Soften your working cow horse by rating a cow.

When you first begin rating training, track the cow at the same speed and cadence the cow is going. Journal photo.

By Andy Adams with Andrea Caudill in The American Quarter Horse Journal

One of the common non-pro mistakes I see in the working cow horse pen is the failure to accurately rate. That is, the horse finding the correct position to be in and waiting for his rider’s cues to step past that cow and turn. Too often, I see a rider pulling on his horse trying to get him to stay in position, then letting go of the reins and kicking to get past that cow all at once. I like my horses to be relaxed in rating and comfortable wherever they’re at. That’s an important deal because I don’t have to kick or pull on my horse to get him in the correct position. If a horse has any cow in him at all, if you have the rate on him and then step by that cow, nine times out of 10, the horse is going to turn. The more I’ve been around, the more I believe a good fence horse is born, not made. All we’ve got to do is stay out of his way, make sure he’s comfortable to do his job, and he’ll do it.

I use this exercise as soon as I start a young horse on cattle. It doesn’t matter if it’s a cow horse, a cutting horse or rope horse, I start them the same way, tracking a cow in my big round pen. It doesn’t have any corners that the cow can get caught in, and it’s large enough we can work safely and, if I need to, I can take a lot of pressure off my horse by coming closer to the center.

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This exercise is even more important for my older bridle horses, even after they’ve gone down the fence and been shown, to just come back, track that cow and rate. I know sometimes I get too caught up in working on position and working on the cutting. But once horses know how to go down the fence, it seems like I always come back to this as they get older and as I start showing them.

We start rope horses this way, too. I don’t rope very good, so I want my horse to get in position and be comfortable and give me chance to rope; it is way easier if you’re not having to pull on him.

Tracking

When I start out, I put my horse where he’s comfortable. I want him to start looking for that cow, tracking it around and going where the cow goes. I don’t care if he’s 10 lengths behind that cow. If that’s where he’s comfortable, if that’s where I’m not having to pull on him, that’s where we are. Eventually, that horse is either going to get more comfortable and get closer, or the horse and the cow are going to get tired enough that they end up closer anyway.

We start out just going where the cow goes. Don’t cross the pen to get to the cow – follow her path exactly. I like to go the same pace and same cadence as the cow. Move up close, then pull that horse back off. Rate him from two lengths, from three lengths, four lengths or right up alongside the cow’s hip.

If my horse gets to a spot where he’s not comfortable, I’ll take him off the cow and go lope him around, soften him up, soften his face. I don’t like to be pulling on horses a whole lot when they’re fretting about a cow. I just take him away from that cow, soften him up, maybe walk him around a little bit, let his mind rest, then go back at it.

Schooling

Tracking that cow also gives me a chance to work on my dry work without the horse really thinking about it. I’m going to let my horse track that cow, but I also want to check once in a while and make sure I’m still driving – this is reined cow horse, after all.

We’re going to change speeds with that cow, and it’s a real good place to work on transitions. I try to relate my reining and cow work, try to make it all make sense for my horse. If that cow’s going along there fast and I want to slow down, I just sit down in my seat, just like a transition from a large fast circle to a small slow one. When that cow changes direction, I can work on my lead changes without the horse fretting.

There’s a lot of times that cow will step into you or step away from you, and you’ve got to move but you can’t give up ground on that cow or she’s going to eat your lunch. So I make sure I can move my horse wherever I put him. I move my horse back and forth laterally across that cow, dictating where that cow goes by moving to one side or the other.

A big key in making the horse comfortable is not schooling him right there at the cow. Don’t keep hammering on him to get him up close. If a horse doesn’t want to be up close, it doesn’t do any good to kick him up there because once you kick him up there, generally you’re going to have to pull on him. I like to ease my way on up there and make him comfortable wherever he’s at. I try not to get stuck so much on position, position, position, position. I want that to be good, but I also want the horse to be comfortable wherever I take him.

A lot of people, especially coming from a cutting background, say don’t ever turn that horse away from that cow. But every one in a while, I’ll just lope on away from her, soften my horse some, then just go back. It’s kind of like stepping by one, because a lot of times we work and get these horses really tight on a cow, and we can get in trouble getting a horse where he’s real cowy, boy, we love that and don’t want to take it away, but then we have trouble pushing him by. I also want that horse to be soft and relaxed, so I want to make sure that not only is he comfortable to rate, but I want to make sure he is comfortable stepping by, too, and going wherever I ask him to.

If I feel any kind of tightness at all on that cow when I’m not asking for intensity, I want to soften my horse and get him relaxed. I just take him clear away from it. I relate it to being too close to the problem, you can’t see it – just get away form the problem a minute. Let him relax, then come on back.

If I move to the outside and my cow slows down, I can work on circling without pressure. If my horse doesn’t know how, I can just circle way wide. That cow doesn’t have to move for me to circle her.

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Learning the Rate

I don’t want my horse to be intense all the time. I want him there when I ask, but when I don’t want it, I want him to just relax. In working cow horse, position is important, but sometimes we have to ride through some really tricky spots to get the job done. I don’t want to have to spur or pull my horse over real hard, I want him to say “OK, Boss, I’ll go where you tell me to and we’ll get this thing done.”

I just want him to go out there and do what I ask him to do. I don’t want him to get into a pattern of running and going down the fence, where that’s just a pattern, because in cow horse, it’s not a pattern. I have to make sure he’s comfortable and listening at all times.

Using this exercise sure helps me do that, vs. going and hammering down the fence trying to train a horse at high speed. I’ll do that once in awhile and do this a lot. I want that horse to think of going down the fence as a treat – not something to dread.

The winners of the 2011 colt-starting challenge are still riding together.

Assistant trainer Clayton Anderson on Perfect Performance. Courtesy of Aaron Griffin/Chris Cox Horsemanship.

From America’s Horse

What happens when you take a kid off his remote ranch home, send him to school for a few days – taught in front of a packed crowd – then send him on out of the limelight? Does he retain that education? Is he helped or hindered by the “speed learning”?

The kid we’re talking about is the now-4-year-old colt, Perfect Performance, who was started under saddle during the 2011 Road to the Horse colt-starting competition in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Renowned clinician Chris Cox, who competed against Pat Parelli and Clinton Anderson, came out on top with the gray colt he later nicknamed “Tres” in honor of his three Road to the Horse wins. In early 2012, America’s Horse revisited Chris and Tres.

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Bred by the Four Sixes Ranch, Tres is getting the chance to do some ranch work at Chris’ place in Mineral Wells, Texas.

“We’re using him around the ranch, working him on cattle and just letting him be a horse,” Chris says. “He’s doing good.”

In the time since the 2011 colt-starting event, Tres – sired by Sixes Pick and out of a Special Effort mare – has filled out and turned into a beautiful dapple gray. But his basic nature hasn’t changed.

“He’s a horse that’s real sensitive,” Chris says. Horses like that tend to not be very forgiving of rider errors, but Chris says he likes that instant feedback. “He tells you right away if you’re doing right or doing wrong.”

And to answer the question posed at the beginning of this story, Chris says that Tres’ experience at Road to the Horse was a positive one.

“Everything we taught him at the competition, it stuck with him. He has a good, sound mind. … I didn’t allow the competition to blow his mind.”

Although Chris is frequently on the road doing horsemanship clinics, one of his assistant trainers, Clayton Anderson, has been working with Tres and preparing him for versatility ranch horse competition.

One of the secrets to training Tres has been to keep that good, sound mind engaged.

