Chesterfield South

11/04/2024

SAVE THE DATE! Nov. 24th - Shale Knoll's Annual Thanksgiving Barrels & Pole Show.
THANK YOU SPONSORS! First KLAS Equine, Mary Ann Newswanger Willow Creek Farms, Plexus, The Muddy Pup, Shetron Manufacturing, Maryland Equine Dental, Inc., SHADI ACRES, MidAtlantic Speedhorse, Redeye Rodeo

11/04/2024

11/01/2024

What actor-animal has the longest Hollywood filmography?
Here are two veteran movie horses who had loong careers … and great affinity for two well-known actors …
**Pie and James Stewart.**
James Stewart explains his love of a four-legged co-star:
The horse [Pie] was amazing. I rode him for 22 years. I never was able to buy him because he was owned by a little girl by the name of Stevie Myers, who is the daughter of an old wrangler who used to wrangle horses for Tom Mix and W.S. Hart. He retired and he gave this horse to her. He [Pie, the horse] was a sort of a maverick. He hurt a couple of people.

I saw [Pie] when I started making Westerns. Audie Murphy rode him a couple of times. He nearly killed Glenn Ford, ran right into a tree… But I liked this darned little horse. He was a little bit small, a little quarter horse and Arabian. I got to know him like a friend. I actually believed that he understood about making pictures. I ran at a full gallop, straight towards the camera, pulled him up and then did a lot of dialogue and he stood absolutely still. He never moved. He knew when the camera would start rolling and when they did the slates. He knew that because his ears came up.
Petrine Day Mitchum … Robert Mitchum’s daughter, horse enthusiast and the author of “Hollywood Hoofbeats” … explains further.

James Stewart rode Pie in 17 westerns. … And they just became so attuned to each other that in one film, "The Far Country," Stewart had developed such a rapport with him that he was able to get the horse to do something at liberty all by himself when the trainer was not around.

They were on this location. The trainer wasn't on the set. And the horse needed to walk from one end of a street to another with no ropes on him or anything, and Stewart just went up to him, he said he whispered in his ear and told him what he needed him to do. And the horse did it. And everyone on the set was absolutely amazed, and Stewart just said, that was Pie. That's what he did. So he absolutely had an incredible bond with the horse.

Beyond the work Pie did with Stewart, on film he was also ridden by Kirk Douglas, Audie Murphy, Glenn Ford. And, more than likely, a number of other actors. (There is no exact count of the number of films in which the little quarter horse appeared.)

But when it comes to the career of an animal star, no animal, NONE, tops this one. …
Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Roy Rogers. And one of the most iconic animal actors that ever was.

**Roy Rogers and Trigger**
Hudkins Stables in Hollywood supplied horses to Golden Age film studios. In 1937, they purchased a five-year-old Palomino (born on a ranch near San Diego) named Golden Cloud, and whose debut film was The Adventures of Robin Hood. (The horse provided transportation for Olivia de Havilland during the Sherwood Forest sequences filmed in Chico’s Bidwell Park the Fall of ‘37.)

A short while later, Hudkins rented the horse to Republic Pictures for a low-budget oater titled Under Western Stars. The lead in the film was the up-and-coming singing cowboy Roy Rogers, (originally Leonard Slye) and he and Golden Cloud bonded. Like Jimmy Stewart with Pie, Rogers wanted to buy the horse, and Hudkins Stables was happy to comply. But the stables drove a hard bargain: they charged the actor a then-steep $2,500 ($53,818.84 in 2023 dollars, but who’s counting?) for ownership of the Palomino that Roy Rogers renamed Trigger.

All told, Trigger/Golden Cloud had an entertainment career that spanned twenty-plus years, encompassing 88 feature films and 104 TV episodes. There were also numerous personal appearances. …

Trigger’s last job: permanently reared-up at the Roy Rogers Museum.

But there’s more. When the horse died in 1965, his earthly remains were skinned, mounted, and put on display at the Roy Rogers Museum in sun-kissed Apple Valley, California, remaining there for 45 years.

