse and I never thought the name suited him....to me it always makes me think of 'Dennis the Menace' and this little pony was anything but?
 
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Met a couple while out hacking. Moved horse to side to let them pass . Said OK Bob lets go. Only to hear in the distance ,the couple doing the Black adder "Bob " thing. Anyway its not his real name .To his field "mates" its Mein Fuherer!
 
when I was a kid the local riding school had a Valentine, Debonair, Frisky, Topper, Jaunty, Sultan and a Midnight as well as lots of others. So much nicer than the Sams Teds Wallys of today
 
I have a Pinto, I haven't come across another Pinto as yet. New gelding is called Mikey, which I might change, or he might stay as 'Mikey the *****' as I suspect he's another traveller-bred horse. We have a Horace on the yard, name really suits him, sometimes lengthened to Hungry Horace, or Horrible Horace. Lol.
 
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