“One thing about these horses, you want to make sure you stick to the basics,” Chris says, “but you also have to make sure you advance them just a little bit every day. That helps the horse’s learning curve, so he doesn’t stay in his comfort zone all the time. You don’t have to overextend him mentally or physically, but keep his interest and keep him from getting complacent.”

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Chris likes to ride his horses outside, not in the same pen all the time, so that their ears are forward and both horse and rider are feeling productive.

Learn more about the 2012 Road to the Horse, held March 9-12. AQHA was proud to sponsor the remuda at Road to the Horse, another way the Association promotes ranch-raised American Quarter Horses.

Meet two great horses from the racetrack and the reining arena.

Streakin La Jolla. Photo courtesy of the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

This year, AQHA inducted six legends into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame: Gordon Hannagan, Bob Loomis and Walter Fletcher and horses Hollywood Dun It, Indigo Illusion and Streakin La Jolla.

“We are honored to welcome these six people and horses into an elite group of inductees,” says AQHA Executive Vice President Don Treadway Jr.

And America’s Horse Daily is honored to introduce them to you.

Streakin La Jolla

If there are a couple of things that all horses in the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame have in common, it is heart and class, those undefinable and unmeasurable intangibles that make a horse want to be great.

Streakin La Jolla had heart. And he had class.

“He was a gentleman,” said Alvin “Bubba” Brossette, who in 1988 rode Streakin La Jolla to score in the Sound of Summer Derby at Delta Downs. “He was a stakes horse, and he was all business. He needed very little schooling in the gate. Everything was pretty much automatic to him. He was never a horse to get antsy or panic. He was just a perfect horse to ride. He knew his job, and he did it. And it wasn’t that he got it from repetition or training – it was kind of natural. He just naturally knew what his job was.”

Bred by the Frisco, Texas-based partnership of AQHA Past President B.F. Phillips Jr. and Delbert Smith, Streakin La Jolla was by Streakin Six and was foaled in 1985 out of the winning Raise Your Glass (TB) mare Bottom’s Up. Trained by Mike Lyles, he was undefeated in eight career races, his last being a victory in the consolation for the All American Derby (G1). Streakin La Jolla retired with earnings of $56,227.

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Streakin La Jolla entered stud in Louisiana in 1989. The rest is, as they say, history. His stallion career began under the management of Drs. Rick and Brad Boutte at their Pleasure Time Farm. Streakin La Jolla then spent several more years under the care of Jude Robicheaux, first at Robicheaux’s Shoestring Stud Farm, and then the horse moved with Robicheaux to L-J Farms in Alexandria, Louisiana.

As Streakin La Jolla was gaining in national prominence, he was purchased from Lee Ray Hayes in the summer of 1999 by Robert and Karen Nunnally of Georgia. The Nunnallys made the decision to move Streakin La Jolla to Granada Farms at Wheelock, Texas, for the 2000 breeding season.

To say that Streakin La Jolla was a hit in Texas would be an understatement. Under the care of Jimmy Eller and the staff at Granada Farms, he bred several books of more than 200 mares each, including some of the very best broodmares in the business.

Streakin La Jolla was retired from stud duty shortly before his untimely death on June 18, 2009. The racing industry’s ninth-all-time-leading stallion has sired the earners of more than $23.9 million, including champion and leading sire Mr Jess Perry and world champion Streakin Sin Tacha, in addition to 81 other stakes winners. His lasting contributions to the American Quarter Horse racing industry will be remembered for many years, as his offspring are still winning and demand for his daughters as broodmares remains high. Streakin La Jolla’s daughters have produced the earners of more than $21.2 million, making him the ninth-all-time-leading sire of broodmares, and in 2011, they produced the earners of $3,742,909, making his fifth for the year.

“This kind and big-hearted horse will be remembered and missed by all whose lives he touched” said the Nunnallys.

Hollywood Dun It

Hollywood Dun It. Photo courtesy of the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

Dun It did it. Hollywood Dun It – popularly known as “Dun It” – has reached the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

It’s a well-deserved recognition for the stallion who became a reining icon and a sire of champions.

Bred by Gwen L. Steif of Kildeer, Illinois, the dun son of Hollywood Jac 86 was foaled in 1983 out of the Dun Berry reining mare Blossom Berry.

Hollywood Dun It first attracted widespread notice at the 1986 National Reining Horse Association Futurity, when trainer and future owner Tim McQuay rode the 3-year-old colt to a reserve championship behind Sophie Oak. Next came a win in the 1987 NRHA Derby and Superstakes. In his career, Hollywood Dun It earned $65,808 in NRHA competition and in 2000 was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame.

“Hollywood Dun It had that little special spark,” McQuay told the NRHA’s Reiner magazine. “He had such eye-appeal and he tried to please you constantly. I think he could play today. With the different training methods we have, I know he’d be even better.”

Hollywood Dun It retired to the breeding barn in 1989. In 1992, when his first foals were eligible to compete, Melodys Dun It finished third in the NRHA Futurity. That first crop of 3-year-olds included Hollywoods Heir, Jiffy Pop, HP Cody Dun It, Hollywoods New Star, Great Dun It Jack, A Real Glo Getter and Mr McDunit – all NRHA or All American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity champions. As a sire, Dun It was getting it done.

Hollywood Dun It’s first two foal crops earned more than $200,000, and future crops helped him reach the NRHA $1 million mark at age 16, the youngest sire in that club at the time. Dun It eventually became NRHA’s first $4 million sire, and he reached the $5 and $6 million marks after his death.

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Through 2011, Hollywood Dun It had sired 1,209 American Quarter Horses, including progeny that have won the NRHA Futurity, the NRHA Derby and Superstakes, the National Reining Breeders Classic, the All American Quarter Horse Congress Futurity and numerous other futurities and derbies. In AQHA competition, his foals have won eight world championships, eight reserve world championships and more than 11,000 points. His foals also have points with the Palomino Horse Breeders of America and the International Buckskin Horse Association.

Hollywood Dun It also became a great sire of broodmares, with his daughters producing 315 Quarter Horses that so far have garnered 3,447 performance points in AQHA open competition, with two world champions and one reserve world champion; 148 horses that have scored 1,818 points in amateur performance classes, with one reserve world champion and two high-point winners; and 43 that have taken 300 points in youth performance. The stallion also is the broodmare sire of one amateur and eight open halter point earners.

Hollywood Dun It’s daughters have also produced the earners of more than $4.79 million in NRHA and more than $139,000 in the National Reined Cow Horse Association. The stallion is the broodmare sire of point and money earners in numerous other associations, including the National Cutting Horse Association, National Snaffle Bit Association, Palomino Horse Breeders of America, International Buckskin Horse Association and American Buckskin Registry Association.

Tim and Colleen McQuay’s McQuay Stables acquired Hollywood Dun It in 1987. In 1998, the McQuays transferred ownership to friend and business associate Jennifer Easton, creating McQuay/Easton LLC. That same year, Hollywood Dun It was selected as the model for the first Breyer Animal Creations reining horse.

Always a horse who enjoyed attention and loved people, Hollywood Dun It lived the balance of his years at McQuay Stables, putting tiny Tioga, Texas, on the map, as busloads of people regularly stopped to see and get their photo taken with the lovable icon.

Hollywood Dun Its’ legacy continues through his talented offspring, with their distinct “Dun It” demeanor and astounding athletic ability.

The stallion was euthanized in March 2005.

Reining icon Bob Loomis and the striking mare Indigo Illusion earned their spot in the Hall of Fame.

