First of all, I'd like to apologize. I had no idea that I'd stir up a hornet's nest with my model horse articles. I have received more letters than I can count about...well, the names I used! Thank you, everyone who wrote, though. Because of all the requests I got, I am finally doing an article on that most difficult of tasks...naming your models.
The number one question I received had to be, "How did you name your horses?" Okay... I got my Pacer's(Laag) name from both a movie and an event. After I got my Laag in the mail the same day that a bomb was delivered to the police station across the street from my work, there was only one name for him: "AF Final Countdown", also known as "Kirk". This was also a movie, starring Kirk Douglas, so it just sounded right. One of my most popular stallions, AF Sutherland, got his name from the fact that the actor Kiefer Sutherland got married in my home town the day I bought the model. I was going to make Sutherland's barn name "Kiefer", but as my model wasn't chestnut or palomino (the actor in question is fairly light-haired), but red roan, I called him Donny-yep, after Donald Sutherland, who actually had reddish hair.
Most of my models get their names from movies or actors. Since I used to want to be a screenwriter an eternity ago, movies are my second-favourite obsession (behind horses, naturally). My most popular stallion, AF Zympathi Forthe Devyll may have taken his name from the song, but if you know his barn name-Lestat-you may guess that I got the inspiration from the movie "Interview with the Vampire", which has "Sympathy for the Devil" as a song on its soundtrack! See what I mean?
Okay, enough of that. Here's how you can get on the right track to naming your models:
1. Movies/Actors
As far as I'm concerned, it's hard to go wrong with using your favourite movie-unless the movie is Clueless-then I'd advise you to try again. Try a name like Maverick, Mission Impossible, Braveheart...or like a friend of mine did. When asked how she got her stallion Johnny Mnemonic's name (barn name Keanu), she grinned and said, "Because he's a short, dark, gorgeous stud who acts like he's on speed!" Hey, how can you argue with THAT logic?
I happen to have named most of my horses after movies and actors, even if sometimes it doesn't sound like it. That's the best thing to do, in MY humble opinion! You don't want your horse sounding like he's owned by Paramount Pictures! I have horses like Beyond Thee Stars (taken from the movie Beyond The Stars) and Third Musketeer (The Three Musketeers). I personally know of one barn that is called-I'm not kidding-Silver Screen Stables. The owner-no names here!-has named each and every one of her horses after a movie or an actor. This has resulted in the dressage horse Basic Instinct, the hunter Marathon Man and the show jumper Another Stakeout. I'm sure everyone can think of at least one horse named in this way!
Farms are also frequently named after movies. I've mentioned some in previous articles, but after all the letters from various model horse people, I can now say that I've heard of Major League Farms, Romancing the Stone Stud (yep, it's a stud farm...now why doesn't that surprise me?), All The Right Moves Jumper Stable (This did surprise me..I was expecting a dressage farm) and my current favourite, Risky Business Stables. That pretty much sums up the entire horse world, now doesn't it!
2. Books and Authors
This often overlaps with movies. Interview with the Vampire is one. The Three Musketeers, The Last of the Mohicans (which is where my horses AF Mohican Ceremony and AF Mohican Scout get their names)...I could go on forever! I find that a lot of us in the model horse world are avid readers, which is also why we have so many magazines on the hobby! The most popular authors and books that horses seem to be named after are Anne Rice-number one with a bullet, those vampire and witch books are incredibly popular and supply a ton of great names; think Lestat, Akasha, Marius, Armand...it goes on-and Stephen King-I plead guilty, too. I've never named a horse Cujo or The Shining, but my most popular mare takes her name from a King book- AF Different Seasons. Other "takeable" names I've heard are Firestarter, Silver Bullet (a movie version of a King book), Night Shift, Dreamscapes and Insomnia.
Books translate pretty awkwardly though. I couldn't, or wouldn't, name a horse after my favourite author's books. In case you're wondering, he's John Grisham. While The Rainmaker sounds pretty nice, The Client, The Firm, The Chamber and A Time To Kill all make pretty miserable names. So take a bit of care, even if you do like the author. But take heart! My newest pony is called AF Harry Rex, after a character in A Time To Kill. Character names are one way to get around this.
3. TV Shows and TV Actors
Since I bet that 90% of us constantly watch TV, logically this means that up to 90% of us might be inspired by a TV show for names. I've heard them all-NYPD Blue, for instance. My own horses are AF Bo Duke (oh, c'mon, we've all watched The Dukes of Hazzard at one point. Yes, I'm blushing!) and AF Gunsmoke. I see a lot of TV ponies in the ring. Let's see: there's Witness, Man Alive, Absolutely Fabulous, Starship Enterprise(Star Trek), Agent Mulder(The X-Files), American Gothic and-I'm counting this as one-MTV Stylist (I don't get MTV, being Canadian, but I'm guessing that this is a show). Actually, I'm told that on the model rodeo circuit, there's a bull called Roscoe, after the sheriff on The Dukes of Hazzard, plus a pick-up mare called She's The Sheriff! (Just an aside-if anyone wants to know more about the model rodeo circuit, I'd be happy to pass on info that I've received!)