When I die, just skin me out and put me up on old Trigger and I'll be happy.
Sadly (or otherwise) Roy’s wish never happened. Propriety and local regulations prevented Roy from being reunited with Trigger.

Instead, the singing cowboy can today be found at Sunset Memorial Park in Apple Valley, resting beside his longtime wife Dale Evans

Who is your favourite equine actor? :-)

10/31/2024

Dash For Cash
Inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1997.
Simply put, Dash For Cash defined Quarter Horse racing from the time he stepped onto the track in March 1975 until euthanized due to complications of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis at the 6666’s Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, in May 1996.
In between those dates, he charted a brilliant dual career as a racehorse and sire of racehorses.

Dash For Cash ran 25 races in three years, crossing the finish line first – usually with plenty of daylight to spare – in 21 of them. He finished second three times, and did worse than that only once. All this fast footwork earned him $507,688 during his career – years before Quarter Horses were earning million-dollar purses. He was the first horse to have consecutive victories in the Champion of Champions (1976 and 1977).

Dash For Cash was foaled April 17, 1973, on the Phillips Ranch near Frisco, Texas. By Rocket Wrangler, a paternal grandson of Three Bars (TB) and maternal grandson of Go Man Go, Dash For Cash was out of the King Ranch Thoroughbred mare Find A Buyer.

From 1,069 starters in 19 crops to race, Dash For Cash sired 751 winners, with 135 stakes winners, 880 earners of Registers of Merit, 112 earners of Superiors and 16 world champions. Together, they earned $37,386,838. The world champions include Dashingly (1983), Dashs Dream (1984), Cash Rate (1985), First Down Dash (1987) and Dash For Speed (1990). Divisional champions include Queen For Cash, Dashing Phoebe, Cash Perks, Florentine, Calyx, Dashing Val, Cash Legacy, Quick Fun, Takin On The Cash, Some Dasher and Sound Dash.

Dash For Cash horses also made great cow horses such as National Cutting Horse Association world champion Miss N Cash. Dash For Cash had great intelligence and ability that he passed onto his offspring. He sired 15 point-earners, one AQHA Champion and one reserve world champion. His offspring have earned $128,858 in National Cutting Horse Association events. Ranches such as the 6666’s and Pitchfork use Dash For Cashes for working horses.

The great stallion’s ashes were buried at the foot of a life-size bronze statue of his likeness in front of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1997.

10/30/2024

Love this, and oh-so-true! If more people did this it would make a huge impact on the unwanted horse population/slaughter pipeline. Keep your horse 🙏❤️

“I kept my horse”

We rode many miles, won many shows, and we spent hundreds of hours side by side.
Now you’re old, you’re retired, and you’re my old man.
I kept my horse when he went lame- every damn time.
I kept my horse when I fell off - it wasn’t his fault anyways.
I kept my horse when I thought it shouldn’t be this hard- I didn’t know that’s how I would learn.
I kept my horse when he told me he couldn’t be ridden anymore - because I know compassion.
I kept my horse when I moved away for college and struggled with time- because he’s family.
I kept my horse when I was broke- because sometimes times are tough.
I kept my horse when he couldn’t jump high and run fast because I could see that he still would try if If I asked but he shouldn’t.
I kept my horse when I bought a new one- 3 actually, because he’s irreplaceable.
I kept my horse when I wished I had room for one that was sound- because I owe it to him.
I kept my horse when he was costing me more money to feed then any of my riding horses, because money isn’t everything.
When his legs had enough- and all he could bare to carry was his own weight, I still kept my horse.
When his career as a riding horse was over- I knew I had to keep my horse.
No one owes this horse a retirement except for me, and shame on anyone who selfishly convinces themselves otherwise. I owe him so much more for what he has done for me, but I plan to try and make it up to him when he has nothing more to offer me.
Because that’s how it should be be ❤️

photo credit: Missi Spiker

10/29/2024

Only a few will remember our Mr. PROBABILITY. He was a 1992 son of Mr. CONCLUSIVE. he had his ROM in halter and was a good local western pleasure horse. He listened to the announcer and would automatically pickup the jog or lope! He passed a couple of years ago.