Reining icon Bob Loomis. Photo courtesy of the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

This year, AQHA inducted six legends into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame: Gordon Hannagan, Bob Loomis and Walter Fletcher and horses Hollywood Dun It, Indigo Illusion and Streakin La Jolla.

“We are honored to welcome these six people and horses into an elite group of inductees,” says AQHA Executive Vice President Don Treadway Jr.

And America’s Horse Daily is honored to introduce them to you.

Bob Loomis

Bob Loomis, quite simply, is a reining icon, a universally recognized master in the world of precision riding.

The 1982 president of the National Reining Horse Association, Bob has won six NRHA Open Futurity championships, more than any other trainer. In addition, he has won the NRHA Derby and Superstakes, and trained and showed numerous AQHA and NRHA world champions. He also has written the book “Reining: The Art of Performance in Horses” and was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1992.

Now 68, Bob began training reining horses professionally in 1966. He earned his first public notice as a reining trainer in 1972 when he was co-reserve champion at the NRHA Futurity on Britton Princess.

In 1976, C.T. Fuller sent High Proof to Bob for training. They won the NRHA open class at the All American Quarter Horse Congress, then the senior reining at the AQHA World Championship Show. High Proof’s elegant style changed the way reining horses were bred and trained. High Proof was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1991.

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“I saw my first reining class in American Quarter Horse Association shows in the early 1960s,” he told the NRHA’s Reiner magazine. “From 1963 to 1966, I rode in AQHA reining classes, and Okies Bamboo was my first reining horse. She had so much talent, and I think she could still be competitive today. She was my first inspiration to want to rein.”

Bob began his breeding program in 1974 and four years later bought Topsail Cody to cross on his Boss’ Nowata Star mares. He trained and showed the stallion to win the NRHA Futurity in 1980 and be the AQHA World Champion in junior reining the following year. Topsail Cody was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1996.

NRHA’s all-time leading sire, Topsail Cody also began the drive that made Bob the only breeder to have trained, shown and stood three generations of NRHA $1 million sires. The stallion was Bob’s first $1 million sire, Topsail Cody’s NRHA Hall of Fame son Topsail Whiz became Bob’s second; and then Topsail Whiz’s son West Coast Whiz (an NRHA Derby reserve champion) made it three in a row.

Another very special horse in Bob’s career was Sophie Oak, on whom he won the NRHA Futurity in 1986, besting Hollywood Dun It and Tim McQuay.

Originally from Nebraska, Bob and wife Pam live on their Loomis Ranch at Marietta, Oklahoma, where they raise horses and Texas Longhorn cattle. An expert horsewoman, Pam also is a real estate agent specializing in ranch and farmland. The couple has two daughters from Bob’s first marriage: Bobbie and husband Coby, and Kelli and husband James of Ardmore. They have grandchildren Aaron, Jacob, Gatlin, Coby Jo and Garrett.

Their family and their horses are the loves of their lives.

“There are people who love horses, and there are people who love what horses can do for them,” Bob said. “I love horses.”

Indigo Illusion

Indigo Illusion. Photo courtesy of the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

A striking mare of impeccable breeding and near-flawless conformation, Indigo Illusion kicked off her career as a track record-setting champion and ended it as the mama of black-type sprinters who earned more than half a million dollars on the racetrack.

“I don’t really know how to describe her,” said her owner, former AQHA President Jerry Windham of College Station, Texas. “She was one of those once-in-a-lifetime mares, just a truly great horse. ‘Indigo’ had some really nice babies and was the matriarch of our family of horses.”

Bred by William Carter and Allen Baitzor of Clovis, California, and foaled in 1981, the dark brown filly was by Beduino (TB) out of the Duplicate Copy mare Copy Capri. Windham bought her for $7,000 at the Pacific Coast QHRA yearling sale.

On August 13, 1983, Indigo Illusion ran what then was the fastest quarter mile ever by a 2-year-old anywhere. It also was the second-fastest quarter mile by any horse on the California straightaway, bested only by Dash For Cash’s :21.17 track mark.

The occasion was the Faberge Special Effort Futurity, which was the last leg of the West Coast Triple Crown. At $853,380, the Faberge final drew a great field, including two other Beduinos, Grade 1 winner Tolltac, who scratched; and Grade 3 winner Check The Charts. Eventual world champion Dashs Dream was in the gate, and leaving as the favorite was Dash For Cash Futurity (G1) winner Face In The Crowd.
No problem.

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“The filly went to the gate really cool,” explained Robert Bard, who rode Indigo Illusion for trainer Bruce Jackson. “She was one of the only ones that never got a wet hair on her. Even as hot as it was, she stayed cool and calm.”

The champion freshman filly that year, Indigo Illusion sprinted the distance in :21.26. The filly that season won nine of 13 races while earning $476,890, but was a force to be reckoned with her entire career.

Retired to the broodmare pasture after finishing third in the December 1985 Las Damas Handicap (G1), Indigo Illusion produced 19 foals, 13 of which went to the track. Ten of them returned as winners, including Grade 1 Kansas and Graham Farms futurity winner Magic Dozen by Easy Dozen; Graham Farms Derby (G2) winner Illusive Feature by Truckle Feature; Manor Downs Derby (G2) winner First Place Dash by First Down Dash; and the Streakin Six colt Streakin Sixes, who lit the board in the Grade 1 Heritage Place Futurity and Texas Classic Derby. Indigo Illusion’s babies put $562,510 in the pockets of their connections.

With 17 wins, three seconds and four thirds from 30 career races, Indigo Illusion scored in six stakes, including the Grade 1 Rainbow Derby and Vessels Maturity. She placed second in two others, and was third in four, including the Champion of Champions (G1), where she showed in 1984 and lit the board in 1985. From July 1983 through July 1984, Indigo Illusion came home in front in 13 consecutive races. Setting three track records while recording seven speed indexes in excess of 100 – her best the 110 from the Faberge – the Illusion was no mirage.

“I’ve always thought she knew she was special, but she was not a pet,” Windham said. “Even here at the ranch, she was just like she was when she was racing – she didn’t mind people handling her, but when she was through with you, she just wanted to be left alone.”

Indigo Illusion finished her life still among the top 60 all-time leading earners, just ahead of champions Town Policy, Moon Lark and First Down Dash. She died in November 10, 2007, at age 26.

“I remember her with a lot of pride,” Windham said. “She was awfully special. To us, Indigo was always a champion – every single day.”

Past AQHA president Walter Fletcher has always had an eye for horses.

Hall of Fame inductee, Walter Fletcher. Photo courtesy of the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

At the 2012 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas in March, six new inductees joined the prestigious walls of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. The new inductees include Gordon Hannagan, Walter Fletcher, Bob Loomis, Indigo Illusion, Streakin La Jolla and Hollywood Dun It.

Here, learn more about AQHA Past President Walter Fletcher:

Walter Fletcher has always been a busy person. Now 69, the AQHA past president rodeoed through high school, college and after graduation, and he was a pretty good tie-down roper. However, in 1975, he decided to go another direction and traded a couple of rope horses for a Top Moon mare owned by a couple of neighboring ranchers, Walter’s cousin, Brad Tate (who also would become an AQHA president), and Gordon Crone (for whom the Gordon Crone Special Achievement Award is named).

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Only a maiden on the racetrack, the mare, Sweet Mooner, produced six starters that together earned a third of a million dollars. Each became a winner – two of those in stakes – and Sweet Mooner became the foundation of a Fletcher breeding program that since 1977 has produced champions Sweet N Special ($209,103, out of Sweet Mooner’s daughter Sweet Katrina) and Sterling Sport ($266,223), nine more stakes winners, 54 other winners and the earners of more than $2.8 million. And that’s from only 104 starters.

