The Appaloosa
- Mother Nature's Most Favored Member of the Equine Family
by: Cecil A. Dobbin
--Part 2 of 3--

The student of the Appaloosa in time will find they are involved with a horse whose heritage goes back thousands and thousands of years. This is based on some of the art passed down through history. Perhaps even more important, one parent must be an Appaloosa when an Appaloosa is produced. This alone would establish a trail that may lead us to the Appaloosa as perhaps the first horse.

Man, because of his understanding of selective breeding, has developed hundreds of different horse and pony breeds. There is no evidence known to us that man ever developed the Appaloosa as a breed. In fact, we are of the opinion that our continuous reference to the Appaloosa as a breed is the cause of so much confusion about this horse. Certainly the evidence shows the Appaloosa is far more than just a breed.

In order to initiate the first step toward understanding just what an Appaloosa is, one must realize the Appaloosa is fully capable of creating a great number of horse breeds. If man wished to do so, the Appaloosa could convert most all horse breeds to Appaloosa. This is the reason we have stated many times that the Appaloosa is the greatest member of the horse kingdom.

We offer here a few examples of why we have become convinced that the Appaloosa can have the greatest future within the equine world.

It has been our good fortune to share an Appaloosa gene that involves an Appaloosa family where we are able to follow the trail that extends over a 100-year period in its travels from generation to generation.

Let us offer an example. The stallions, Peavy's Bimbo, Norell's Little Red, Ding Bob II, Wapiti, Quinta Chief, Joker B. and Bright Eyes Brother all came into this world as a product of a single Appaloosa gene. These stallions, plus a host of Appaloosa mares, are the nucleus of one large Appaloosa family that share this gene. In order to document what we write here, we will list the people who were involved with this gene long before the Appaloosa registry was established. All were cattle ranchers and all had horse breeding programs that supplied their ranch needs. The founder of this gene was Coke T. Roberds. Coke's neighbor and good friend Si Dawson shared some of their breeding programs. Next came the Peavy family, Dan Casement along with his son Jack, the Semotans (Quentin and Evelyn), Dewey Norell, the Miller 67 Ranch, Tom and Fred Field, Jack Blassingame, Emmett Roberds and the Matador Land and Cattle Company.

Prior to the turn of the century, Coke Roberds planted the seed for all the ranchers mentioned here when he started his horse breeding program with an Appaloosa stallion that he called The Arab.

The Peavy family purchased the Appaloosa mare known as the Old Blue Mare from Si Dawson. In turn, this mare passed her Appaloosa gene through such Appaloosas as Wapiti, Norell's Little Red, Peavy's Bimbo and Ding Bob II along with a number of Appaloosa mares.

Jack Casement and Quentin Semotan purchased the Appaloosa mare Blue Vitriol in partnership at one of Coke Roberd's sales. Blue Vitriol was bred at the time to Roberd's stallion, Smoky T (AQHA). The resulting foal was the Appaloosa mare, Sally Rand. Jack bred Blue Vitriol back to Red Dog (AQHA); this mating produced Joker B. Sally Rand in turn produced the Appaloosa stallion Quinta Chief. Dewey Norell bred the Peavy bred Appaloosa mare, Little Buck, to Red Dog and produced Norell's Little Red. Coke Roberds bred an Appaloosa daughter sired by Peter McCue to King Plaudit (TB). King Plaudit was a son of the Thoroughbred horse Plaudit (TB), winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1898. The mating of the Appaloosa daughter bred to King Plaudit produced Plaudette, in turn Plaudette bred to Billy Maddon (AQHA) produced Bright Eyes Brother.

Ding Bob II was sired by Saladin (AQHA) and out of the Peavy Appaloosa mare Flossie. Flossie was a daughter of the Old Blue Mare and by Sheik (AQHA). Ding Bob II was purchased by the Millers and was bred to a number of mares, mares sired by the Kentucky Derby winner, Zeb. Miller's brand was 67 which explains why they were referred to as Miller 67 mares.

Wapiti, sired by Gold Heels (AQHA), was out of the Peavy mare Cuadroon. Cuadroon was by as thoroughbred horse called Song Hit and out of an Appaloosa mare called Speck (by Ding Bob {AQHA}) and a daughter of Flossie.

Peavy's Bimbo was sired by the quarter horse Little Joe, Jr. and out of the good Peavy mare Chipeta. The Peavy family owned this Chipeta. (The Millers produced an Appaloosa they named Chipeta A. This Chipeta A is the dam of Bright Chip.) Chipeta was sired by Ding Bob (AQHA) and out of Papoose. Papoose was sired by Bob H. (AQHA) and out of the Old Blue Mare.

Through understanding of not only the Appaloosa gene used, but also the people who were and are responsible, it is possible to trace this one gene from generation to generation for approximately 100 years.


Copyright © Cecil A. Dobbin. All rights reserved.

This article first appeared on the world wide web in March 2001 at URL:   http://barnlot.tripod.com


GO TO:   Index   -|-   Pedigree Listing   -|-   Hall of Fame Listing

Part 1 of this article   -|-   Part 3 of this article -|- Index of Articles

Web Site Comments or Inquiries to:   joedaniels@hotmail.com

counter