4. Music and Musicians
This market is huge. I can't tell you how many REAL horses there are that are named after songs, albums or groups. You don't even have to listen to the group to like the name of a song, even though I frequently do. I've had horses called Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Mysterious Ways, Zoo Station, Babyface and With or Without You. Yep, I'm a big U2 fan. Evidently, there's a few others who either feel the same way or just like the names, as all of those horses sold quite fast! (It was one of my stock-dispersal sales.) There's many horses out there called Champagne Supernova, Parklife (which I didn't know even was a song until I saw the video on MuchMusic, Canada's equivalent to MTV), Presto Chango, Astroplane and Dr. Feelgood. Groups are also very good for names-strangely enough, especially pony names! At a recent gymkhana I held (yes, for models), I had a class entered by Blur, Oasis, Concrete Blonde and Pearl Jam. A word of caution though- because we all listen to music and we all have heard many of the same songs (unless you only listen to Tibetan Monk chants, or whatever), we all attach different emotions to the song. I try hard not to do this, even though I'm sure it's happened. I know many of my long-suffering fellow judges do this, including one remaining-nameless judge who utterly refuses to place horses with names of songs she really doesn't like. She has never placed a horse named after any George Michael or Mariah Carey song, which is rather idiotic, really. I know she'll kill me for writing this, but at one of her shows, she refused to place the stallion Gotta Have Faith, a son of You Gotta Believe, both of whom are contenders in both live and photo shows. I'm sure that quite a few of you have seen Gotta Have Faith walk off with the top prizes at many shows, and he is quite a sensational horse. However, at this show, the judge didn't place him because of his name. (I know I'm going to get bombarded with letters from his owner and the judge for this, but I figured the public would like to know!) No it isn't fair, but neither is life, and judges are only human. I don't approve of them doing this, but there isn't much we can do!
5. Pop Culture
I know it sounds farfetched, but it happens constantly. It's the reason I've got AF Obsession (after the Calvin Klein perfume) and AF Fahrenheit (after the Christian Dior cologne). We hear the names, we absorb them, we name our models. After a while, we hardly even think about how we named the mare Love That Red (a shade of Revlon lipstick) or why our stallion is called Sheer Phantom (a brand of pantyhose). We just do, then think about it later...maybe. Haven't you been tempted to name your stallion Eternity or your mare Incognito or something rather...well, pop culturish? (For lack of an actual word!) I have, and I'm sure I'll do it again. The only problem with this is that it's way too easy to wind up with five or six horses with the same name at the same show! Prefixes help a lot, but it can still get embarassing. You can change the spelling a bit; think Obsession-Obsesshan, Obseshyn, Ob Sez Jan, etc. Of course, this is easier to do with Arabian model names....
6. "Just Because"
Here's another method, maybe not as popular as the others, but certainly used at one point or another. I named my newest model "Zahrtan" in tribute to my real horse "Tezahr", who the model resembles. There's usually a model on my shelf who got their name "just because". Another of my models, Siglavy Magnificat, got his name first because he's a Lipizzaner and I liked the "Siglavy" family. The "Magnificat" comes from a joke between my friend and I, when she read one of my articles in Horse Sport magazine (where I work-The Horse Publications Group-I get to write about real horses in Horse Sport, Canadian Horseman, Horsepower and Canadian Thoroughbred!), she exclaimed, "Hey, this is magnifi-cat!" "Cat" being my old nickname, of course. So whenever I saw something that was interesting when I was with my friend, I'd call it "magnificat". And my friend came with me to the Royal Lipizzaner Stallion Show, where I bought the model in question-hence the name! Whether it's the sound of the name, or whatever it is, sometimes it's nice to name a horse "just because..."
I have to admit though, that no matter how much the name may make sense to you, once in a while you get the incredibly oddball name. I frequently purchase the get of my stallions from other people, which generally means that they did the naming. My most bizarre get-name? Unquestionably, that would be Mighty Duck Triumph (AF Artanis Triumph x Hollywood Preview). No, the namer isn't a hockey fan, but an Emilio Estevez fan. All the same...yeeouch! I guess I should be grateful for small mercies. It could have been "The Breakfast Club Triumph"....(groan.....)
Catherine (Mathewson) Scholz is starting to reenter the model horse world after a long time away... Please feel free to update her on your adventures at tezahr23@angelfire.com.