Today I’m giving you a sneak peek into my WIP (work in progress). I am writing a historical romance story that takes place in the Old West, which of course, requires some research on my part.

Did you know that when cowboys went on a cattle drive they took a lot of extra horses along? They didn’t want to overtire the horses they rode when they often rode fourteen hours a day. Therefore the spare horses allowed them to change to fresh horses often.

Did you know the herd of extra horses was called the “remuda” which comes from a Spanish word “remonta” or “remount”. The remuda could be as large as 150 horses!

Did you know that it was generally the youngest cowboy in the group who was in charge of the remuda? Did you know that he was called the “Wrangler” which also comes from a Spanish word, “caballerango” or “one who cares for horses”?

Many cowboy terms came from the Spanish because the cowboy profession was started by the Spanish Vaqueros, Spanish and Native American Indians who were trained to watch over the cattle of Spanish missionaries.

The Wrangler’s job was not easy. He had to know each horse by name and was expected to know immediately if a horse was missing and to track it down.

Now that you have that information, a cattle drive takes place in my book and there will be a total of seventy-three horses in the remuda. Now, not all seventy-three horses’ names will appear in my book, but I did feel like I needed to name all seventy-three for my story information. I thought you might like to see the names I came up with, and no, they’re not necessarily original, and I’m sure you will recognize some of them from other literary works or movies — these will be some of the names that will not appear in my book. (Only a handful of the horses’ names will actually appear in my book.)

1.Sandy                   2. Pete                    3. Jack                    4. Janie                    5. Jax

6.Dusty                    7. Smokey             8. Goldie                9. Millie                 10. Paint

11.Lady                 12. Shadow           13. Cash                 14. Toby                  15. Misty

16.Lightning        17. Storm               18. Flash               19. Tillie                  20. Sal

21.Bonnet            22. Max                  23. Pumpkin         24. Tate                   25. Flapjack

26.Tramp            27. Jasper               28. Spade               29. Ruby                 30. Leo

31.Rusty              32. Sawdust           33. Dancer             34. Pearl                 35. Spirit

36.Rain                37. Phantom          38. Star                  39. Jupiter              40. Ebony

41.Windy            42. Scout                 43. Topper            44. Zeke                  45. Thunder

46.Midnight       47. Bessie                48. Drifter             49. Goblin              50. Ginger

51.Cinnamon     52. Lacey                53. Buster              54. Cloud                55. Hero

56.Legend           57. Lucky               58. Poncho             59. Chip                  60. Faith

61.Patches          62. Popcorn           63. Peace                64. Patience           65. Betsy

66.Skye                67. Ranger            68. Wildfire            69. Rebel                70. Willow

71.Sapphire       72. Biscuit             73. Daisy

Which of these is your favorite that you would like to see in my book?

Leave your answer in the comments by next Monday, March 5th at noon if you want your favorite horse name including in my story. The three names with the most votes will win and be included in my story and your name will appear in the acknowledgements for helping make the choices.