spinoff of RF Amber Eyes: Eventers, what's your horse's hunter name?

Recently, we’ve learned that eventer names don’t cut it for the elite hunter ring. Too much baggage, a dark history to sweep under the custom monogrammed wool rug. A chronic fear that video/photo evidence of the fit, lean former XC life will surface on a dubious site like Eventing Nation. Rumours that the now-stately hunter was once seen in a bridle fixed with duct tape.

Quelle horreur.

We’re all familiar with the concept of porn names and stripper names. You take the name of your childhood pet and the first street you lived on and boom!, you’re Frosty River or Foxy Nova, rendered incognito to all of those who’ve seen all of you.

For hunters, the requirement is a one-word name, preferably abstract to all things horses. Successful names include Inclusive, Listen, Commentary, and Taken. These hunter names can be further broken down into two broad categories: (1) higher-brow media outlets/magazines and (2) Liam Neeson or Jason Statham action movies.

There is also a less-obvious third category: any single word that doesn’t tell you anything about the horse.

So eventers, what is your horse’s hunter name?

Oooh! This could be fun! I’m gonna have to think on it!

Eventer name- Codename Toby
Hunter name- Budapest

I don’t know why. Seems right. And that would fall into the 3rd category. :winkgrin::lol:

(I did recently learn the origin of Codename Toby…and it is so perfect and him!).

Funny, I’ve been involved with two horses that had event careers and who both kept their eventer/very Irish names. Although, to be fair, they both went to the equitation ring, not the high performance hunters.

Ha. I’ve thought my mare’s show name (which is also her registered name) was much more Huntery than Eventery for eons. Does this mean I need to switch disciplines??

Our saving grace is that it has four syllables instead of the seemingly requisite two (Commentary being a notable exception)…

[QUOTE=pattnic;7016443]
Oooh! This could be fun! I’m gonna have to think on it![/QUOTE]

I was thinking Stroll or Amble (too slow sounding-is it possible to be too slow sounding?) or Wander (too crooked sounding?) but maybe those sound more like racehorse names. Or tell you too much about the horse :slight_smile:

Secretariat sounds like a nice hunter too.

As for Amber Eyes, I thought it sounded a bit like a porn star name itself, so I can see why they dumped it. Was that even her name before she was imported?

What I do find interesting is that no one in the H/J world feels the need to keep the RF prefix that they tacked on the horse for the credit of having imported it, but eventers from all over who ride with competing programs are dutifly going along riding RF this and RF that, advertising for the competition.

Hmm, this is a tough one. My horse’s show name is “Casanova,” which I think could easily transition over into the hunter ring, but it doesn’t fall into the 3rd category of being unrelated to him. (He has a heart in his blaze and is a real sweetheart when he’s not trying to crib down the barn.) JC name is “Wild Again Now,” which is definitely not him… unless you’re trying to clip his ears.

Maybe “GQ” for media-inspired?

Hmmm, let’s see.

Reg name- WakiNomad- eventer name Wakerdoodles- hunter name Respect (=))
REg name- Squillion- eventer name Basco- hunter name Squillion, as in “How much did you pay for him?” “SQUILLIONS!”

My horse was registered with the JC, so has a number, but they never put a name on her, for what reason, I don’t know (she was born at the Mare Center at VATech, idk if that’s something they just do there?) and taking the usual combination of both parents’ names to make her name would make her Trull Protocol…“Trull” going back to being a hooker (“troller,” “truller,”) but I later learned that that was actually just the dam’s original owner’s last name. Anyways, I find the ‘hooker protocol’ kind of funny. I’ve dubbed her “fancy name” “Pinking of You” though, which is probably better suited to USPC, but I don’t care.
Hunter: Gracious

I was always really proud of my pet+street=stripper name in grade school; Mercedes “Sadie” Wellington. It sounded so legit.

Eventer name: Divine Comedy

Hunter name: Levity

[QUOTE=Divine Comedy;7016565]
Eventer name: Divine Comedy

Hunter name: Levity[/QUOTE]
So perfect, though, it actually does kinda describe him :wink:

Eventer/barn name: Silver
Hunter name: Silviano (I was asked if it was pronounced Sil-vee-anne-oh or Sil-vee-awn-no).