Walter has an eye for horses, and he also has made some astute purchases. He bought Heza Ramblin Man as a yearling and then raced the Takin On The Cash gelding to 16 wins, including nine in stakes, and earnings of $750,907. He later acquired the gelding’s dam, the Kiptys Charger mare Kiptys Kisses. With her, he partnered with Vessels Stallion Farm to breed champion Ima Ramblin Girl ($162,515) and the graded stakes-winning gelding First To Ramble ($348,647), both by First Down Dash.

But he has not turned his back on the show industry. Walter bred and raced the graded stakes-placed Corona Cartel gelding Cartel Caliente, who earned $50,077 on the track. In 2009, Cartel Caliente qualified for the AQHA World Championship Show in senior barrel racing and performance halter, and in 2010 qualified in both senior heading and performance and also became the 48th AQHA Supreme Champion.

Like many AQHA members, Walter is a successful rancher and farmer. He also is a son of a rancher and horseman. Walter was raised in the small southwestern Kansas town of Lakin. One of his great-grandfathers was a founder of the town, coming in with the railroad about 1872. Another great-grandfather showed up a short time later and started a general store. The family has been there ever since.

The Fletcher family has always had horses, which led to him meeting the girl who would become his wife while he was a member of the rodeo team at Colorado State University. Married for 45 years, Walter and Pat raised three children: Eric, who works with Walter in the farming and ranching operation; Ben, who is a chef in Breckenridge, Colorado; and Katie, who lives with her husband, professional photographer Chris Humphrey, in Owasso, Oklahoma, and has children Jack, 11, and Patrick, 8.

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Walter has been farming and ranching since 1965, when he graduated from college and came home to help his father in the business, while also serving in the National Guard. Almost from the time he joined his dad, they started expanding the business. His dad died in 1975, but Walter continued the operation, and today he and his family farm the ground under center pivot irrigation systems and run cattle on ranch land south of Lakin. Walter also served two terms on the local school board.

Walter was elected to the AQHA Executive Committee in 2002 and became president in 2007. He was elected to the AQHA Board of Directors in 1993, the year after he began his nine-year tenure as a member of the Racing Committee, on which he served as chairman for two consecutive terms. He was a member of the Racing Council for 10 years and was also chairman of that group for two consecutive years. In addition, he has served on the Hall of Fame selection committee, the Professional Horsemen’s Council and the Affiliate Council.

“It’s a great honor to go into the Hall of Fame with the people who are in there,” he said. “It’s an elite group.”

And Walter is still a busy man.

This legendary auctioneer presided over some of the biggest auctions in the industry.

Legendary auctioneer Gordon Hannagan. Don Trout Photography.

This year, AQHA inducted six legends into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame: Gordon Hannagan, Bob Loomis and Walter Fletcher and horses Hollywood Dun It, Indigo Illusion and Streakin La Jolla.

“We are honored to welcome these six people and horses into an elite group of inductees,” says AQHA Executive Vice President Don Treadway Jr.

And America’s Horse Daily is honored to introduce them to you. Here’s a look at the first inductee:

Gordon Hannagan

John Gordon Hannagan has called many of the premier horse and livestock sales in the country, from the King Ranch to Ruidoso Downs, from the All American Quarter Horse Congress to the Breeders Classic. He honed his legendary auctioneering skills in little Penfield, Illinois, before tackling the big sales in 39 states and Canada.

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Born March 12, 1931, the youngest of 10 children, Gordon grew up on a farm near Penfield, where he quickly learned the rewards of working hard. He got his first horse at 8 and bought his first horse at 11, never dreaming that one day he would preside over some of the biggest auctions in the industry and count as friends some of the most influential horse owners in the industry.

Gordon bought and sold horses to headliners like John Wayne, Loretta Lynn and George Strait, and was a good friend of people such as legendary auctioneer Ike Hamilton and Benny Binion, owner of Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas and the Binion Ranch in Montana.

But what is even more important to Gordon, however, is that he has such a wonderful family.

Gordon and wife Jan have been married 56 years. They raised six children – daughters Mary, Patty and Jody, and sons Eddie, Jim and Buddie – and now have more than a dozen grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Today, the entire family is involved in Hannagan Farms and Gordyville USA, a premier venue in Gifford, Illinois, with two 100-by-270-foot arenas with room for 650 portable stalls. The family hosts numerous events and horse shows, including a huge AQHA Thanksgiving show, the Gordyville Breeders Cup National Reining Horse Association show and the Central States Rodeo Finals.

That is a long way from where he started buying horses and then selling them.

“As kids, my brother and I ran a popcorn and peanut stand at the local sale barn,” he says. “By the time I was 11, I’d saved $5 and kept it hidden at home. One Friday, I went to the sale barn and – as usual – rode the ponies and small horses, to get them ready for the sale. I fell in love with a little blue roan mare. When I asked the manager how much they wanted for her, he said $55 – a fortune! I told him that I had $5, and I’d give him $3 and pay him $1 a week for the next 52 weeks. He put his hand out, and we shook on it. I named her ‘Dandy’ and brought her home.”

Gordon became an auctioneer by chance, when he was at a Saturday sale and an ailing auctioneer needed a substitute. Someone volunteered Gordon to help. The head auctioneer asked Gordon if he was an auctioneer, to which he honestly replied, “No, but I can sell these horses.” The auctioneer let him up on the stand, and a year later, Gordon was working regularly. His first big break came when he was asked to work the American Quarter Horse sale at the Chicago International Livestock Show Sale, and since then, he has become a legend among his peers, colleagues and horsemen everywhere.

The “Showmanship at Halter” DVD will give you the knowledge and tools you need to be a competitor.

He began his own breeding program in 1951 with a roping mare. And in the years since, he and his wife have stood a number of top sires and bred world and AQHA Champions Super Marietta and Tina Tardy. He has been involved with halter, performance and racing American Quarter Horses, and his wife and children continue to show horses.

Gordon was a founder of the Illinois Quarter Horse Association, which he has served as president and vice president, and he is in the Illinois Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

But he does not take a lot of credit for what he has accomplished: “Just call me lucky!”

Why your horse might need leg support.

Photo courtesy of Professional's Choice.

By AQHA Corporate Partner Professional’s Choice

Our equine partners are routinely asked to perform complicated maneuvers they would not normally perform in nature, subjecting them to a wider variety of injuries than in the wild.

Just as a professional athlete wears protective gear on the playing field, the equine athlete also needs protection. According to a trusted veterinary journal, the incidence of injuries in performance horses in training is around 30 percent, with the majority being suspensory injuries. A significant percentage of these injuries result in the end of the horse’s career, not to mention exorbitant vet bills. When prevention of such injuries is practically assured with the use of Professional’s Choice Sports Medicine Boots, the question of “when to boot” becomes “why wouldn’t you boot?”

Learn how to give your show horse the perfect clipping job with AQHA’s FREE Horse Clipping Tips report.

Professional’s Choice Sports Medicine Boots were developed specifically to address the prevention of suspensory injuries while at the same time protecting the soft tissue from cuts, abrasions and contusions caused by impacts to the legs by hooves and various other hazards. SMBs were thoroughly tested at major universities before being put on the market.  According to veterinarian Dr. Michael Collier, use of SMBs provides significant ligament support to the distal limb of horses and can increase the energy absorption capacity of limbs by up to 45 percent. The energy absorption of the SMB can help prevent potential tendon, suspensory, ligament and other musculoskeletal damage to our equine athletes. Click here to download Dr. Collier’s findings.