Mr Conclusion was foaled April 1, 1982, the vision of longtime breeders James Evans and Mark Toteff of Michigan, who matched halter sire Conclusive with Miss Amber Charge by Otoe Charge. It was a cross that would later make a huge impact on the halter industry.

In 1983, Evans and Toteff took the pretty sorrel stallion to the All American Quarter Horse Congress, where Joe Edge and Russell Wood saw him for the first time as he won the yearling stallions class. They were impressed by him then, and when Edge and Wood’s premier stallion, Conclusive, died in March 1984, they needed a successor. By August, their Edgewood Farms had that worthy successor – Conclusive’s son Mr Conclusion.

In 1984 and 1985, Mr Conclusion was reserve world champion as a 2-year-old and 3-year-old, and in 1986, he was world champion aged stallion on all five judges’ cards. During his time in the halter ring, he earned 99 points, with 85 firsts, 57 grand championships and 16 reserve championships, along with a Superior in halter.

With that gold trophy and a growing fan base, Mr Conclusion headed to the breeding barn. After all his accomplishments as a show horse, his real legacy was as a sire. Mr Conclusion became an equine celebrity who stamped the elegant “Mr” look on his foals, a look that made them recognizable from across any halter pen.

In 1992, he became the No. 1 sire of AQHA and AQHYA world and reserve world champions, a distinction he still holds today, with 185 world champions earning 238 world championships.His direct descendants have earned $57,786 in National Snaffle Bit Association competition and $408,222 in AQHA World Championship Show earnings.

In 1998, Mr Conclusion developed complications after leg surgery and was euthanized in October. Mr Conclusion was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2014.

Cre: American Quarter Horse Foundation

10/29/2024

RUFFIAN ❤️
“Ruffian never got beat. And every time she ran, she set a track record or equaled a track record.” - Jacinto Vasquez.
Ruffian, (April 17, 1972 – July 7, 1975), the fourth Filly Triple Crown winner, 1974 Champion two year old filly, 1975 champion three year old filly. She won at distances of less than six furlongs (three quarters of a mile) to twelve furlongs (a mile and a half). She was never worse than first at any point in any race.
When her elderly owners were asked why she was given the name Ruffian - a name they’d originally reserved for a c**t, Mrs. Janney responded “girls can be ruffians too, you know!”
The trainer of the great Secretariat, who many (not me) believe to be the greatest racehorse of all time, even said “as God as my witness, she may even be better than Secretariat.” Usually it was said that a filly who was beating other females had to face the boys before she could be completely considered a great horse. Ruffian was so good that Bloodhorse said "Until these c**ts are measured against Ruffian, none of them has much of a claim on the title of 3-year-old champion. Right now we do not believe that even to escape a swarm of Brazil’s hybrid African honeybees any of these could catch up with the Stuart Janneys’ big filly.” Her last race was on July 6th, 1975, was a match race against that year’s Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure. Her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, was the regular rider for both, and he chose to ride Ruffian in the race. She was on the lead when her leg broke in two places. Vasquez tried to pull her up, but she couldn’t bear the sight of another horse in front of her and fought him, further damaging her leg, desperate to finish the race. They got her to an equine hospital where the best vets worked to fix her leg. Surgery was successful, but as she was waking up from the anesthetic in a padded recovery room, she began thrashing; some believe that due to her competitive nature and in her drowsy, confused state, R

10/29/2024

How many Poco Bueno fans are out there?

Poco Bueno. The English translation reads, “little good.” It is a wishy-washy compliment for one of the most influential sires of the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s.

Foaled in 1944, Poco Bueno was by King P-234 and out of Miss Taylor. The plain brown c**t did not possess his sire’s regal blood bay color, and he was a late bloomer.

In October of 1945, Hankins loaded the c**t and some other horses, and hauled them to San Angelo, Texas. E. Paul Waggoner of the Waggoner Ranch bought the brown yearling for $5,700.

Waggoner shipped the stallion to his Three D Stock Farm in Arlington, Texas, and began showing Poco Bueno. The brown c**t won several shows such as the Denver National Western Stock Show and Southwestern Exposition & Fat Stock Show.
Bob Burton broke the two-year-old to ride, but it was Pine Johnson who showed the brown stallion to cutting fame. Johnson took Poco Bueno to the toughest competitions, and the duo consistently raked in the prizes.

