Hand Gallop Blog Hop: What’s in a Name?

Jumping back on the blog hop band wagon with Hand Gallop‘s hop. She asked…

What’s the origin of your horse’s show name and barn name?

I have always had horses that were already registered and had their own names, so I never got to choose what I call them, but I do have quite a few nicknames for both of them.

My gelding is USEF and Oldenburg registered as Southern Axcent and we call him Ax for short. The Dutch Warmblood/KWPN naming system designates a different letter to each foal based on the year they were born and the foal must be registered with the first letter of their name being the designated letter. Ax was born in 1999 when the letter was “S”, and he is from the southern states, therefore he became “Southern”. According to the Oldenburg Verband, colts are to be named patrilineally, so the first letter of the son’s name is the same as the first letter of the sire’s name. Axiom was his sire, just carry over the “A-X” and you get “Axcent”. Put it together and you get Southern Axcent. Shorten it and you get Ax.

He also had many other names I call him. depending on the day. We got Prince Charming, The Prince, and Southern Prince from our first summer on the Vineyard when I fell in love with his perfectness. He became The Giant Squish because he loves when you smoosh his nose and is a Giant Jumping Bean when we have over fences lessons. My mom calls him Dopey because of his laid back, goofy personality, and Jose calls him Ponyboy. Basically we call him anything we want.

-TC