Equine protective boots are not all created equally. Professional’s Choice invented the Sports Medicine Boot and is the only company that backs its products with solid scientific testing. Professional’s Choice SMBs are the most trusted equine protective boots on the planet and the reason they are the official protective boots of AQHA.

• Quick Horse Boot Facts30 percent of horses in training experience injuries, mostly suspensory injuries
• SMBs provide the very best lower limb support and protection during athletic activity
• SMBs are significant in preventing injuries, including hyperextension of the fetlock
• Professional’s Choice SMBs absorb up to 45 percent of negative energy
• SMBs have saved countless horses from career-ending injuries
• The SMB with suspensory support was invented by Professional’s Choice

Download AQHA’s FREE Horse Clipping Tips report today and share it with your horse-show friends!

Here is a video from the Certified Horsemanship Association on fitting horse boots. The purpose of CHA is to promote excellence in safety and education for the benefit of the horse industry. CHA certifies instructors and trail guides, accredits equestrian facilities, publishes educational manuals, produces educational horsemanship DVDs and hosts regional and international conferences.

AQHA regional championships are your gateway to championship shows.

2011 Region 10 Championship. Journal photo.

By Larri Jo Starkey for The American Quarter Horse Journal

The staff of The American Quarter Horse Journal is a little rabid on the subject of AQHA Regional Championships: We love them.

They’re a fantastic forum for our exhibitors to dip their toes (or hooves) into the AQHA show pool, earn nice prizes from AQHA corporate partners and for us to meet our exhibitors.

That’s why we were more than excited that Regional Championship season began in March, with the Region Nine Championship in West Monroe, Louisiana.

Personally speaking, the 2005 Regional Championship in Jackson, Mississippi – then known as the Region Nine Experience – was the first story I traveled to cover for The American Quarter Horse Journal.

I met people who became my friends, learned from some great clinicians and took a lot of photos of a lot of nice horses.

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That’s also where I ate my first crawdad.

From the beginning, each show had a unique regional flavor, and that trend continues. Some championships are adding regular shows to their show bills, giving exhibitors a chance to earn points along with their prizes, and some championships are still Regional Championships only. Some championships have moved around their regions, while other championships have found success in staying in one spot.

The Journal staff is particularly fond of one feature the Regional Championships all have in common: parties. We like to eat, and we assume you do, too, judging by the number of you we have been able to meet through the Regional Championship exhibitor parties.

For 2012, the Regional Championships become more than a celebration of each region’s American Quarter Horses and exhibitors – they’re chances for Novices to qualify for the inaugural Nutrena AQHA Eastern and SmartPak AQHA Western Novice championship shows, which are October 5-7 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Las Vegas.

Novices can qualify in three different ways:
1.    By showing at 20 AQHA shows during the national qualifying period that ends June 30
2.    By qualifying through your state or provincial affiliate
3.    By placing in the top 10 in a Novice class at a Regional Championship

How easy is that? And if you qualify in one class, you can enter any extra classes you like once you get to the Novice championships. Not only that, but you can pick which destination is most convenient for you – west or east – but you can’t go to both.

AQHA’s 2008 showmanship world champion Nicole Barnes knows how to perform a perfect showmanship pattern for the judges. Learn her secrets in AQHA’s FREE Showmanship Basics report!

If you try to qualify through your Regional Championship, look up the dates and guidelines on AQHA’s website where you can also learn more about the Novice championships and how to qualify.

The Journal staff is looking forward to the Novice championships, and we hope you are, too. If they’re half as much fun as the Regional Championships, they should be a blast.

Come on! Take a chance, newbies! These shows are for you.

Tips on trailer living on the horse show road.

Make traveling with your horse easier. Journal photo.

By Jennifer Horton for The American Quarter Horse Journal

Ah, the glamorous life on the road. Eating drive-through fast food, cramming clothes into a suitcase and trying to find space for everything you need. For those who travel frequently to horse shows, rodeos or trail rides, living-quarters trailers have certainly made traveling with your horses easier.

Recreational riders, because there are so many people enjoying their horses on the weekends, whether going to small shows or trail rides, are the majority of the living-quarters trailer market these days.

In addition to the different living-quarters trailers on the market, there are also many little tips and bits of information that can make your life on the road easier. I have found it’s much easier to stock the trailer as a second home, keeping linens, towels, toiletries, supplies and clothes in it year-round instead of loading it each week.

I also advise that you get a living quarters with a full bathroom – you will not be sorry. It’s worth spending more on the purchase for the comfort and convenience. Check with your tax accountant on claiming the unit as a second home.

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Storage

You can never have too much storage space. If your trailer has mangers, the storage area underneath provides room for necessities. A plastic garden hose holder can be mounted in this area to give your electrical cord a home, keeping it accessible and tidy. A five-gallon bucket is a great place to store your sewer hose or can be another place to keep your electrical cords tangle-free.

Keep a toolbox in your trailer with assorted wrenches, screwdrivers and a hammer. Toss in a few spare electrical adapters (you’ll always meet someone in the RV park who needs an adapter to plug in) and a two- or three-way hose splitter, because you might need to share the water supply with your neighbor. It’s also a good idea to purchase a heavy-duty electrical cord, for times you are parked away from the electrical box in the RV park. You should also have the little tire ramps that can be used to chock your tires or help in fixing a flat, and don’t forget your emergency triangles.

Whether you have a midtack or use the first horse stall as a storage area, plastic storage shelves and totes can help you keep organized. Many travelers use their midtack as a “mudroom” entrance to their living quarters if it’s outfitted with a camper door, helping to keep their living area clean.

Kitchen

Two words: paper plates. This was advice given to me when we purchased our first living-quarters trailer. I had purchased cute little cowboy dishes just for the trailer. But, as was pointed out to me, I do not want to stand and do dishes while I am at a horse show. So, the paper plates moved in and the cute cowboy plates went to the house.

A crock pot makes cooking easy, especially with those meals-in-a-bag you can get at the grocery store. Don’t forget the crock pot liner bags to make cleanup a breeze. Microwaveable meals are plentiful at your grocery store, as well.

If your trailer is outfitted with a couch, you probably have the large table that can sometimes be in the way. Wooden TV trays can be stored in a closet and brought out to use at meal times, giving you more floor space.

Trailer loading doesn’t have to be a battle. Download AQHA’s FREE Horse Trailer Loading Tips report for help.

You can get little plastic refrigerator gates to help keep your food in place while traveling. A little collapsible stepstool makes it easy to reach upper cupboards, and it can be folded away in a cupboard when it’s not needed. An empty tissue box is a good container for grocery bags to reuse as garbage bags. You’ll need a can opener, bottle opener and a corkscrew.

Bathroom

Keep a set of bath towels just for your trailer so you always have them. A couple of plastic over-the-door hooks can be hung on your shower glass partition to give you a place to hang towels to dry. Small plastic baskets keep your toiletries in order in the cupboard and keep items off your limited counter space. A small plastic drawer unit works well as a dresser for your small clothing items. Keeping your toiletries stocked in your bathroom will be easier than packing for every trip (remember to remove everything freezable when you winterize).

Booth vs. Couch

Our first living-quarters trailer included a booth, where it was nice to be able to sit and work on my laptop. The living-quarters we have now has a couch, and I miss the booth. A benefit of the booth, in addition to the workspace it provided me, was that it gave a place under the table for our Australian Shepherd to be comfortable and out of the way. My next LQ will have to have the booth and a couch.

A hock problem does not mean the end of a horse’s career.