Waggoner then sent Poco Bueno back to the arena to earn his AQHA Champion title. The stallion earned the award at the same time as his daughter Poco Lena.

Poco Bueno sired 405 registered foals. Of these, 36 were AQHA Champions, and three are in the National Cutting Horse Association’s Hall of Fame: Poco Mona, Poco Stampede and the renowned Poco Lena.

Fagan once said, “To tell you the truth, Poco Bueno was the greatest horse I’ve ever been with, and I’ve been around a lot of them. He was easy to handle. Gentle. And smart. Nearly all his c**ts were the same way.”

The brown stallion died in 1969, and was buried standing up across from the ranch entrance. A four-ton granite marker marks the special spot.

Poco Bueno was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1990.

Cre: American Quarter Horse Foundation

10/28/2024

Not many horses can be said to have changed the course of an entire industry, but Mr San Peppy did just that for two segments – ranching and cutting.
In the 1960s, Gordon B. Howell was an American Quarter Horse breeder with equal interests in cutting and in racing. He bred his stallion, Leo San, with the mare, Peppy Belle by Pep Up by Macanudo, seven times. Their first foal, Peppy San, was foaled in 1959 and inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1999. Leo San and Peppy Belle’s last mating produced Mr San Peppy in 1968.
Gordon asked Bubba Cascio to start Mr San Peppy, but Bubba didn’t have time and recommended cowboy Buster Welch.
While Mr San Peppy was getting started in cutting, the historic King Ranch in Texas was looking for a top sire.
AQHA Past President Stephen “Tio” Kleberg went to a few cutting events and eventually saw Mr San Peppy. By that time, Buster had purchased the stallion and was hauling for the NCHA world title, which they won in 1974.
The King Ranch bought him in 1976, and Buster went along to keep the horse in shape. Between visits to the breeding shed, Mr San Peppy won the NCHA World Championship and claimed the AQHA Senior Cutting World Championship.
The stallion’s foal crops, meanwhile, were proving themselves. Mr San Peppy earned more than $107,850 in NCHA competition. His foals won more than $2.63 million in NCHA competition, not to mention earning more than 3,200 points in AQHA competition.
Less measurable but no less important is the stallion’s effect on the King Ranch remuda and on the other ranches where no performance records are kept except in cowboys’ memories.
When the stallion died in 1998, he was buried on the ranch where he was ridden every day and where his offspring are still making good cowboy memories.
Mr San Peppy was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2011.
Photo: Mr San Peppy & Buster Welch 1976
Cre: American Quarter Horse Foundation

10/28/2024

Three Bars (TB) 1940 chestnut stallion
Bred on James W. Parrish’s Midway, Kentucky, farm, Three Bars (TB) dam, Myrtle Dee, and two other mares were bought by Jack Goode, Ned Brent and Bill Talbot in the spring of 1940. Just days after the purchase, Myrtle Dee foaled a good-looking chestnut c**t on April 8, 1940. The men named the foal Three Bars, hoping he would pay off like a slot machine.

Goode placed the c**t in race training as a two-year-old, but leg problems kept Three Bars from winning until he was three. He was injured as a 3-year-old and spent most of 1944 recuperating. Three Bars returned to competition and finished the year with three wins in four starts. However, the last race was a claiming race, and Toad Haggard and Stan Snedigar took ownership of Three Bars for $2,000.
The partners hauled the stallion to Phoenix, Arizona, with the intention of breeding him to Quarter Horse mares and racing him. Hearing of the Thoroughbred, Sidney H. Vail traveled to Phoenix to inspect the stallion for breeding purposes. Liking what he saw, Vail bought Three Bars for $10,000 in 1945.
As a sire, Three Bars found his stride. By the end of the 1950s, a number of mare owners either could not get their mares on the stallion’s limited stud book or could not afford the fee.

