The Van Normans ranch in the Great Basin area of the Northwest. They are horseback every day. And their remuda is one of the best.

Working cattle on the Van Norman Ranch. Photo by Jim Jennings.

By Jim Jennings in America’s Horse

When I arrived in Elko, Nevada, the evening of June 10, 2002, I called Bill Van Norman to see what time he wanted me at his house the next morning.

“Oh, about 6 o’clock, Jim.”

“Bill,” I asked, “what time does it get daylight here?”

“About 5.”

Relieved, I realized that at 6 a.m. it would be light enough to take pictures. Back home in Amarillo, two time zones away, it’s barely light enough to see at 6 in the morning.

Bill added, “By the way, Jim, did you bring a jacket? It snowed two inches here this morning.”

Not only was I two time zones away from the 90-degree heat in Amarillo, I was 3,500 feet higher and several hundred miles farther north. Elko is in northern Nevada, and although the small community of Tuscarora, near which Van Norman Ranches are located, is only slightly north of Elko, it is even higher, up around 6,400 feet.

Ranchers like the Van Normans have perfected their breeding program, and you can, too. Download AQHA’s Equine Breeding Techniques report, and learn the fundamentals of a solid breeding program.

But the snow didn’t last, and shortly after 6 the following morning we were in Bill’s pickup truck, climbing a mountain. We were looking for a group of yearling colts, turned out for the summer in a mountain pasture. Bill wanted to show them to me. He was proud of them and wanted me to know why Van Norman Ranches was the 2001 winner of the AQHA-Bayer Best Remuda Award. The Van Normans ride good horses.

It was Bill’s father, Charlie, who put the ranches together. He and his wife, Della, bought a small homestead in Independence Valley, near Tuscarora, in 1945, and through the years they added to it. In later years, their sons, Bill and Robin, and their respective families, took over operation of the ranches. When Charlie died in 1996, and Della in 2000, the ranches were firmly established and continue to operate today.

Van Norman Ranches is a cow outfit. They run about 1,400 cows, calve in the spring, usually in April, and carry those calves throughout the winter. They are then sold as yearlings the next fall.

But winter comes early in northern Nevada and lasts a long time. Most years find the Van Normans feeding their cattle by mid-December, and they don’t quit until the middle of April, when the snow melts. There have been years when they had to start feeding as early as the first of November, and the demands are high, from one and a half to two tons of hay per cow. Winter temperatures can get as cold as 40 below zero, but that’s rare. Most winter nights are in the 10 degree range, and daytime temperatures are usually in the 20s and 30s.

Cow outfits in the Great Basin – that high desert, sagebrush sea that touches the states of Utah, Idaho and California, but lies mostly in northern Nevada and eastern Oregon – are typically big and cover some rough country. Horses are a requirement, and the Van Norman Ranches is no exception.

Bill and Robin’s dad, Charlie, grew up in northern California, where Charlie’s father was superintendent of the Gerlach Livestock Company. Good horses were a way of life on the Gerlach, and when Charlie came to Nevada, he brought that tradition with him.

Charlie and Della bought the geldings they used as they were establishing their ranches, but when Bill returned from the Army, he introduced a new line of thinking to the family. He felt they should start raising their own. They knew the kind they wanted to ride, so why not start breeding them? In 1969, Bill leased a band of mares and a buckskin stallion named Johnny Carlo from Melvin Jones of Carlin, Nevada, and they had their start.

Johnny Carlo went back to Nick Shoemaker on the top side and Joe Bailey on the bottom. He was foundation bred and sired cow horses that had good bone, size and disposition. As Charlie and Bill continued to upgrade their horse herd, those were the characteristics they were looking for.

And the breeding of their horses today reflect those characteristics.

All the mares are pasture bred, with the stallions turned out in May. They raise all the horses used on the ranch and ride mostly geldings, although they try to ride all the fillies that go back into the broodmare band and will occasionally ride a mare for ranch work. Those not used are sold.

As mentioned before, winters are harsh, but the horses are accustomed to it. Bill said, “We don’t feed our mares much hay or grain. There’s normally plenty of grass in the hay meadows in the summer, and during the winter, if the grass is down there, they’ll paw that snow off.

“Besides,” he continued, “they winter with the cows. When we feed the cows, the mares push in there and get some hay. But two months before they foal, they start getting alfalfa.

“These mares were born here, and they know how to survive. You go to California or Texas and buy one, and bring her up here, she’s going to die if you don’t take care of her. It takes them a couple of years to get accustomed to the weather.”

It’s a horseback operation, and when there’s work to be done, everyone is horseback, including Bill’s wife, Geri, their son Ty and Ty’s wife, Ronda. In the Great Basin, cowboys – or buckaroos, as they are called there – take many of their traditions from the early day California vaqueros. That includes their equipment and how they ride their horses.

“We will start riding our colts in the spring of their 2-year-old year,” Bill said, “but we will only ride them about 10 times and then turn them out for six months. We’ll start using them when they are long 2’s. They’ll still get some breaks, but from then on they are pretty much a part of the string.

“We’ll ride them in a snaffle bit until they are 4 or 5 years old,” he continued, “and then put them in a hackamore (bosal) for a year or two. Then they’ll be in the two-rein for a couple of years, and then into the bridle.

Bill explained that with the two-rein, the horse is ridden with the hackamore, but under the hackamore is a full bridle with a curb bit, usually a spade or half-breed. The horse might carry the bridle with no reins attached to the bit for a few days, as he learns to hold it in his mouth. Then the reins are added, and for the next year or so, he is ridden with both the bridle and the hackamore. As the horse gains experience, the reins to the hackamore are used less and those to the bridle more.

From the first-time breeder to the experienced individual who wants a refresher course in mare care, this report is an excellent source of information and tips. AQHA’s detailed Equine Breeding Techniques report guides you through the entire process.