Once hock issues are diagnosed, proper management can return the horse to full use. Journal photo.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

Though lameness problems are more prevalent in the front feet of a horse, the hocks can also be a source of concern. There is a wide range of injuries that can occur to the hocks, and a variety of reasons behind those injuries.

Dr. Terry Swanson of Littleton, Colorado, deals with lame horses nearly every day. On occasion, a horse used for pleasure will contract a problem, but the majority involve horses that are used for speed, cutting, turning and jumping. “Watch the horses move, and then you will understand why the hocks become such a significant thing,” Dr. Swanson says. “Pushing off is a major thing in all horses that require speed, going over fences or turning.

“As we breed horses for their speed and other things, hock problems become more significant,” he continues. “When the competition was not so keen from one horse to the next, or when horses were not competing so strongly, the hocks weren’t such a problem.”

The hock, or tarsus, is made up of several joints acting together. The range of motion of the hock takes place where the tibia and the talus bones meet. The fibular tarsal bone forms the point of the hock, and several other tarsal bones make up the remaining joints.

Two of these bones are in a stacked formation on top of the large metatarsal, or cannon bone. They form the proximal and distal intertarsal and tarsometatarsal joints. Cartilage can be found between the bones.

Lameness in performance horses usually occurs in the bottom two joints, the distal intertarsal and the tarsometatarsal.

“The range of hock problems is from the horse that is not performing quite the way he should or has been, to the horse that is obviously lame with a hock problem,” Dr. Swanson says.

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The result of use-trauma hock problems in the distal intertarsal and tarsometatarsal joints is usually a bone spavin. This type of spavin is a firm swelling of the inside, front corner on the lower half of the hock. On the other hand, a bog spavin is a soft swelling of the front, inside corner, in the upper half of the hock. Extra fluid in the joint capsule is the cause of this swelling. A more specific trauma, such as twisting or wrenching, is normally the cause of a bog spavin.

In young horses, a bog spavin may develop as a result of vitamin or mineral imbalances. Also, if the horse is growing too fast or playing too hard, a bog spavin may occur, Dr. Swanson says. Depending upon the severity, a change in the nutritional pattern may be all that is necessary to eliminate the spavin. Draining the area and or medication will also be required at times, he says.

Another cause of a bog spavin is a fairly common disease called osteochondrosis dissecans, or OCD, Dr. Swanson says. OCD is one form of developmental orthopedic disease, a term coined by an ad hoc committee of veterinarians in 1985. With OCD, a small piece of bone inside the top joint, the tibial tarsal joint, does not attach to its parent bone, ultimately causing lameness. OCD occurs in the development of the horse, after birth, when cartilage is turning to bone. This small piece of bone may sit quietly in the hock until the horse begins to work. Then it may become a significant lameness problem. After stress is put on the leg, extra fluid will enter the hock joint, resulting in a bog spavin.

“Any time you have a bog spavin, you need to have a radiology study to try to determine what the underlying cause is,” he says. Arthroscopy surgery can be performed to remove the small bone, while having minimal cosmetic effects on the horse. If the joint capsule has not been stretched for too long, the joint will shrink down to a normal size after the surgery and once the extra fluid is flushed from the area.

Bone spavin is degenerative and proliferative changes (meaning that a growth appears) that happen in the distal joints, Dr. Swanson says.

“If they are just degenerative changes, you may not notice an outward change in the hock. But if there are any proliferative changes, that is when you notice the thickness developing,” he says.

Horses can also have ligament damage in the hocks, though it is not particularly common, Swanson says. A ligament injury in an older horse is most likely due to specific trauma, like an accident, rather than use. Curb, a pull of the plantar ligament down the back of the hock, is one such injury. This is a bridging-type ligament that keeps the hock from bending too far. Certain situations could put too much stress on the ligament, causing it to tear. Occasionally, a foal is born with signs of curb, resulting from faulty conformation of the hocks.

A sprain or tear of a ligament is usually a very significant injury. Still if it is not too severe, a horse can return to top form.

“Rest is important, and the prognosis is going to be guarded until it is healed,” Dr. Swanson says.

Before any kind of treatment can begin for a hock injury, the exact cause and origin of the injury must be pinpointed. By observing the horse move on a hard surface, abnormalities in stride length or limb flight can be detected. Veterinarians observe horses moving to and away from them, and also going in circles. The gait to catch most problems is the trot. The flexion test is also used by veterinarians. With this process, the joint is flexed for one to two minutes, and the horse is then trotted. Accentuated lameness if the horse appeared sound can indicate pain in the flexed region. The test is nonspecific at times because in order to flex the hock joint, the stifle and hip joints are also flexed. But, how the horse moves after the test will indicate where the lameness is.

A common way for veterinarians to determine the origin of lameness is to block a specific area.

“You can put a local anesthesia in the joint that you think is the problem and see how the horse responds after a few minutes,” Dr. Swanson says. “If you get a specific diagnosis, then you know where you need to aim your therapy.”

Once the cause of the hock problem has been pinpointed, a treatment plan can begin.

“The overall management of hock problems is a better term maybe than cure or treatment,” Dr. Swanson says. “We really don’t cure these problems. We are just trying to manage them.”

Rest is, of course, one significant thing that can help any problem.

“Any kind of injury takes time to heal, and without stress,” Dr. Swanson says. But horses have no rationalization to what is going on, so as soon as something doesn’t hurt them enough to avoid using it, they are going to use it,” he says. Controlling the horse’s rest may be difficult but is very important to the healing process.

Surgery may be necessary for a bone spavin if other conventional methods are unsuccessful. The process, called a cunean tenectomy, involves the removal of a short section of the cunean tendon, which crosses the tarsal joint. A cunean tenectomy relieves a source of pain where the tendon crosses the spavin area. Dr. Swanson says the tendon exerts a rotation when the muscles around the hock are used.

“To take a piece of that tendon out does not make a horse any less sound but usually makes him better to some degree,” he says. “If doesn’t fix all of them, but it is one therapy that is successful.”

Another therapy would be to medicate the bottom two joints with sodium hyaluronate, more commonly known as hyaluraonic acid, or HA. The product is not an acid in the same sense of other acids. It is not caustic but instead is in the salt form.

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“It is one of the least insulting things that can be put into a joint that has inflammation, so it is frequently used,” Dr. Swanson says. Hyaluronic acid reduces the inflammation without hurting the joint. The interval for this treatment would depend upon the severity of the injury, but usually is not any more frequent than every three or four months.

“It is something that probably won’t last forever, but it helps a lot of horses for a certain length of time,” Dr. Swanson says.

Cortisone can also relieve inflammation but is used sparingly in the upper joints of the hock because it has a negative effect on the joint, he says. Cortisone changes the moisture content of cartilage, which decreases the cushioning quality. It is used more often in the lower two joints because they are low-motion joints, and the cortisone is not as detrimental.

In some cases, the body will try to fuse the bones forming the distal intertarsal joint in the hock, Dr. Swanson says. It is an inconsistent process, as not all problems will result in fusion. Also, the rate of the fusion cannot be predicted. If the fusion does occur, there is less pain for the animal, with no negative effect. The joint also can be fused chemically by a veterinarian.

“Once the fusion occurs, then it is done. It is not like other medications where it needs to be repeated in the future,” Dr. Swanson says. “It is not like a new joint when it is fused, but it becomes a more functional joint.”

Streakin Six and First Down Dash are two of American Quarter Horse racing’s best.