Walter Merrick of Oklahoma knew he’d hit the jackpot when he started breeding mares to Three Bars. He persuaded owner Sidney H. Vail to let him lease the stallion for three breeding seasons, 1952-54. Instead of breeding 12 or 15 mares a year, suddenly Three Bars was breeding 70. After the lease was up, Merrick hauled his best mares to wherever Three Bars was standing.

Three Bars was the sire of 29 AQHA Champions, 4 AQHA Supreme Champions, 317 Racing Register of Merit earners, and his foals earned more than $3 million on the racetrack. Among his famous offspring were Mr. Bar None, Gay Bar King, Sugar Bars, Lightning Bar, Tonto Bars Gill, St. Bar, Steel Bars, Barred and Bar Money. Others include Triple Chick, Alamitos Bar, Bar Depth, Royal Bar, Josie’s Bar, and Galobar.

His grandson Doc Bar became one of the most influential sires of cutting horses ever known. Another grandson, Tonto Bars Hank, sired all around horses. Jewel’s Leo Bars (Freckles), an outstanding cutting horse and sire of cutting horses, was another grandson of Three Bars (TB).

Impressive, a triple descendant of Three Bars, became the most prepotent sire of Quarter Horse halter horses from the 1970s through the 1990s. His offspring Rocket Bar (TB), Sugar Bars, Lena’s Bar (TB), Lightning Bar and Zippo Pat Bars were all inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame. Of his grandget, Doc Bar, Zippo Pine Bar, Easy Jet, Kaweah Bar, Zan Parr Bar, and The Invester were inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame. Four of his sons were AQHA Supreme Champions — Kid Meyers, Bar Money, Fairbars, and Goldseeker Bars

From 1945 to 1963, Three Bars sired 554 foals. His stud fee went from $100 in 1945 to $10,000 in 1963.

On April 6, 1968, two days shy of his 28th birthday, Three Bars (TB) died from a heart attack at Merrick’s ranch in western Oklahoma, where he had returned to stand the 1967 season.

At the time of his death, he was the all-time leading sire of racing ROM qualifiers, of AAA runners and of money earners, his get having earned $2,857,781.

He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1989. Three Bars will be the first Thoroughbred inducted into the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.

10/28/2024

red by Frank Vessels Sr., The Ole Man was by Three Bars (TB), arguably the most all-around influential Thoroughbred sire in Quarter Horse history. The sorrel c**t was out of the Chicaro Bill mare, Chicado V, and was foaled shortly after the death of Vessels Sr. The Ole Man, lived up to his name. Foaled in 1963, and breeding mares well up to the day he died at age 32. The stallion was named for his AQHA Hall of Fame breeder, Frank Vessels Sr, “the Ole Man” who founded Los Alamitos Race Course, and both his sire and his dam are AQHA Hall of Famers.

With a speed index of 100, The Ole Man garnered eight wins, four seconds and seven thirds, and earned $20,657 out of 33 starts. From the time he earned his AAA rating, he brought back 20 checks from 21 starts. He won the Stallion Stakes and the Lightning Bar Stakes, possessing the stamina, heart and soundness to run 24 races his 3- year-old year.

In September 1966, The Ole Man was purchased for $100,000 by Roy Browning, who at the time, lived in Fort Worth, Texas, and later stood the stallion on his Roy Browning Ranch at Shawnee, OK. A true all-around horse, The Ole Man sired 1,878 named foals in 28 crops, to be one of the very few sires of Superior champions in racing, performance and halter.

The Ole Man sired 554 horses that started in official Quarter Horse races, with 250 returning as winners and 15 of those in stakes, for earnings of $1,077,061. In AQHA shows, the stallion is represented by 10 AQHA Champions; 78 horses that earned 1,335.5 points in open halter and 14 that earned 702 points in youth halter; and 106 earners of 1,439.5 points in open performance, 21 earners of 48.5 in amateur performance and 35 earners of 1,029.5 points in youth performance classes, for a total of 4,555 points.

Few horses have ever had as much influence as a sire – or for that matter, a more appropriate name. The last known surviving son of Three Bars, The Ole Man died in February 1995, after breeding 100 mares in both of the previous two years. The stallion was a major factor in owner Browning being the AQHA Champion Breeder in 1987 and 1991.