“We believe their teeth aren’t mature enough for a bridle until they are at least 6 or 7,” Bill said. “Of course, there are a lot of horses that are not done that way, but if you’ve got a nice horse and you plan on showing him in the bridle, it’s definitely the best way to go.”

It was midmorning as we drove down off the mountain. We had already shed our jackets in the rapidly warming morning, and Bill figured that Ty and the others had the cattle gathered and were at the branding pen, which was the plan for that day. Bill’s mind hadn’t been far from there all morning. Even though our mount so far had been the pickup, he had been wearing his chinks (chaps) and spurs since before 6, and his horse was patiently standing in the trailer waiting on him.

Bill jumped his horse out, pulls up the cinch and steps aboard. As he shook out his rope, he motioned for me to follow him into the branding pen. He wanted to show me another reason why Van Norman Ranches was judged to have the best remuda.

Back in the day, Old Fred sired both sprinters and working ranch horses.

Old Fred. AQHA file photo.

From a 1947 issue of Quarter Horse Magazine

Over on the western slope of the Rockies, Don De Mars was talking to Coke Roberds and a few other horsemen. Don asked Mr. Roberds which horse – of all the Quarter Horses he had ever known – he would rather have back if such a thing were possible. And Mr. Roberds (who has been watching, working, and breeding Quarter Horses since the frontier days – and who owned Peter McCue, the fastest Quarter Horse and the greatest Quarter sire ever in Colorado, during his final breeding years) replied without hesitation: “Old Fred. I would rather have Fred than any horse I’ve ever seen. There was only one Fred,” he said, “and there may never be another; for to me he is the horse of a lifetime spent with and for good horses.”

Learn everything there is to know about Peter McCue from his humble beginnings, his race career, where he lived, his owners and much more in AQHA’s FREE report, The Gospel According to Peter.

Old Fred, foaled in the last decade of the 1800s, set the family strain of a great percentage of the Quarter Horses in the Colorado region, and many good horsemen believe him to be the best palomino horse ever foaled. Not only was Old Fred responsible for some of the best Quarter Horses in that state but also most of the palomino horses bred there.

Old Fred was approximately the size of Peter McCue and was brought to Pueblo, Colorado, from Springfield, Missouri, as a 2-year-old. He, along with a palomino filly, was purchased and taken to Hayden. It was here he became known as Old Fred and the mare as Blondie.

Old Fred was by a horse called Black Ball, he by Missouri Rondo, he by Missouri Mike and he by Printer by Cold Deck. Black Ball was out of a mare called Nan, who was part Standardbred. Old Fred was out of a palomino mare by John Crowder by Old Billy. Black Ball was a black horse with white stockings and a blaze face. Nan was the same color.

Truly a great sire, Old Fred sired such notable horses as Bob H, Fred Litz, Pet, Papoose, Old Stockings and many others.

When Don De Mars asked Coke Roberds if he believed Fred to have been as much responsible for speed in his horses as was Peter McCue, the elder horseman’s answer was, “Fred sired Bob H.” Bob H still holds the Hayden track record  for a quarter in twenty-three and two-fifths. He was by Fred and out of Queen Litz, a Thoroughbred mare. When 2 years old, Bob H was purchased from Coke Roberds by Marshall Peavy and remained on the Peavy Ranch until he was accidentally killed six years later. Peavy took the Blue Mare by Bob H, and out of a roan mare by Primero, and bred her back to Bob H. The result was Papoose. Papoose was one of the fastest Quarter Horses in that region (winning 27 races before being beaten) and later produced some of the greatest Peavy horses by Ding Bob, who was by Brown Dick and out of Mary McCue.

When Papoose was quite old, Marshall Peavy gave her to Jack Casement. For him, she produced two foals by Red Dog, one of which was Cherokee Maiden.

Blondie, the mare that was purchased along with Old Fred, became the property of Charles Eckstine of Steamboat Springs. This one-time owner of the fastest relay string in the United States bred Blondie to a horse called Big Black. This mating produced a sorrel mare known as Tiny Eckstine, and she was purchased by Lawrance Peavy, who in turn bred her to Bob H. This produced the famous mare, Fleet. Fleet was a sorrel, but when bred to Ding Bob (a brownish dun-colored horse), she foaled five palominos and five sorrels.

Of the palominos, Saladin and Trudy were probably most well-known, while Mary K, Melody and Candy proved most outstanding of the sorrels. Evelyn Peavy Semotan gave Saladin to Marshall Peavy as a colt, and that young stallion sired some fine colts for him. It was said of Trudy that you could tie on to the biggest, wildest cow, and you might break the rope, but they never put Trudy off her feet. She raced well, too – showed good speed on the track. Mary K was the fastest of Fleet’s colts and certainly is a success as a broodmare.

These horses have been mentioned in an effort to show that Old Fred was a sire of sprinters, as well as producing ideal cow horses that could stand up under the hard use required of them in their native home.

What made Peter McCue such an instrumental stallion in the early 1900s? Determine for yourself in The Gospel According to Peter.

Old Fred was an outstanding sire of broodmares. Out of Primero mares, he sired Stockings and Pet for Coke Roberds. When these mares were bred to Peter McCue, they produced such notable horses as Squaw, who won 49 out of 50 races and later proved her worth as a broodmare, Buck Thomas, who did so much good in Texas, and Peter McCue II, a great sire.

Pet is most famous for her son, the Sheik, by Peter McCue. Sheik proved himself a worthy grandson of Old Fred.

The greatness of Old Fred is still very much in evidence. His blood can be found in top horses (and especially palominos) in all parts of the United States – striking evidence that the prejudiced breeders who say yellow horses are incapable of winning and unable to do the work required of the breed are not only wrong but are completely unfair in their biased opinion.