First Down Dash. Photo by Rich Reimann.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

At the 2012 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas in March, six new inductees will join the prestigious walls of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. The new inductees include Gordon Hannagan, Walter Fletcher, Bob Loomis, Indigo Illusion, Streakin La Jolla and Hollywood Dun It.

In April, America’s Horse Daily will feature biographies about the new members of the Hall of Fame. Until then, enjoy this series about the people and horses honored in 2011 by induction into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

First Down Dash

First Down Dash is arguably the greatest race sire of all time. Bred by A.F. Stanley Jr. and B.F. Phillips Jr. out of the Gallant Jet mare First Prize Rose, First Down Dash continued the legacy at stud that started with his own sire, Dash For Cash. First Down Dash went on to surpass many of the all-time records set by Dash For Cash.

From 21 crops to race through the end of February, First Down Dash has sired 1,209 winners, which includes 232 stakes winners. His progeny earnings already are $76.9 million, easily the highest total of all time. Among his offspring are 35 champions, including world champions Down With Debt, Dashing Folly, Wave Carver and A Ransom, and other champions Ocean Runaway, Corona Cash, Corona Kool, FDD Dynasty, A Classic Dash, Dash Thru Traffic and Royal Quick Dash.

First Down Dash’s best year as a sire was 2006, when his runners included 16 stakes winners and earners of $6,560,242. The 2006 runners were headlined by No Secrets Here, the Vessels-bred runner who was the stallion’s sixth All American Futurity (G1) winner; Ed Burke Million Futurity (G1) winner FDD Dynasty; and Champion of Champions (G1) winner and world champion Wave Carver.

First Down Dash is the sire of a record six All American Futurity (G1) winners (Royal Quick Dash, Dash Thru Traffic, A Classic Dash, Corona Cash, Falling In Loveagain and No Secrets Here) and a record six Champion of Champions (G1) winners (Wave Carver, Ocean Runaway, Cash For Kas, The Down Side, A Ransom and Dashing Folly). In addition to being a top sire of sires, First Down Dash is also a perennial leading broodmare sire.

Download The Doc Bar Bloodline to learn more about this prominent sire of American Quarter Horse winners.

On the racetrack, First Down Dash won 13 of 15 career starts and earned $857,256. As a 2-year-old, he won the Grade 1 Kindergarten and Dash For Cash futurities. Then as a 3-year-old in 1987, he had a near-perfect 8-of-9 campaign with six stakes victories, including the Grade 1 Los Alamitos and Dash For Cash derbies and the Champion of Champions. He was that year’s AQHA world champion.

American Quarter Horse racing’s most prolific sire died at age 26 on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2010, at Vessels Stallion Farm in Bonsall, California.

“He laid down and went to sleep peacefully. He was missing Scoop and his sunflower seeds,” said Bonnie Vessels upon the horse’s death. She was referring to her husband, Frank “Scoop” Vessels III, who was killed in a private plane crash in August 2010.

When First Down Dash died, Dr. Ed Allred, the sport’s all-time leading breeder, said, “First Down Dash is unquestionably the greatest stallion of all time. No horse has had the influence of the great First Down Dash. He was an amazing horse. He was a sire of sires. What an incredible and great career … he was in one word ‘amazing.’ ”

Streakin Six

Streakin Six – that’s a name you hear a lot. When people are talking about the fastest horses on earth, sooner or later (usually sooner) Streakin Six enters the conversation.

Streakin Six. AQHA file photo.

Streakin Six was one of the top racehorses of his generation, and now, nearly 30 years after he left the track and six years after his death, he is a major influence on the top racehorses of today’s generations.

The stallion is in the pedigree of the winner of the most recent All American Futurity (G1), Ochoa, along with the runner-up finisher and three other starters in the classic race – and the four previous consecutive winners, 10 winners altogether and as sire of the 1994 winner. Streakin Six also is in the pedigree of five of the 2011 racing champions, four of the 2011 top-10 leading sires, two of the top-10 all-time leading sires, two of the 2011 top-10 leading broodmare sires and one of the top-10 all-time leading broodmare sires.

That’s just what his second-, third- and later descendants have done. Streakin Six himself is in the top-dozen all-time leading sires of racing American Quarter Horses, with progeny earnings of more than $17.3 million. The stallion has sired nearly 600 winners in 20 crops raced, including champions Sixy Chick, Six Fortunes, Sir Alibi, Dean Miracle and Sterling Sport; track-record setter and All American Futurity (G1) winner Noblesse Six ($1,125,024); and 67 other stakes winners. He also sired 32 AQHA point earners who won two performance world championships and two reserve world championships.

Streakin Six is also in the top-half dozen all-time leading broodmare sires. His daughters have produced the earners of more than $28.6 million, led by the track-record-setting champion and All American Futurity (G1) winner AB What A Runner ($1,342,389).

In other words, Streakin Six was a pretty good horse.

“To start off with, he was a heckuva racehorse,” says Dr. Glenn Blodgett. The former chairman of the AQHA Stud Book and Registration Committee, Dr. Blodgett is the manager of the Burnett Ranches’ Four Sixes Ranch horse division at Guthrie, Texas, which for many years stood Streakin Six.

“He was inches away from winning a whole lot more than he did,” Dr. Blodgett says. “Streakin Six was a heckuva sire in his own right, and a heckuva broodmare sire, too. He was just a real good horse.”

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A bright chestnut son of major winner Easy Six out of the stakes-winning Little Request (TB) mare Miss Assured, Streakin Six was foaled in April 1977 on Ted Wells’ ranch at Alex, Oklahoma.

Sent to trainer Don Farris, who put future Hall of Fame jockeys Danny Cardoza and Jerry Nicodemus on him, Streakin Six during his first two seasons at the track ran 15 races against only top-flight competition and was never worse than third – and was that far back only once. He was second in his first two starts as a freshman, to eventual champion Easy Angel in the trials for the Kansas Futurity and to eventual world champion Denim N Diamonds in the Kansas Futurity Consolation. Then he reeled off four consecutive victories, capped by his score in the Rainbow Futurity, and finished the year with a second to champion Pie In The Sky in the All American Futurity.

Returned to action at 3, Streakin Six was third to champions Jaimie Jay and Denim N Diamonds in the Kansas Derby, finished second to six-figure earner Alamitos Feature in the World’s Championship Classic and scored by daylight going away in the All American Derby Consolation. Finally, in his first career start away from Ruidoso Downs, he put a length on a very good field of stakes horses in the New Mexico State Fair Handicap at Albuquerque. Streakin Six came back at 4 to win a January allowance at Los Alamitos Race Course, but after three off-the-board finishes following his first season at stud, Streakin Six was retired with a career record of 19-10-5-1 and $473,934 in earnings.

So, yeah, Streakin Six was a real good horse. The stallion is the latest in a long line of Hall of Fame horses, in a tail-male line from his paternal grandsire Easy Jet, great-grandsire Jet Deck, great-great-grandsire Moon Deck and great-great-greatgrandsire Top Deck (TB), and through various stallions and mares to other Hall of Famers Three Bars (TB), Joe Reed and Peter McCue.

Now Streakin Six extends his family’s long and distinguished line through the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

“The influence through his daughters and sons is Streakin Six’s biggest impact on the breed,” Dr. Blodgett says. “A stallion can’t get into the Hall of Fame solely by his race record. He also has to be a great sire. He has to make good hits both ways to get there. And he’s done it. Streakin Six is a very deserving horse. I’ve been fortunate to have been involved with a lot of great horses, and he’s definitely one of them.”

One of the most universally recognized American Quarter Horse names is that of Skipper W.