The Ole Man was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2018.

10/27/2024

Zippo Pine Bar was one of the most prolific pleasure horse sires in history, sitting atop the leading sires list for more than a decade.

Foaled in 1969, Zippo Pine Bar was by Zippo Pat Bars, a son of Three Bars (TB) and a grandson of Leo. Zippo Pine Bar’s dam, Dollie Pine, was an AQHA Champion by AQHA Champion Poco Pine. Zippo Pine Bar was bred by Lloyd Geweke of Ord, Nebraska.

Norman Reynolds of Lexington, Nebraska, purchased Zippo Pine Bar as a weanling on September 13, 1969, at Geweke’s dispersal sale. The rancher/farmer needed a good sire to produce using horses for the ranch and was intrigued by Zippo Pine Bar’s pedigree.

Shown for four years, Zippo Pine Bar earned 112 performance points, 33 halter points, seven grand champions titles and 19 reserve champion titles. As a 3-year-old in 1972, Zippo Pine Bar earned his AQHA Champion title and was the high-point junior western riding horse and high-point western riding stallion.

But Zippo Pine Bar’s true worth came as a sire. His initial breeding fee was $150, but increased with the fame of his offspring. After Melody Zipper, a 1980 gelded son of Zippo Pine Bar, won the all-around amateur title at the 1983 AQHA World Championship Show, the breeding fee jumped to $750.

Zippo Pine Bar was sold to Bob and Ann Perry of California and continued to be a prolific sire for 12 more years, breeding his last two mares in 1997 at the age of 28. He sired 1,651 registered offspring. His progeny included 10 AQHA Champions, 15 world champions, 27 reserve world champions and 727 point earners, earning a total of 50,639.5 points. Some of his more notable get are Zipabull, 1990 Superhorse; Zips Chocolate Chip, 2005 all-time leading sire of pleasure point earners – total points; Zippo Ltd, all-time high-point leader in western-riding; and Zippos Dew Claw, who earned more than $50,000 in pleasure futurities.

After suffering a stroke in January 1998, Zippo Pine Bar was euthanized at age 29. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2000.

Cre: American Quarter Horse Foundation

10/27/2024

NORTHERN DANCER ♥️
THE SIRE OF SIRES🏆
(HERE WHIT RON TURCOTTE)

10/27/2024

Joe Reed
Inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1992.
The breeding of Joe Blair and Della Moore was unplanned and unknown to everybody but a few grooms.

An assorted group of grooms, jockeys and exercise riders were drinking and shooting craps in the spring of 1920. The celebrated Joe Blair and fleet-footed Della Moore were causing a ruckus so the grooms put the two horses together.

During the following months, Della Moore’s owner, Henry Lindsey, could not understand why the mare kept getting bigger throughout 1920 and into 1921. Lindsey and his trainer began cutting back on feed trying to draw down the mare’s growing belly.

In the spring of 1921, Della Moore foaled a chestnut c**t, but was in no condition to nurse. Lindsey named the c**t Joe Reed, started him on a bottle, and sent Della Moore back to racing.

Eventually, Lindsey checked on the c**t and found Joe Reed in a cotton patch nearly starved to death. Feeling ashamed, Lindsey brought Joe Reed to a dry lot and began feeding him.

Over the next few years, Joe Reed ran in races across the Midwest and in Oklahoma and Texas. A majority of the races were five-eighths of a mile or better. “Joe” could not run that far, but under a quarter of mile he was greased lightning. John Wesley House of Cameron, Texas, watched the stallion run, liked what he saw and persuaded Lindsey to sell the 5-year-old.

House never returned Joe Reed to prime racing shape, using him primarily as a breeding stallion. Two of the stallion’s most prominent sons were Red Joe of Arizona, and Joe Reed II, who sired Leo.

In 1938, House sold the aging stallion to Dr. J. J. Slankard of Elk City, Oklahoma. Late in his life Joe Reed was given the No. 3 in the AQHA stud book.

Joe Reed died of a heart attack in 1947. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1992.

Biography updated as of March 1992.