What's in a name?

Being the new arrival to the farm, everyone wants to know what my cute horse's name is. And when I say "His name is Soon," they look at me sideways.

Yes, Soon. Like the word for very close to now. Don't look at me that way, I didn't name him.

Some folks, including his former owner/trainer, asked me if I was going to change it. My answer is always the same: nope. I used to be big into maritime history (think ships and boats), and thanks to that, I always was of the opinion that changing the name of something already named was perhaps a little bit of bad luck. Also, if the horse recognized his name, as Soon seems to, then changing it only serves to potentially confuse the horse. And besides, it's not like his name is terrible. It could be worse, like if his registered name was "Imagonnakillu" with a barn name of "Whacko" or something equally unique. I think "Soon" is just fine. Besides, I rather like the simplicity of it. I thought about giving him a show name, and figured I'd wait a few months to do so until I had a good handle on his personality, and what might fit him. But even now, I don't think I will give him a show name. I think if/when we compete, it'll just be Soon. I like the thought of that coming over the loud speakers.

That being said, I ALWAYS come up with stupid pet names for my horses, which serve double duty with their barn names. Some of them seem completely random, but there is usually always a line of reasoning or logic behind it. My mare's pet name was "Doo," because of her barn name Triple, which became Triple Dipple Doo thanks to a little sing-song joke with friends, and it got shortened to Doo. I don't know. Frosty was "Bobby," because Robert Frost was something I called him for a short time whenever he did something bad, which got shortened to Robert, then finally Bobby. It fit him well. Cambridge was "B," thanks to an incredibly stupid route to Bridger Boy, then BB, then finally I just got too lazy and started calling him B. Costello is always going to be "Monkey" to me, because he is a Chunky Monkey. Again, I don't know...

Unfortunately, Soon's pet name thus far is "Bubba." There is NO reasoning behind this whatsoever. It is just the first thing to come out of my mouth when I praise him, or do that silly baby talk speak that all enamored horse people do with their favorite horses ("OH I JUST WUV YOU SO MUCH WITH YOUR WITTLE CHUBBY CHEEKS!"). Yes, I feel sorry that a horse of such class has such a redneck pet name. But I have known some pretty awesome and nice rednecks, so that's ok. I also call him "Bud" a lot, because he's my buddy. I also may call him "Bubbies." Sometimes, when I remember to do it, I even call him by his actual name (though that happens the most when he's in trouble. It's the equivalent to your parents using your middle name). Thankfully, I'm starting to use "Soonie" a little more, so hopefully he'll keep that in mind, and not become some kind of crazy moonshiner from being called Bubba all the time.