Since 1850, the Saunders family has helped write Texas history.

Thomas Saunders V rides Red Hot Powder to round up some young horses to be branded and gelded. Journal photo

From America’s Horse

Tom Bailey Saunders wouldn’t have believed a word of it. In fact, some men of his era might have tried to shut you up with a dose of frontier justice.

This patriarch, born in 1816, moved to Texas in 1850 and saw several of his sons grow up to make names for themselves in the rapidly developing cattle industry. He saw his grandson develop the same sense of entrepreneurship that later made him the largest cattle dealer in the United States.

But what’s going on today? Pshaw!

For starters, his kinfolk – six generations later – are still ranching in Texas. And they’re finding innovative ways of doing it, ways that weren’t even imagined in the mid-19th century.

Tom B. Saunders IV and his son, Thomas V, operate Saunders Ranch in Weatherford, Texas, where the family has been since 1934.

“Ranching’s not really a business,” Tom B. says. “It’s a way of life.”

That cowboy lifestyle is one that is often celebrated on the big screen, and a whole host of companies and products want to tap into its simple power and beauty for advertising purposes. So, entrepreneurs know that where there’s demand, there’s opportunity.

Be prepared to provide excellent mare and foal care – AQHA will guide you with Equine Breeding Techniques and Foal Health Tips!

Saunders horses and cattle have appeared in ads for Pfizer, Applebee’s restaurant and Bud Light, just to name a few. And the family has supplied livestock for films that include “The Alamo,” “Secondhand Lions” and the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones film “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.”

“Tommy Lee liked our horses real well, so that was good,” Thomas says with a chuckle.

Thomas has also appeared in RFD-TV’s, “Extreme Cowboy Race,” which he won in 2005. He was a behind-the-scenes riding coach for PBS’s “Texas Ranch House,” and he appeared on screen in a brief speaking role as a cattle procurer.

“We have a lot of fun with that stuff,” he says. “It kind of supplements the drought, but we’re really rooted in our cattle business.”

The family runs about 600 head of cattle in Texas and Arkansas. About half of them calve in the spring, and the rest in the fall.

So what would the first Tom Bailey Saunders think to do with fall calves? It’s doubtful that he’d agree to hustle them around an indoor arena and run some of that valuable flesh off.

But his descendants have found a good market in providing calves to the Fort Worth Stock Show, a ranch rodeo held in Fort Worth and cutting competitions put on by AQHA, the National Cutting Horse Association and other groups with which the family has longstanding ties.

“We feel real good about being able to be a part of that,” Thomas says.

And when it’s time to brand the calves – or tackle just about any project around the ranch – “it’s pretty much a family affair,” says Thomas’ sister, Ann Catherine Williams.

Ann Catherine and her family, along with sister Amy Haydon and her family, pitch in. The tight-knit siblings all live on or near the ranch, as do their parents. Each family contributes in its own way. Ann Catherine’s husband, Perry, helps with the horses, and Amy’s husband, Joel, is a master welder and fixit man.

Thomas says, “My sisters married good men who contribute much to our operation.” His own wife, Lynn, is known as the “saint” who makes it possible for him to cover as much ground as he does.

For Tom B., watching his grandchildren grow up roping and riding in the Saunders tradition “couldn’t be any better. We’ve got a ‘bubblegum crew,’ we call it.” The family has a few full-time employees and occasional day workers, “but we’ve got a family that will pretty well do it all, and these girls are just as good a hand as these boys. That’s what makes it good. That’s the pair of queens right there,” he says, gesturing to Madalynn and Leslie Ann, Thomas’ daughters who were helping gather a pasture of cattle.

The seventh generation is rounded out by Ann Catherine’s son, Jordan, and Amy’s daughters, Mamie Catherine and Caroline.

Jordan and Madalynn compete in cutting, which hearkens back to another family tradition.

Tom B. Saunders III – father of the current patriarch – helped found the National Cutting Horse Association in 1947, and he served as the group’s second president. Later, his daughter married Jim Calhoun, who owned and trained 1957 NCHA world champion cutting horse King’s Pistol. Both Tom B. III and Jim were inducted into the NCHA Hall of Fame.

Tom B. IV continued those traditions, raising good horses and plenty of good cattle in partnership with Jim.

“We were real fortunate in growing up,” Thomas says. “We always had good horses to ride. In order to make good horses, you pretty much have to know what a good horse is.”

Thomas’ family encouraged his interest, and others furthered his education, including an employee who was a top hand with a horse; John Ed Rogers, a friend who found considerable success in the cutting pen; and AQHA judge Bill Glass. The young Thomas also found mentors in Bob Moorhouse, manager of the famed Pitchfork Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, and Craig Cameron, who later became a well-known clinician.

“I grew up in the right spot,” Thomas says, “with guys who had a good, soft touch on the horse. It was all about getting one to ‘cow’ and getting a horse to help you, not just telling a horse what to do all the time.”

He began traveling to large ranches to start colts and help show ranch cowboys a better way to bring their young horses along. He has given Versatility Ranch Horse clinics for AQHA, and he has had a part in developing Road to the Horse, a colt-starting challenge that attracts thousands.

Thomas and brother-in-law Perry also start colts at home. Some of Thomas’ charges have gone on to fame and fortune, like Peppys From Heaven, who won the NCHA nonpro cutting derby in 1991, Red White And Boon, who has won four AQHA and NCHA world championships, Cols Lil Pepper, who won the NCHA Super Stakes Classic and was first at the finals in 1993.

“I never did get where I wanted to go show a lot,” Thomas says. “I just really had a lot of fun starting all of them.”

Perry has a background in training cutting horses, so he helps finish some of the mounts, and he coaches the up-and-coming Saunderses.

