“Hello again, friends!

The snow is finally gone on the mountain and the tulips and daffodils are in bloom!  Of course, mud season is also in full swing, heaven help us!

Royal Sonata

Thank you to everyone who viewed our filly video a few weeks ago and to all those who took the time to suggest names.  All of the names were very creative and we truly enjoyed hearing from all of you.  In the end, we have decided to register the filly as North Point Royal Sonata. 

We chose the name Royal Sonata in part because of all of you as it came as a suggestion, and in part as a way to honor one of our sponsors, Royal Champion Feed Supplements.  We are fortunate to have several sponsors of our farm and horses and Royal Champion signed on with us this year.  They are a great group of folks, no strangers to the folks in Great Britain, with a really great feed supplement product that we use not only on our show horses, but all the North Point Horses.

More foals to name!

Since the birth of that filly, we have welcomed three more foals on the farm!  That means that we have had to come up with four more names, both show names and barn names.  We have had conversations with several folks about how we all name our youngsters and I thought I would share some of that with all of you.

Our good friends Heidi and Kerry Trautman of Platte Valley Percherons in Overton, Nebraska (www.plattevalleypercherons.com) use a creative system.  When Kerry heard that we had not yet named the filly you saw in the video, he gave us a gentle nudge by telling us that “North Point Registration Pending” wasn’t such a great name.  He then went on to explain to Tim how he chooses names for his horses.  Apparently Kerry has named a few foals after Victoria’s Secret models and encouraged Tim to undertake the research by looking at the Victoria’s Secret catelog.  According to Heidi, Kerry has also named foals after barbeque sauces, and guns.  Heidi says she prefers strong powerful names and she has named quite a few after racehorses, having a soft spot for thoroughbreds.  Their choice for this year’s beautiful filly born at their farm?  Platte Valley’s Zariya – pretty isn’t it?

Dam’s name leads to foal’s

Lynn and Janine MacVey of Pleasant View Percherons (www.pleasantviewpercherons.com) out in Iowa says that they names their foals by using the first letter of the dam’s name for the fillies and as for stud colts, well Lynn says that he doesn’t spend much time on those names.  He says: “ I have a couple pages on legal pads with name choices listed for the next 50 years or so.”  Not enough can be said for planning ahead and having good choices!  Lynn is a pretty humble man in my view, and not many folks know that he is the breeder of what some say is the most prolific stallion in the Percheron breed today, Pleasant View King.  I never have asked Lynn how King got his name but maybe I will some day!

Donna Swantson, President of the Canadian Percheron Association told me that they used to name the foals according to the tattoo letter of the year that they were born.  When they used to foal a number of mares, Donna said that it helped them to keep track of the ages of the mares that they kept. Some years like this one, with a tattoo letter of "Y" she said would be a little difficult and they would have to be very creative and a use a good "Names for Baby" book.

Victoria’s Secret

As for us, we too have a list of names that we may use but sometimes none of those names fits a particular foal.  So far, our mare Victoria’s filly will be called North Point Victoria’s Secret.  Flora’s foal, a stud colt will be North Point Who Made You.  His full brother last year was North Point Who Made Who.  We have one filly foal; born on Easter Sunday still to name and we would welcome your suggestions again.

We’d love to know how all of you name your foals so please drop by one of our internet pages and let us know.  You can find us at www.northpointfarm.com or on Twitter.  You can now also find us on Facebook and we hope you’ll become a friend of the farm.

Until next time, we hope that spring is also in full swing where you are.”