Name that pony!

This subject has been in my head a lot lately.  Ever since I watched a YouTube video on how to come up with names for your horses.  When I used to show, you had to have a name for your model and I had more models than names.  I had a LOT of models back then, but not all of them were show horses.  That didn't matter, though, because I had names for most of them anyway.  Then I stopped showing due to personal circumstances so I stopped naming my horses.  I think the last one I named was my palomino Marwari back in 2013...

At the time, my local zoo had recently opened a new exhibit for Komodo Dragons and had a pair of siblings from the same clutch but had been living at separate zoos.  The male was Ivan and the female was Gaia so I combined the two names to create Ivangaia.  It sounded legitimate enough.  I still like it.  Kalahkaari still hasn't been named, but I think I may have just found my Bohemian Rhapsody.  I wanted a flashy model for that name and I wanted it to go to a model I described in a previous blog post about customs and it just hit me that Kalahkaari is very close pattern-wise to Sioux City Warrior.  He's not quite colorful enough because he doesn't have any silver, but I think I can live with that.  So, I think I am giving the name of Bohemian Rhapsody to Kalahkaari.  His barn name is rather boring, though.  Just "Beau".  Not very original, but barn names are supposed to be simple, aren't they?  Now, suddenly, I want tack for him and I want a doll that resembles Freddie Mercury.  hahaha.

Anyway, back to naming.  So, I watched this video on YouTube on how to come up with names for your model horses and suddenly all these name ideas came popping up in my usually empty (not really, but work with me here) head.  I doubt some of them will be used and a couple of them may need to be scrutinized a bit more.  Like, does Obsessive Fascination sound better or My Obsessive Fascination?  That's a name I've been sitting on for awhile.  It's part of a song by Duran Duran called I Don’t Want Your Love:  "My obsessive fascination is in your imagination now pick it up!" and I've always wanted to name a horse that, but I don't know.  If I ever get back into showing, I'll need to name the models I have in my show string.  If I have any left worth showing.  Hahaha.  You know, because rubs and shiny marks happen. 

Also, there some rules about names in the real horse world.  Or, at least, there was when I was more knowledgeable about show horses.  Like, a racing thoroughbred cannot have the name of...how can I put it...no movie titles or pop culture items.   Something like that.  They also can be no longer than 18 characters, with spaces and punctuation counting as a character (I looked it up)  But with Arabians, anything goes.  One National Show Horse at Tom Chauncey Arabians was SH Jim Beam.  They called him the "Whiskey Horse".  Other breeds, warmbloods, have specific naming requirements.  Something like it has to begin with the same letter as the sire, but it also has to do with the year the foal is born and/or gender.  They also restrict the number of characters in the name.  A Lusitano is named based on which hemisphere the foal was born in.  Hmmm.  I wonder if a model horse judge would count off / not place it well if the foal isn't named according to any breed standards its registry or the Jockey Club has.  I might have to ask a judge that.  <makes mental note>

A couple of days ago I took an afternoon off and went driving.  I took two stablemates with me and had wanted to find some nice desert area to take pictures.  There were some cool cloud formations off in the distance, but have you ever tried photographing a stablemate with a cell phone without getting on the ground?  It's not easy.  We won't talk about the scale issues.  hahaha.  I had my good camera with me, but I was taking the photos for Instagram and to get the photos from my big camera to where I post to Instagram is a bit of a hassle so I used my cell phone and the results were predictable.  Oh well.  The clouds sure looked neat, though...

QOTD...so tell me...do you name your models if you don't show?  And where do you draw inspiration for those names?