AQHA’s detailed Equine Breeding Techniques and Foal Health Tips report guides you through the entire process, from mare care and signs of labor to foaling complications and first-hours foal care.

Today, Saunders ranch has 10 broodmares, and they carry the blood of King’s Pistol. Thomas crosses them on his own stallion, as well as some of the well-bred stallions owned by ranches at which he has started colts.

“Basically, what we’re doing is raising horses that mount us for what our cattle operation demands,” Thomas says, which means that the horses must be solid rope horses and adept at traveling across the hilly terrain of north central Texas. They also have to have plenty of cow sense. “If they fit us, we keep them and ride them up until they’re aged geldings and then sell them.”

And Thomas is hoping that he’s getting to a point in life where he can stay home more, ride more of his own stock and enjoy his family.

“I sure don’t want to shut out anything,” he says of opportunities on the horizon, “but I want to remember this time with my family, too.”

His mother, Ann, knows how important that is. The family is gathered on this cool Texas evening, sitting on the patio with glasses of iced tea, just a stone’s throw from a bunkhouse converted into a family museum. Photos there date from the early 1800s and several lifetime’s worth of memories line the walls.

“Family has really been important to us all,” Ann says, as the seventh generation of Saunderses mills around her. “In fact, it really is the No. 1 thing.”

AQHA offers naming options for your horses.

Reserve your next foal's registered name. Journal photo

From The Q-Racing Journal

Expecting a foal within the next year? Got a registered name in mind for that baby, but you’re afraid someone else might take it? Here are some tips for how you can best use AQHA’s registration options.

Reserve a Name: You can reserve a foal name for $75 for one year. The name you reserve must meet all AQHA naming guidelines as stated in Rule 214 in the AQHA handbook. Foal name reservations are only good for one year. However, you can renew that reservation for another $75. AQHA completed 90 name reservations in 2011.

Re-Use a Name: Rule 214 was amended to allow some registered names to be reused. But don’t get your hopes up – Wimpy P-1 is not available.

Originally, Rule 214 stated: “Each horse for which registration is applied must be given a name, acceptable to AQHA, which does not conflict with the name of any other horse registered with AQHA, either living or dead.”

Get easy-to-understand instructions on the management of this specialized breeding program with AQHA’s “Artificial Insemination With Cooled Shipped Semen.”

As amended, Rule 214 allows a name to be reused if “the horse originally issued the name is deceased as evidenced by AQHA records, does not have a performance record (race or show), does not have offspring with a performance record (race or show), has not received any AQHA special achievement recognition award or affiliate recognition that appear on AQHA records as an award, and must not have produce or get younger than 10 years of age, or any with a performance record (race or show), nor any AQHA special achievement recognition award or affiliate recognition that appear on AQHA records as an award.”

Name Change: Don’t like your registered horse’s name? An AQHA rule allows you to change a horse’s name for $55 as long as the horse has not “(a)
competed in an AQHA show or special event; (b) started in a recognized race; (c) earned a special achievement recognition award as per Rule 440; (d) earned any money or award with an AQHA affiliate as shown on AQHA records; or (e) appeared on any breeding document submitted to AQHA.”

Sound-alike names are allowed, as long as they are spelled differently. For example, Cool Cash or Kool Cash are accepted spellings and acceptable registered names for a horse name that sounds the same. (By the way, those two names are already taken in the registry.)

“If a name that you want is already taken, a lot of people are putting their initials in front of the name to use that name for their horse,” says La Donna Wilkinson, AQHA director of registration.

Order AQHA’s “Artificial Insemination With Cooled Shipped Semen” today. AQHA members get a discount!

In 2011, 1,858 Quarter Horse name changes were completed.

“Most owners change a horse’s name because they don’t like the original registered name,” La Donna says. However, there are large breeders and racehorse owners that like to change a horse’s name to more align that horse with their stable or operation.”

New Nutrena SafeChoice horse feed helps owners take the reins for optimal nutrition.

Photo courtesy of Nutrena

From AQHA Corporate Partner Nutrena

Two new veterinarian-recommended Nutrena SafeChoice horse feeds have been put on the market to help improve horse nutrition.

Watch this Nutrena horse feed video to learn about the science behind these new products.

SafeChoice Special Care is an innovative low, controlled-starch formula, ideal for horses with metabolic concerns, easy keepers, miniatures and ponies. It contains no corn or corn co-products and is effective in horses with equine metabolic syndromes such as insulin resistance, Cushing’s, colic and laminitis. SafeChoice Perform is a high-fat, controlled starch formula for performance horses and hard keepers. Energy is sourced from a blend of highly digestible fiber, starch, sugar and fat, which enables horses to maintain stamina and helps in recovery.

Learn about the founding father of many of today’s top show horses with Three Bars (TB) Bloodline report.

The entire SafeChoice product line features the exclusive SmartGrain Formulation, which uses the ideal blend of nutrients to help reduce metabolic disturbances. Prebiotics and probiotics are added to help horses achieve a more efficient absorption of nutrients. Also included are organic trace mineral complexes to support immune system growth and amino acids for muscle development and maintenance. Every bag of Nutrena horse feed delivers consistent nutrients.

“SafeChoice feed has been recognized as a leader in horse feed for many years,” says Jackie Rieck, marketing manager for Nutrena feeds. “The new SafeChoice Special Care and SafeChoice Perform lines will help our customers’ horses achieve their full potential.”

The SafeChoice horse feed line includes the original formula, which will remain unchanged. The packaging will reflect the new look being introduced with the new products.

As a special offer to kick-off these new product lines, consumers can go to www.SafeChoiceFeed.com to register for a coupon for a free bag of SafeChoice® Special Care or Perform. See website for details.

Download your copy of the Three Bars (TB) Bloodline report!

The man who quietly bred some of the best says, “You can breed it out faster than you can put it in.”

