Her Real Name is Claudia R. Watkins; Her Nickname is "Spirit"

By Donald V. Watkins

©Copyrighted and Published on January 30, 2019; Republished on November 15, 2025

A young Claudia R. Watkins, with her dad Donald V. Watkins.

“Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” is a DreamWorks animated movie that follows the adventures of a wild and rambunctious mustang stallion as he journeys through the untamed American frontier. Encountering man for the first time, Spirit defies being broken, even as he develops a remarkable friendship with a young Lakota brave. The courageous young stallion also finds love with a beautiful paint mare named Rain on his way to becoming one of the greatest unsung heroes of the Old West.

Movie Poster for “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”

The movie was released on May 24, 2002 and has made more than $122.6 million at the box-office. The featured song is, "Here I Am."

My daughter Claudia R. Watkins was 7 years old when Spirit hit the theaters. We bought the video of this movie as soon as it became available.

Claudia and I watched this movie dozens of times. I wanted her to fully understand that we lived in a world where the free spirit of good people was often broken like the domesticated horses in the movie. I preached to Claudia how extremely important it was that she never allowed anyone to break her free spirit. I repeated this message every time we watched Spirit. I even nicknamed her "Spirit" to reinforce this message.

By the time Claudia was 12, I could tell she understood the importance of maintaining and enjoying her free spirit. I told Claudia to never change who she was just so people would like her. If she stayed true to herself, the right people would love her.

I am proud to say that Claudia and her four brothers have an unbroken free spirit today, as do their mothers and father. This state of being makes the trip through life an enjoyable experience, even when it is raining and storming in our lives.

Without rain, nothing grows. This is why we must learn to embrace the storms in life and navigate a course around or through them.

Today, Claudia lives and works as an executive for a multinational company in London. Claudia accompanied me on a business trip to London when she was 13 years old and she fell in love with the city. At this stage in her life, Claudia is Eurocentric in her personal space and global in her worldview.

I highly recommend that my readers who have young daughters watch “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” It may make a big difference in how you view your life, and theirs.