Yay for blog hops! This time Hand Gallop asked: What’s the origin of your horse’s show name and barn name?
Even though I don’t talk about Sadie much here since she’s leased out, I’ll cover both ponies.
I bred Sadie myself, so I picked her names from the beginning. Her sire is the stallion Westporte so I knew I wanted something with West. The finalists were Westbound and West Hollywood but I really prefer one word names, so Westbound won out. For a barn name I picked out a few, depending on sex. If it was a colt it was going to be Bodie, no questions asked. If it was a filly it was either going to be Stella or Sadie. I picked Bodie because it’s a gold-mining ghost town in Cali and you can’t get more “western” that that. Stella was a character from the series Rough Rider Weekly, and Sadie was the nickname of Wyatt Earp’s wife. Obviously I had way too much time to think about names while I was waiting for her to be born. Once she was here Stella didn’t really seem to fit her, so Sadie it was.
Henry was a little trickier. His registered name is He’salmostsweet, because he was born the day before Valentine’s Day. When I bought him his barn name was Jerry. I have nothing against all the Jerry’s in the world but I just don’t think it’s a good name for a horse, so for the first day or so his name was NotJerry. I thought there was something about his eyes that made him seem like a sweet old soul, so I looked through old fashioned men’s names and really liked Henry. I was going to tie that into a show name of Fairlane (like Henry Ford, Ford Fairlane… SO is a big classic car nut) but there were so many crazy circumstances that fell into place juuuust right when I bought him that Happenstance seemed more appropriate. It’s a more popular name but it fits the whole situation so well I just couldn’t pass it up.
breedrideevent.com 
Sadie’s sire in a top hat…. STFU.
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That top hat is EVERYTHING 🙂
And I agree, I think Henry’s eyes are definitely those of an old soul, his name fits him perfectly!
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Happenstance definitely fits for Henry’s situation! But Fairlane is a really cool show name.
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Top hat on a stallion, FTW! I think I may need to find a mini top hat for Prisoner, because why not? Also, I went to Bodie as a kid on a road trip to see family in SoCal, it was pretty awesome!
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Everyone needs a mini top hat
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Love Happenstance 🙂
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The mini top hat is killing me! Love the name Happenstance, and so cute that fits you two!
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I agree that Jerry doesn’t fit him at all. It’s fun to find out people’s thought process behind their horse’s name.
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We had a horse at the track that we called Henry. He also had that kind soul look to him 🙂
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i might have to start calling him NotJerry. Fairlane is a terrific name. happenstance is great, too! i bet you’ve already picked out your foal’s name!
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I was actually afraid at first that NotJerry would stick. Then it was NotJerryMaybeHenry.
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That top hat… I can’t even.
And NotJerry… LOL
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I love Westbound and Happenstance. And Fairlane. All good names!
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I do want to use Fairlane eventually… or other old car names.
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I’m with you, Jerry is a terrible name for a horse. Unless it’s an old cart horse. And I mean old. Like, foaled in 1810 old.
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HAHAHA! I actually rode a jumper in the 90’s named Jerry, but it just doesn’t seem right to me.
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Sadie’s sire in top hat< life
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I love the show name Happenstance. I’m not big on traditionally human names for horses, but I think Henry suits him absolutely beautifully!
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I had a Sadie horse a long, long time ago! It was such a good name. I kind of love Jerry???
But Henry seems to suit him much better.
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He is def a Henry, I do y see Jerry at all. Would have been funny if NotJerry stuck Lol!!
Too had, way to freaking amazing.
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*don’t see
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