We joked about this for 2 years, so when I had to get an honest-to-goodness passport in order to do the low hunters this weekend… why, he got a fancy-pants name and everything :winkgrin: Who knew they’d take me seriously and find out about the foreign pronunciation?

ETA: I think his hunter name would be something like Silence.

Eventer name: On the Mark
Hunter name: Marked? Marker? (how about Markup? :lol:)

Horse: Fiscal Cliff
Barn Name: Ted
Hunter Name: Austerity

Keeps the variation on a theme. Though I think Fiscal Cliff is a pretty decent hunter name if it wasnt two words. I like the as-applied-to-equines spin. :lol: both, however, might imply finite resources and thus are likely poor choices for hunterland, where such things are frowned upon.

Horse: Sons of Liberty (Birth and current event name)
Barn name: Danny
Hunter name: Smithfield (street I lived on as a baby)

Horse: Honorable (Birth and current event name)
Barn name: Honor
Hunter name: Overton (street I grew up on)

Smithfield and Overton. I kind of like it. It sounds like two supercilious attorneys. (Actually, Overton as in John Overton was Andrew Jackson’s law partner so there might be good reason for that!)

Horse: River Mountain Rd
Barn name: River
Hunter Name: Kettering

Kettering is a town in England between Leicester and London. The rail stopped there on the way to London, and I always thought it was the funnest sounding name.

I am not a hunter rider, but my idea of hilarious would be to buy a fancy hunter and then name the horse:

Carolina Gold! :lol:

(to make fun of hunters who drug their horses, shame on them)

Clearly I need some help converting my girls’ registered names to hunter-friendly one-word versions. Any suggestions? :smiley:

Cat on the Moon (JC) = Felinity?
Bo’s Typhoon (JC) = Hurricane?
Imprint of a Rose (APHA) = Impressionable?

Yikes, I’m really bad at this…

[QUOTE=NCRider;7016475]
I was thinking Stroll or Amble (too slow sounding-is it possible to be too slow sounding?) or Wander (too crooked sounding?) but maybe those sound more like racehorse names. Or tell you too much about the horse :slight_smile:

Secretariat sounds like a nice hunter too.

As for Amber Eyes, I thought it sounded a bit like a porn star name itself, so I can see why they dumped it. Was that even her name before she was imported?

What I do find interesting is that no one in the H/J world feels the need to keep the RF prefix that they tacked on the horse for the credit of having imported it, but eventers from all over who ride with competing programs are dutifly going along riding RF this and RF that, advertising for the competition.[/QUOTE]

RF was not the breeder, just the name of the farm that owned her. Hunters are much more likely to keep the name of the breeder. Since “Amber Eyes” (was that even her name when she was inported,or was it change when she got to the US?) had the prefix added to her name by the (then) owners, it seems silly for the next owner to keep it.

I have owned 2 OTTB’s whose JC names were Shuffling and Stiff As A Board. Would eventers have kept those names? Probably. But they hardly connoted the image I wanted to portray when I walked in the ring on them. I have also owned many other OTTB’s – My first one being Ships Colors II (by War Admiral, out of a Blue Larkspur mare named Fuschia). That was an awesome name that I proudly kept (It also shows how old I am. :smiley: )

I renamed Shuffling “Vintage” (because he was one of the last vintage TB’s in the hunter ring) and Stiff As A Board became “Finder’s Keepers” (because I got a great deal when I bought him and he was going to be a keeper instead of a turnover.)

Now I have 2 WB’s: Two If By C (bred by Carleton WB’s – hence the “C” in the name) and Catalyst S (bred by Silver Creek WB’s). I am happy to keep the breeders name as part of my horses’ names, as are many of the H/J people. A horse named C Coast Z won the International Hunter Futurity 2 years ago.

Just popped over here, though I usually lurk in H-J land. I love this thread.

But I would note that you guys have overlooked the key exception to the “one word” rule.

Names may be any # of syllables or words if they reference an alcoholic beverage.

Have at it.

Hmm, Irish Car Bomb probably better as an eventer name!

But I would note that you guys have overlooked the key exception to the “one word” rule.

Names may be any # of syllables or words if they reference an alcoholic beverage.

Hmm, Irish Car Bomb would probably not go over well!

Have at it.[/QUOTE]