UVM Morgan Horse Farm holds contest to name foals

WEYBRIDGE, Vt. (WCAX) - Of the 26 horses at the UVM Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge, five are brand new foals born this spring. Now, the farm is using social media to help name them.

It’s lunchtime at UVM Morgan Horse Farm for these mamas and their new babies. Lounging in the sun, these foals have no worries in the world. But farm staff are preoccupied with figuring out what to name them.

“Every year, all of our babies, their names start with the same letter,” said Noor Jerath, the farm’s summer intern.

Destined to begin with the letter “E,” five of the farm’s 26 horses are name-less. While two of them are donor-funded and therefore donor named, three of them will need names of their own. So, Jerath came up with a new idea that’s gaining a lot of traction on social media.

“I thought it would be kind of a fun idea to try to get the public involved in naming our foals. Just because this farm is really here for the education and of course people, but I think the best way to promote the breed and get people involved is to really get them involved,” Jerath said.

She turned to Facebook, opening up the opportunity to help name these cuties to the public. While she expected some good names, she didn’t expect an onslaught of names for consideration. “It took off a lot more than I thought it would,” Jerath admitted.

Thousands of entries from Facebook followers have left staff with too many options to count -- some better than others. “Some people got very involved, very creative. We got some really funny ones. I think Edamame was one, E-mail, Elevator, EHarmony, Extended Warranty...” Jerath said.

While the funny names made it interesting to sort through, Jerath says they had to figure out a way to narrow it down. “So, what we did was we put all the names in a spreadsheet and then we went through and counted how many likes each comment got. And then we counted repeat name suggestions as another like. And basically, we were able to capture which names had the most support from the community,” she said.

After narrowing it down to the top 20, the top contenders will be up for a vote once again. Once the names are announced on Thursday afternoon, farm staff hope the public will come by to see the foals they helped name. “And you can see the babies running around and being cute,” Jerath said.

Once the top few names are picked via poll, the farm will pick their favorite three names for the two little girls and one boy.

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