Registration:  ApHC #9760
Foaled: April 15, 1960
Died:  1974
Color:   Chestnut

Mighty Bright's breeding was planned long before the chestnut colt arrived on April 15, 1960. He was, in fact, the product of careful planning by legendary breeder Lane Hudson.

In 1958, while attending the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo, Hudson spotted an Appaloosa stallion which would spur him into a year and a half search for just the right mare to cross with. The stallion -- Bright Eyes Brother.

Bright Eyes Brother, owned by Cecil Dobbin of Peyton, Colorado, was by the Quarter Horse stallion, Billy Maddon P-4118 by Billy Clegg P-427. Bright Eyes Brother's dam was an unregistered Coke Roberds mare, Plaudette, sired by the Thoroughbred stallion King Plaudit and out of an Appaloosa daughter of Peter McCue. Bright Eyes Brother's dam's lines also traced back to Old Fred.

Al Buckli of Wibaux, Montana, who ran into Hudson at a show, knew of just the right Quarter Horse mare with the famed Red Dog breeding to cross with Bright Eyes Brother. With a little leg work, Hudson located Peggy's Delight who was supposedly in foal. After a lot of negotiating, in which Hudson actually went home with an empty trailer after his first attempt to purchase the mare, the deal was sealed when the mare's owner, Fred Field, called four months later and offered her at Hudson's final price. Hudson borrowed the necessary funds and Peggy's Delight, by Jack Casement's Quarter Horse stallion Red Dog P-55 (making her a half-sister to Joker B.) and out of Petey (AQHA), was brought home. Hudson then learned that the mare wasn't in foal after all, and Peggy's Delight was immediately taken to Bright Eyes Brother for breeding.

When Mighty Bright arrived 11 months later with his bald face, four stockings and a blanket, he surprised Hudson.

"Since I had never raised a foal out of Peggy," said Hudson, in a November 1988 Appaloosa Journal interview, "and since this was going to be the first Appaloosa that I ever raised, I really wanted to be there when she foaled.

"...The first inkling I had that he was here was when I stepped off the porch that morning to go do chores and there he stood, in the middle of the lot, staring straight at me.

"At first I wasn't sure what I had. With his light red dun color and all that chrome and not being able to see any Appaloosa color the way he was standing, I thought I was in the middle of a helluva wreck."

A closer look quickly put Hudson's fears to rest as he readied to show the world his Appaloosa stallion.

Although Mighty Bright was shown only three times as a weanling, he won all three classes and was named the Mountain and Plains Appaloosa Association high-point weanling. Stockhorse legend Hank Wiescamp even offered Hudson $10,000 for the colt at what turned out to be Mighty Bright's last show. Hudson turned down the offer, convinced that if Wiescamp was willing to offer that much money he'd better hold onto the colt.

In 1961, while preparing for the Denver National Western Stock Show, Mighty Bright broke his leg. Although the leg healed, it ended his show career. But Hudson was already sold on Mighty Bright's potential and the chestnut stallion's first foal crop hit the ground in 1963. Among his first 12 foals was Mighty Peavy out of Mavis Peavy's Genivieve Peavy, a daughter of Peavy Bimbo.

Mighty Bright's second foal crop produced 10 foals, but included Mighty Paul, Mighty Shiek, Mighty Marshall and Mighty Bounce. Mighty Shiek won the 1974 National Show get of sire title and that, combined with Mighty Peavy's National Show get of sire titles in 1971 and 1978, made the pair the only two full brothers of the breed ever to win the class. Mighty Marshall, owned by current Appaloosa Horse Club Chief Executive Officer Roger Klamforth, became a great all-around champion.

For the next several years, Mighty Bright continued to produce outstanding foals as the center of Hudson's breeding program. From successive foal crops came the likes of Mighty Loma, Mighty Hoot, Mighty Ute, Mighty Gunsmoke (the first GEAR -- Greater Eastern Appaloosa Regional -- champion), Mighty Mona, City Slicker, Mighty Amy, Spitting Image, Mighty Tim, Mighty Marie, Mighty Bimbo, Mighty Doc, Miss Louise McCue, Mighty Flo, Mighty Pauline, Barretta Bright, Moms Mabley, Ultra Bright, Mighty Happi, Mighty Margie, and Mighty Bars.

By 1970, Hudson had assembled an impressive band of broodmares by Mighty Bright and was ready to turn his attention to his junior stallion, Mr. Big Wig. This change of interest led Hudson to lease Mighty Bright to Jack Ryan in 1971. While standing at Ryan's Corpus Christi farm, Mighty Bright sired 19 foals including Sweet Pearl R and Jackie's Bright Flame. Later in 1971, Mighty Bright was sold for the first time. Dr. George Gayle of Houston, Texas, bought the famous sire and from that first foal crop came National and World champion Mighty Gayle and Mighty Go Man, a sire of 39 colored foals out of 41 produced. Over the next three years Mighty Bright continued to sire impressive progeny, most proving themselves as breeding horses. It was during this time that Mighty Bright became the first GEAR Supreme Champion Sire of Performance Horses due to the accomplishments of Mighty Marshall, Mighty High, Mighty Gunsmoke, Mighty Mona and Mighty Amy.

In all, Mighty Bright sired 189 registered foals including six bronze medallion winners who collected 54 performance points and 16 halter points. In the spring of 1974, at the age of 14, Mighty Bright passed away at the Gayle's ranch of a heart disorder. He was inducted into the Appaloosa Horse Club Hall of Fame in 1988.

{This article, by Robin Hirzel, and accompanying photograph were originally published in the Appaloosa Journal, December, 1997, Vol 51, No.12, "Legends Mighty Bright A Star is Born" and are used here by permission.}

Copyright © 1997 Appaloosa Horse Club. All rights reserved.