John House. Quarter Horse Magazine photo.

From the April 1949 Quarter Horse Magazine

In 1939, a fortune teller at Franklin, Texas, told John W. House that he would someday be a famous horseman. John House laughed at the prediction – he was then 66 years old, and his name was not widely known beyond Milam County in central Texas.

The 10 years following the crystal ball gazer’s prophecy, however, have seen the great breed spread, and the fame of John W. House spread, too. He was a longtime owner of the mighty Joe Reed, Fannie Ashwell and Little Red Nell, the breeder of Joe Reed II, Leo, Joe Butler, Texas Betty, Red Joe of Arizona, Nellene and Little Fanny – names famous throughout today’s far-flung empire of Quarter Horses.

AQHA’s Horse Reproduction report is a four-part guide to pregnant mare care and breeding your horse.

John House grew up with good horses. Born in Milam County just outside of Cameron, Texas, he owned 500 acres of ground that once belonged to his great-grandfather, W.W. Lewis. As a boy, his neighbor was G.W. Wilson, who was responsible for almost all the fast horses in the vicinity at that time. From Kentucky, Mr. Wilson had brought in a Thoroughbred called Old Butler, and in John House’s boyhood, Butler horses were the top speed merchants. He can remember a mare named Fiddle who broke track records at Juarez, Mexico; a bay gelding named Tip, who for a time was unbeatable; and a stallion he often rode named Roan Butler, who sired many good horses in his 30-year lifetime.

Best of all, though, he remembers a gelding given to him by his father when he was 16 years old. He was by Roan Butler and out of a Billy mare, and they called him Little River Dun. Little River Dun was John House’s first horse, and with him, he outran everything in the locality until One-Eyed Kingfisher and the crippled but lightning-fast Thoroughbred, Soup, appeared on the scene.

The low economic value of horse flesh caused John House to move to Cameron when he was 25 years old and although he was never without a few horses, he lived and worked in town until 1933. In that year, his close friend, the pioneer G.W. Wilson, died and willed him the Wilson farm. John House went happily back to full-time breeding of horses that could go a faster quarter.

Learn from the experts with AQHA’s Horse Reproduction report.

It was three years before his move to the farm that another close friend, Henry Lindsey of Granger, Texas, brought the renowned Della Moore to that country for the express purpose of challenging a little bay mare considered a world-beater around Bartlett, Texas. After soundly whipping the bay twice in 200 yards, Henry and Della moved on to the race meet in San Antonio. There, the now-legendary mating of Della Moore and Thoroughbred Joe Blair took place, which produced Joe Reed, a speedy stallion who received one of AQHA’s first registration numbers.

Good neighbors team up to create a top horse.

Streakin Boon Dox. Journal photo.

By Larri Jo Starkey for The American Quarter Horse Journal

Mix a little running blood with some old-school rodeo blood and what do you get?

A year-end junior high-point horse with points in halter, tie-down roping, heading, heeling and pole bending.

Streakin Boon Dox, owned by Joe and Carla Spitz of Lamar, Colorado, is the 2011 AQHA high-point horse, but the versatile bay roan’s beginnings stretch back to South Dakota, when neighbors and friends James Colombe and Brian Fulton had a bright idea.

James sent his proven bay mare PC Joesy Dox to Brian’s red roan stallion, A Streak Of Fling. “Joesy Dox” came from Cowan Cattle Co. in Highmore, South Dakota, where James picked her out in 1988 as a weanling.

Learn about the founding father of many of today’s top show horses with AQHA’s Three Bars (TB) Bloodline report.

“That Boon Bar stud they had (Boon Dox John), was really spectacular,” James says. “I’d ridden some of his colts, and I just liked them. (The year I bought Joesy Dox), there were about 20 head of them, and I wish I’d picked 10 now. There wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference in any of them.”

But Joesy Dox had the keenest head, James says, so she went home to his ranch in Mission, South Dakota, where he rode her on the more than 5,000 acres of pasture until an injury sidelined her to the broodmare band. James had always intended to breed the mare, so he crossed her on Calyx Wish and Sun Frost and still has some of her daughters in his broodmare band.

“I’ve done quite a few things with her,” James says. “It just worked so well with Brian’s stud, we’ve been doing that.”

Streakin Boon Dox was foaled in 2006 from A Streak Of Fling’s second foal crop. Brian and his wife, Lisa, recently talked James into selling Joesy Dox to them. James liked the top side of the mare’s breeding, but Brian and Lisa had personal reasons for liking the bottom side.

“The reason I like this mare so much is that the horse I went to the National Finals Rodeo on in tie-down roping and steer wrestling is Joesy Dox’s mother’s full sister,” Brian says. “And crossed with Boon Dox John for the cowiness.”

Download your copy of The Three Bars (TB) Bloodline!

Brian’s NFR-quality horse, Mr Bar None Cactus, was by Bar None Joe and out of Crow River Sioux by Habit, same as Joesys Rose, the dam of PC Joesy Dox.

“It’s been a nice cross,” Brian says. “She’s just a nice, solid mare. I’m tickled for Jim. It was his mare (that produced Streakin Boon Dox). A Streak Of Fling has been proving himself in the barrel racing as well as the roping, and that’s what’s nice about Streakin Boon Dox.

“What it has proven to me is A Streak Of Fling is a universal sire – he can go any direction. And for the type of mares I like, rodeo horses, that’s where Joesy Dox really fits.”

The 2011 AQHA year-end high-point horses and their breeders were featured in the April 2012 issue of The American Quarter Horse Journal. Don’t miss out on the stories behind Certify This Chex and Brianna Tamulewiz, Hours Yours And Mine and Kaleena Weakly, and the striking red roan mare Vital Signs Are Good.

One of the greatest quarter-mile horses in all history had a typically American “rags to riches” career.

