What’s in a Name?

Some of you, well probably most of you, are probably wondering where I came up with the blog name.  “The Adventures of Shady The Great,” that’s odd, isn’t it?

I bought Shady in May of 2003.  Her registered name is “Shadais China Moon” and she was called “China”.  I wasn’t really a fan of the nickname.

“China” when I first met her.

I brought her home and called her “Horse” for several days.  Not exactly the nicest thing to call my new child, but I wanted to get to know her more before coining her with a title that would be hers forever.

Shady, being the next logical name to come from her registration, stuck.  She answers to it, so I assume she approves! (She did not even flick an ear to “China” when I went to look at her).

Princess was never fitting for her, though she is quite spoiled like one. “The Queen” may be more appropriate, but still not really her.

It’s tough being a Queen

One day, I’m not sure why, I introduced her to someone as “Shady The Great.” She was doing something regal I’m sure, in her horsey way.  It rolled off my tongue in a nice, easy fashion.  Perhaps it was after this video and her demonstrating her Greatness and Power.

The Stuart Horse Trials in July of 2009 really solidified the nickname. Shady and I were competing Prelim and I had several friends competing as well. We were sitting around in stabling when Shady The Great came up.  One friend said “that’s a hyperbole.” Another said, “what’s a hyperbole?” Thus began the great vocabulary debate of the Stuart HT.

For some reason we didn’t have phones with us and we began asking people walking by if they could define hyperbole.  Most could not, but then joined the conversation.  Much to the dismay of my friend we soon had many other wonderful names for the other horses – Scribbles The Magnificent, Mac The Fantastic, Allen The Incredible, Abby The Fabulous, and so forth.

My scowling friend turned to the next competitor walking by, which happened to be Peter Atkins, who seemed intrigued by the gathering crowd.  To Peter’s credit, he properly defined a hyperbole – an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally.  The crowd then scowled triumphantly back at my friend and left, all with their new horsey names.

This video is of “Scribbles The Magnificent”, doing Magnificent things.  Okay, maybe this one was a hyperbole.

Eventually, even my friend embraced it, though she didn’t partake. She simply calls her horse “Princess” – the biggest hyperbole I have ever heard.