A painting of Skipper W by Darol Dickinson.

From The American Quarter Horse Journal

At the 2012 AQHA Convention in Las Vegas in March, six new inductees will join the prestigious walls of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. The new inductees include Gordon Hannagan, Walter Fletcher, Bob Loomis, Indigo Illusion, Streakin La Jolla and Hollywood Dun It.

In April, America’s Horse Daily will feature biographies about the new members of the Hall of Fame. Until then, enjoy this series about the people and horses honored in 2011 by induction into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

Skipper W

One of the most universally recognized names in the annals of the American Quarter Horse is that of Skipper W. This sorrel stallion by Nick Shoemaker and out of Hired Girl by Cowboy P-12 was foaled in the spring of 1945 on the Alamosa, Colorado, ranch of H. J. “Hank” Wiescamp. Hank – a 1994 American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame inductee – began his storied horse-breeding career in the 1920s and 1930s by crossing middle-of-the road Thoroughbred stallions with “Steel Dust” mares to produce cavalry mounts and polo ponies.

In the early 1940s, the renowned horseman decided to concentrate on the Old Fred-Peter McCue family of horses that had been popularized by Coke Roberds of Hayden, Colorado.

“I admired Coke as one of the outstanding breeders of all time,” Hank recalled in an interview prior to his death in 1997. “In size and type, his horses were not all that different from the horses I had been raising, but they had a lot more color and chrome. They were also a family of horses that you could line breed successfully in order to set your type and uniformity, and that was what I wanted to do.”

To head his new breeding program, Hank purchased a 4-year-old palomino stallion named Nick Shoemaker from Warren Shoemaker of Watrous, New Mexico, in 1943. An outstanding sire in his own right, the ill-fated stallion died in early 1947 as the result of a freak accident.

At the time of his senior herd sire’s passing, Hank had several up-and-coming young stallions that merited consideration as breeding animals. Among these were Joker W, a proven race and cutting champion; Scooter W, a future champion racehorse; Showboat, a future champion show horse; and Skipper W, a promising but unproven 3-year-old.

Scooter W was too lightly muscled to suit Hank, while Joker W was a dun and Showboat a palomino. The Colorado horseman wanted a sorrel or chestnut stallion to cross on his predominantly buckskin, dun and palomino Old Fred-bred mares. And so it was that Skipper W got the nod.

The American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum is a great way to experience the western lifestyle. Come visit the exhibits showcasing the American Quarter Horse.

“Skipper W had the shortest fox ears that you’ve ever seen, and he had a good, long neck that just got better as he matured. He also had a tremendous hip, stifle and hind leg. He was strong where my mares were weak, so I went with him, and it turned out to be the right thing to do.”

Skipper W, who grew into a well-proportioned stallion, standing about 15 hands and weighing 1,300 pounds, was shown only three times at halter – standing grand at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado State Fair in Pueblo and New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque.

When the stallion was a coming 2-year-old, Hank turned him over to George Mueller to start under saddle. “When I started him,” George said, “he was kind of awkward. But he learned to handle himself real well and, the longer I went with him, the better he got. I roped a lot of calves on him, and he was a fine calf horse.

“I think ‘Skipper’ would have been a super performance horse. The horse could do things. But we just didn’t use him. Hank could make more money back there with them mares than he could with me spurring on him. But that’s the only thing I regretted; that I didn’t get to sure ’nuff hook up and do things on him.”

Among the stallion’s best-known sons and daughters were Skipper’s King, Skip’s Reward, Skipper’s Lad, Skipperette, Skipadoo and Skipette.

“Usually a stud becomes better known as a sire of sires or a sire of broodmares,” Hank said. “Skipper W turned out to be a sire of both. Skipper W flat out-produced himself. I don’t know any other way to put it. When I bred him to a mare, he consistently sired a foal that was better than both he and the mare.”

Skipper W died of a heart attack at age 18 in 1963. Hank kept back seven of his sons and 57 daughters for breeding, and they formed the nucleus for a family of horses that is still very much in evidence today.

Skipper W was never heavily shown or promoted, he never stood to outside mares, and he was never put into mass production as a sire. Despite all of this, his name continues to be a household word within the Quarter Horse world; so much so that, even though his name might only appear once – six or eight generations back in a horse’s pedigree – the owner of that horse proudly proclaims it to be “Skipper W-bred.”

Frank Howell

Fresh out of high school, a young Southern horseman named Frank Howell headed to work at the Dixie Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas. Born in Greensville, Alabama, and raised in Selma, Frank had ridden and roped all his young life. It was a perfect talent to perform for the city “dude” visitors on the weekends. Frank stayed at the ranch for a year, working cattle during the week.

He never forgot the experience or the horses, even after he returned to the South, established and grew an international roofing business, and raised three children with his wife, Lena.

Once the children were grown with families of their own, Frank and Lena moved to a place outside Union City, Georgia, south of Atlanta, and Frank bought an American Quarter Horse to have something for the grandchildren to ride. It was a mare who had won a halter futurity in Ocala, Florida. Frank started buying more horses, raising foals and showing, and the rest is AQHA history.

Frank’s first homebred home run was Private Twister (Private Blend-Mini Twisted Lass by Sheik’s Command), the 1985 amateur reserve world champion 2-year-old gelding. He was the first in a long line of great horses of Frank’s that included Zoraya, 1988 amateur world champion yearling mare, and Miss Mergie, 1996 junior barrel racing world champion.

Sugar Ray Cool, a 1989 gelding by Ima Cool Skip and out of How D Royal Rita by Tee Jay Roman, is the horse Frank is most proud of. The horse’s list of accomplishments include 1989 open and amateur world champion weanling gelding; 1991 world champion 2-year-old gelding and reserve in the amateur; 1992 amateur world champion 3-year-old gelding; and open, amateur and junior high-point halter gelding for a record four consecutive years, 1990-93. Frank led all but one of his world champions, even in the open classes.

“People used to tell me that the judges wouldn’t let an amateur win in the open,” he told the Journal at the time. “They let me win. If you had the right horse, and you presented him properly, they would let you win.”

Be sure to visit the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum and take a one-of-a-kind tour of the facility!

In 1976, Frank joined the Georgia Quarter Horse Association and later served two terms as president. In 1990, he became active in AQHA by serving on the amateur committee and was elected to the board of directors in 1996. He has also served on the stud book and registration committee, the public policy task force and the affiliate and racing councils. Elected to the AQHA Executive Committee in 2001, he was the Association’s president in 2005-06.

Introduced to the idea of regional championship shows by a group of members from the Northeast, as president, Frank made the AQHA Regional Championships (initially called Regional Experiences) a reality. The first were in 2005, and they remain a mainstay of AQHA’s effort to bring in new exhibitors, increase regional showing opportunities and offer horsemanship educational venues nationwide.

Frank and Lena now have eight grandchildren and have lived on their farm outside Union City for 26 years; they still have a few horses. The AQHA World Championship Show is his favorite show to attend, and he remains active in AQHA governance as a past president.

“One of my greatest pleasures now is to look through show catalogs or show schedules, and a lot of the horses that appear came from horses that I once owned,” Frank says. “At one time, we had 38 mares and all the yearlings and weanlings that come with that.”

He gave as example Charcool, a 1991 son of Ima Cool Skip that Frank raised and sold to someone in Europe: The horse earned an open halter Register of Merit, was 1998 and 1999 high-point international western riding horse, and earned an open AQHA Championship.

“It’s fun to see that what you sent out, over the country and over the world, comes back in some way,” Frank says. “We scattered horses all through the industry.”