AQHA Hall of Fame horse Joe Hancock. Quarter Horse Magazine photo.

From Quarter Horse Magazine

Out on a Panhandle prairie in the late summer of 1923, a middle-aged horseman stood talking to his son, who had come to visit him. This man had bred some great Quarter Horses, and he owned John Wilkens, one of the truly great sons of Peter McCue. The man’s name was Walter Hancock.

“See that doggie colt out there,” he told his son. “I’m tired of looking at him. Figure out some way to load him up and take him away from here.”

They went next day, the doggie colt in a “wagon” trailer (they all were in the early ’20s) and the son, secretly proud of a chance to “make a horse.” He was a horseman, too, and while he knew that this doggie was out of a Texas range mare of average breeding, he was by John Wilkens, and all the world knew that this son of Peter McCue had phenomenal early speed. John Wilkens was one of those tragedies of the horse world – a horse as truly great a speedster as his sire, but doomed to obscurity because of small, soft feet.

The doggie colt went down in the Henrietta country, and Walter Hancock’s son grew him into a horse of tremendous stature.

He was so big of limb and so strong as to almost be a freak. One had to remember, as they looked at him, that his sire was John Wilkens, a great quarter running horse, and that his grandsire was Peter McCue, greatest dash horse of all time.

Stay up to date with the industry’s most-trusted association publication, The American Quarter Horse Journal.

But young Hancock never forgot it, and in the summer of 1925, he saddled the colt and set out for Oklahoma, which was not far away. He had been working out the colt and knew he wanted more expertness hold of him. He had been writing George Ogles, one of Oklahoma’s finest trainers and notably good at lap and tap racing. Let Ogles take up the story, as told to Lige Reed of Iowa Park.

“This Hancock kid never let up on me about having a sprint horse, and naturally, I paid no attention to him. Finally, to make him quit writing, I told him I’d try the colt out on a basis of feed bills paid in advance. He came right on up with him, and I never saw a more ragged horse. He left him, and the next morning, I decided to break him off. Before I could do it, I had to burr him, and just to look at his feet was enough. I never even picked up the nippers – he had the biggest, roughest, hardest feet I ever saw on a horse. I just took a pole axe and trimmed them like you would a dry mesquite stump.

“Then we took them out, and as I was working a good, fast horse for an early race date, I decided to break the colt away at him. Hancock had him gentle enough, and pretty well-mannered, so I rode him and let my son ride my own racing horse. We went a quarter, and the Hancock colt beat my horse plumb easy.

“ ‘What did you hold my horse in for?’ I asked my son, when we pulled up. ‘I didn’t pa,’ he answered. ‘I spanked him every jump.’

“I was far from sure, so we walked them out, and blew them about an hour, and then I took out my own horse, and put my son on the Hancock colt. All that colt did was daylight me that quarter.

“I was simply knocked over. I couldn’t believe it had happened, but I knew my brother was training an awful good horse and had him fully ready. I asked him to come over and take a fall at the Hancock colt.

“He came right on, and we decided to really blow them out. We put two light boys up, and Hancock won going away.

“That settled it. ‘Boys,’ I said, ‘Joe Hancock is going to work, and he’s going to shake Oklahoma to the roots.’ ”

That describes exactly what happened. Right there on that training track, a great tradition was born – that for a quarter mile, you could not outrun Joe Hancock, and for greater distances, he would outrun you so far early in the race you could not overhaul him with a good distance horse. George Ogles stated flatly to Lige Reed that while he raced him – and he was the only man who ever race him – he was unbeaten at any distance. There is only one contradiction. There is a statement made by one man that he rode the Mountain mare against Joe Hancock in a half-mile race and beat him. No one ever claimed to have beaten him at a quarter mile or under. Repeated instances are claimed that Joe Hancock broke 22 seconds for a quarter mile from a flying start. He ran on Oklahoma and North Texas tracks for nearly five years and beat so many good horses he could not be matched or entered, so Ogles decided to sell him (he had purchased him by prior agreement from Hancock) for retirement to stud service.

The Journal brings readers the stories, articles, statistics and information they depend on for success in their horse business or hobby. Subscribe today!

This was done in late 1931, and the final chapter of this great Quarter Horse’s life proved as noteworthy as the first. He was always in good hands and became a great Quarter Horse sire and showed such great prepotency that even before the resurgency of Quarter Horse activity in the Southwest, he was lifting the level of ranch and roping and running performance horses single handedly. He was used extensively, on all types of mares, and like his prepotent grandsire, Peter McCue, could bring you a Quarter Horse from all types. His get had every quality. They could work cattle superbly, perform in the rodeo arena and run. They had the build, stamina and intelligence of true Quarter Horses.

Joe Hancock died in 1944 but his sire line proved in his sons. They, too, produced great Quarter Horses, and his grandsons followed the family’s greatness. Among notable sires in his group of sons are Joe Tom, Red Man, Roan Hancock, Joe Hancock’s Steeldust and King County Joe. There are others, of course, and other generations continue to do well in the show ring, on the ranch and on the track.

Joe Hancock was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1992.

This Canadian ranch nurtures kids, calves and colts.

Kids and colts prosper on the ranch. Above, Logan Bird, his cousin, Stran Schlosser, and his sister, Lakota Bird, are growing up horseback. Journal photo.

From America’s Horse

It’s a crisp June morning in 2003, and Monica Schlosser springs into the saddle ready to go help her family gather cattle for a branding. Her husband, Blake, hands her a pillow, then hoists up their 2-year-old daughter, Reata.

“If I get to go, she gets to go,” Monica says. Sitting on her cushion, Reata relaxes to the horse’s cadenced walk and is asleep by the time her mom makes it to the pasture. She won’t see much of the gather that day, but she’ll have plenty of other chances. Growing up on the 10,000-acre Rocking P Ranch near Nanton, Alberta, Reata and her brother, Stran – who’s mature far beyond his 4 years and rides his own “big” horse – are likely to have an idyllic childhood much like their mother’s.

One of AQHA members’ favorite member benefits is America’s Horse magazine. Ten times a year, you’ll find stories like this Rocking P feature, plus training tips, health articles and information on horse events in your area. Join AQHA today, and start enjoying America’s Horse magazine!

“I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” says Monica, who grew up on the ranch with her younger brother, Justin, her older sister, Shawna, and 11 cousins nearby.

When they were young, the cousins would saddle up and ride to one another’s houses, where they’d play cowboys and Indians until they got hungry. Then they rode to Grandma’s house around the hill for homemade cookies and hot tea.

The kids always helped with brandings and roundups, and today, as adults, many of them still do. By the time Monica and her family have penned the cows and calves to be worked, another herd has shown up – relatives, neighbors and the few people hired to hold the calves for doctoring.

Ropers ease into the herd of calves that have been separated from their mothers, and swing a loop around a pair of heels. The calves are dragged to the end of the pen, where hands go to work with branding irons, syringes and castration knives. The work is done quickly and with seemingly little stress to the calves.

Ranch owners Mac and Renie Blades – parents to Shawna, Monica and Justin – take turns roping calves and working on the ground. For them, this family friendly style of ranching is a way of life that goes back several generations.

Mac’s grandfather, a Scotsman named Rod Macleay, homesteaded the land just east of the Canadian Rockies in 1900. He bought out others in the area and built up substantial holdings that he passed on to his two daughters. Mac’s mother, Dorothy Blades, later split her portion of the ranch among her five children.

Today, Mac and his immediate family run 600 cows – mostly Hereford and Angus – on their land. The cows start calving around the first of April, and by June, it’s time to brand. Afterward, the cows and calves spend their summers grazing on rangeland that’s 27 miles – a two-day horseback ride – from ranch headquarters. Yearlings are sent to 180 sections of government-owned forestry land that’s another day’s ride away.

Moving the cattle is part of the range management plan that ensures there’s enough native grass on the ranch to get the cattle through the winter without supplemental feeding. It’s also an excuse to take a pack trip.

The family packs up – kids included – to drive the cattle to their summer grassland. It’s usually another pack trip when it’s time to gather the cattle back up in the fall. The forestry land butts up against the Continental Divide, and it’s home to lots of grizzly bears and wolves that pose a threat to the 800 yearling calves. “Last year, we lost five to the wolves,” Mac says, but that’s just a part of ranching in the Rockies.

Roundups on the forestry land entail a lot of time horseback, Blake says, because “it’s a lot of country to cover to find a few cattle. But nobody complains too much.”

The family built a cabin on some deeded land in the forestry reserve, and Renie says sometimes there are 15 or 20 people who go along to help.

Monica first began taking her children on the pack trips when they were less than a year old. She simply packed up diapers and formula and made sure they had plenty of warm clothes. “They had a blast,” she said, “cooking marshmallows on the fire.”

It’s one of the best parts of being an AQHA or AQHYA member! The award-winning America’s Horse magazine is the largest equine member publication in the world, reaching more than 300,000 mailboxes 10 times a year.

As you might expect, covering that much country and working with that many cattle, good horses are a necessity. Monica and Blake head up the ranch’s breeding program, using a stallion named Zans Perscription, a grandson of champion halter and roping horse Zan Parr Bar.

Blake, who has been a pickup man at the Canadian Finals Rodeo five times and has also trained extensively with natural horseman Ray Hunt, breaks the colts. Most of them are sold private treaty as 2- and 3-year-olds.

His father-in-law is quick to brag on the soft-spoken Blake. “When people hear that Blake started a colt, they’re not hard to sell,” Mac says.

Nineteen yearlings await their turn under saddle, and 19 more babies are due to hit the ground in April and May. They’ll grow up – much like their human counterparts – in the shadow of snow-capped mountains, roaming over acres of unblemished grassland.

On that day in 2003, Monica reflected on the future that’s in store for her own children. “As far as I can tell,” she says, “there’s nothing else like it.”

AQHA now offers a horse coat color test and individual coat color tests.

Determine the actual coat color of your horse. Journal photo.

AQHA is now offering several coat color tests, including a panel test, individual color tests and gray zygosity test. This test is designed to determine the actual coat color of a horse.

These tests can be done in the panel, as well as individually. If done as a panel, the cost is $85 for members and $125 for nonmembers. If ordering individual tests, the cost for members is $25 for each test, and nonmembers pay $65 for each test. Please note, roan is a separate test and not included in the panel test.

Get answers to all your coat color questions with AQHA’s Quarter Horse Coat Colors report.

The gray zygosity test determines if one or two copies of the gray gene are carried in the horse. The gray zygosity test is an additional $15 for members and $55 for nonmembers.

The coat color panel test includes:

Extension (Presence of red/black pigment)
Agouti
Champagne dilution
Cream dilution
Dun dilution
Pearl dilution
Silver dilution
Gray (presence or absence of gray) – additional testing required
Lethal white overo

To order color tests, call AQHA at (806) 376-4811 and get the process started today.

AQHA’s equine color specialists are available during regular AQHA business hours to answer your coat color questions. Simply call (806) 376-4811. You can also ask your color questions on AQHA’s Facebook page at any time.

The valuable Quarter Horse Coat Colors report is a great addition to any horse lover’s library, and it’s an excellent resource for breeders who aspire to breed for certain colors.

To give you personalized, fast advice, AQHA equine color specialist Lisa Covey will be on AQHA’s Facebook page from 2 to 4 p.m. each Friday through June to answer your coat color questions.

Follow AAEP biosecurity guidelines to reduce the risk of infectious disease transmission during breeding season.

Reduce your horse

From the American Association of Equine Practitioners

The American Association of Equine Practitioners urges those involved in the breeding management of mares and stallions to reduce the risk of venereally transmitted diseases by utilizing the association’s “Biosecurity Guidelines for Control of Venereally Transmitted Diseases.” Developed in 2011 by the AAEP Infectious Disease Committee, the guidelines focus on controlling the transmission of equine arteritis virus, contagious equine metritis and equine herpesvirus-3.

Whether horses are part of a natural breeding program or an artificial insemination program, EAV, CEM and EHV-3 are highly contagious and have been shown to be transmittable between animals by direct horse-to-horse contact, contaminated semen, and also by indirect contact through the use of contaminated equipment and the personnel participating in the semen-collection process.

AQHA membership gives you discounts on many corporate partner products, the award-winning America’s Horse magazine and much more! Join today.

The guidelines provide recommendations for developing a biosecurity program for horses at a breeding facility, including the pre-breeding care of stallions and mares and protocols for natural breeding and artificial insemination.

“The horse industry has experienced a number of serious infectious diseases over the last four years, including an outbreak of contagious equine metritis,” says Dr. Linda Mittel, chairwoman of the infectious disease committee.  “CEM reemerged in late 2008 after being considered eradicated and was a devastating infection for the breeding industry, causing infertility, repeat breedings, as well as trade sanctions for semen and the shipping of horses. Biosecurity procedures are essential for all breeding activities in order to prevent future outbreaks.”

Become an AQHA member today and get the most out of your horse lifestyle.

Download the biosecurity guidelines for full details.

AAEP, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health and welfare of the horse. AAEP, an AQHA alliance partner, reaches more than 5 million horse owners through its nearly 10,000 members worldwide and is actively involved in ethics issues, practice management, research and continuing education in the equine veterinary profession and horse industry.

Question Mark was the definition of a great American Quarter Horse.

From America’s Horse

The great American Quarter Horse, Question Mark. AQHA file photo.

This gentle, golden stallion displayed the talent and heart of a great American Quarter Horse.

“Question Mark was so gentle, and the best thing you ever saw,” said Ray Cates, whose father, J.R., bought the stallion in 1947. “He was a good-looking horse. He could run, and he had a lot of sense. You could put a little kid up on him, and he’d walk around with him – we did that a lot out in the pasture.”

That pasture was on 80 acres in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Bred by Waite Phillips and foaled in 1937 at Cimarron, New Mexico, Question Mark was by the Quarter Horse Plaudit, a son of the Thoroughbred King Plaudit, whose sire was 1898 Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit. Question Mark’s dam was Pepito, a speedy Thoroughbred mare by Kenward who once held the 3/8ths-mile record at Tanforan Racetrack near San Francisco.

“As handsome a horse as I ever saw was Question Mark,” wrote Bob Denhardt in the April 1957 Quarter Horse Journal. “He stood 15 hands and weighed in good flesh about 1,250 pounds. The crooked blaze on his face, running from his nose to his forehead, gave him his name. Head, neck, shoulders, middle, loin, rear quarters – all were beautifully balanced and added up to a picture horse. He had beautiful small feet and straight legs with excellent flat bone. His gaskins and forearms bespoke speed and power. The large, soft eyes showed intelligent alertness, pride and spirit.”

The American Quarter Horse Association Incentive Fund is a program that rewards you for breeding and showing American Quarter Horses.

Bob first saw Quarter Mark at the track, when Frankie Burns was saddling him for a three-horse race at Trinidad, Colorado.

“Joe Lewis, who had been burning up the short tracks, was to run a half mile against two newcomers, a palomino son of Plaudit and a lanky sorrel filly sired by Cowboy named Shue Fly,” he continued. “Nobody gave the two rank outsiders much of a chance. In order to get some bets, they were taking bets at every eight pole.

“The colt we saw (Question Mark) was the smartest it had ever been my privilege to see,” Bob wrote. “I told Jim (Minnick, AQHA’s first inspector) such a picture horse could never run in this company. It just wasn’t in the cards.”

Nelson Nye picks up the story: “They were to run a half mile with a judge at each eighth pole. Golden Question Mark held the lead at the eighth; Shue Fly took over at the quarter. Somewhere between that first eighth and the quarter, Question Mark staggered, slowed up for a bit, yet came on to win. The astonishing thing is not that he lasted that full half mile but that he had the courage, the gallant heart, to overtake and pass the great Hepler mare on a broken pastern joint. The applause was tumultuous and redoubled in volume when the Trinidad crowd was told what he had done. He had to be helped into the winners circle, and when it was announced he had run his last race, more than one pair of eyes shed unashamed tears.”

The AQHA Incentive Fund pays participants for showing and breeding their American Quarter Horses.

While the broken pastern forced him from racing, Question Mark still could walk and trot. In 1945, he was the grand champion palomino of the stock horse division at the Fort Worth stock show, where the following year he was the overall grand champion. A year later, he stood grand at Tulsa and the Denver National Western, where that same year his daughter My Question topped out as the best 2-year-old mare and grand champion stock horse mare. And that was out of only 246 foals ever registered to his credit.

“Like other truly great sires of this Quarter Horse breed, Question Mark has gotten good stock out of all kinds of mares, very few of which were top ones,” wrote Nelson Nye (under the pen name Montague Rockingham) in the April 1963 Quarter Horse Journal.

Question Mark was a great broodmare sire, too. Bred to Everett Jr (TB), his daughter Savannah Gray produced two stakes winners, Savannah Cates and champion Savannah Jr, both of whom were bred by J.R. Cates. Racing in Ray’s name, Savannah Jr in 1965 won the All American, Oklahoma and Sunland Fall futurities. The golden stallion, in short, had it all.