Lucy's "Pedigree"

(This was going to be a dry, wholesome post for my own records, but it ended up being quite a journey of laughter and tears.) 

This week, I joined the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association, mostly because I wanted to l earn about Lucy's bloodlines. I had already guessed that her sire might be Boss' Midnight Cash, based on her name and the fact that he looks just like her, but black. 

I'm also really interested in doing the Fox Trot America program, which tracks trail mileage not in competition. Unfortunately, I need to be Lucy's registered owner in order to pay her sign up fee. Fran said that she'll sign the papers over to me as soon as she finds them, but the whole reason I needed to join MFTHBA to get Lucy's pedigree is because she lost the papers about six months ago. I'm trying not to be pushy so it's a conversation I'll have later this spring. 

Anyway....

Back to the point. I finally got Lucy's* pedigree and I was right about her sire. And here's where I get a little hyper focused and go way down the rabbit hole of fox trotter breeding.

*The registration says Lucy is bay with a blaze and four white socks. She only has white on her hind legs. The mare I ride is definitely the same mare listed in the Cash's Lucky Lucy sale video posted by her breeders, all of which matches the paper trail. I imagine Lucy was registered before she lost her baby coat, but I did have this moment of wondering if Lucy is really Lucy.

Now, the MFT is a relatively new breed. The registry was only formed in 1948, and they didn't close the book until 1983. I expected some degree of line breeding, especially since gaited horses tend to have even more of that in their lineage than other breeds. What I was not expecting was straight up in-breeding.

I went ahead and color coded this:

For those of you who aren't going to spend hours staring at my mare's bloodlines, here's the short version: Lucy's maternal grand dam is her own half sister. I'll let that sink in for a minute. That's right, they took Missouri's Cassey Jones and bred him back to his own daughter to create Cassey's Cookies N' Cream. Now, I'm extra obsessed so I can tell you that Cookie (can I call her Cookie?) had thirteen foals. Holy crap. One of them happened to be Boss' Midnight Cash, but more on him in a minute.

But wait, there's more [inbreeding]! 

You'll notice that Missouri's Cassey Jones (blue) is on there twice. But you'll also notice that his sire, Missouri Traveler E. (green, more on him soon too)also appears in the bottom of Lucy's pedigree. Now, this would normally be typical line breeding and no big deal, except you'll notice that Traveler (can I call him Traveler?) is a son of Zane Grey (red) and Lady Anne F (purple) and more on them in a minute too. But wait just a cotton pickin' minute... Zane Grey is Lady Anne F's son. 

Breathe.

So they took Zane Grey, bred him back to his mother, and created Traveler. Then they bred Traveler and created Cassey (y'know, I feel like we're all in the family here, and I'm just gonna nickname everyone). Then Cassey had a daughter, who they bred him back to. But at least her son is multiple horse of the year???? Thank god since he's my horse's father!! So, Lucy is her own....????? Mother? Sister? Daughter? Cousin? All of the above?!?!?!?!!?

It's ok if you need to come back to this post after taking a walk around the block. I did yoga in the middle of discovering all this.

So let's look at Lucy's great grandparents for a second. Her great grandfathers, top to bottom, are Zane, Cassey, Traveler, and *squints* Moneymaker (pink, but who cares about him? Wait... let me put a pin in that... it's nice to see a new color on here. At least there's some unrelated blood on here. Or is there...?)

Ok. So... Zane, Cassey, Traveler. But if Zane is Traveler's father and Traveler is Cassey's father then Zane is in Lucy's pedigree *counts on fingers* *opens Paint* *starts color coding* three times on the top (without touching that whole he had a baby with his mother thing) and once on the bottom (ope, there's his mom again!)

Is it hot in here? I'm dizzy.

Ok, let's change tracks. What about this Moneymaker character? *click*

*horrified blinking*

So the first thing I notice is that Moneymaker has the same grandsire top and bottom, Merry Boy Sensation F. Merry boy indeed. And that F looks like I've seen it somewhere before. So much for adding some color to the family. But wait... what do I see, there's Traveler again, which means Zane and his mother again. Oh yeah, and we bred Traveler to Rawhide's Lady Anne E which sounds vaguely familiar because she's out of Lady Anne F, who is... oh right, Zane's mom again. So they bred Traveler, who is his own three quarter brother, to his own half sister. 

And this is about when I decided I wasn't even going to look into any of the dam lines because I probably don't even want to know and also my brain hurt and I was running out of colors in Paint. 

In case anyone was wondering if I ever plan to breed my sweet, sound, sane mare... the answer is no. I'm just glad she only has one head. But also, all joking aside, is this why the fox trot gait is so unique???

After pouring myself a stiff drink, I decided to figure out who some of these ancestors are. The MFT Hall of Fame was a good place to start. Lady Anne F, Zane Grey, and Missouri Traveler E are all in there. Apparently Lucy is royalty bred back to [the same] royalty. Maybe she'll poop crown jewels. 

Let's start with Zane Grey. He is in every branch of my horse's pedigree, so I might as well figure out who he is. 

Zane Grey

1964-73

Zane Grey, by Sterling Merry Boy out of Lady Anne, was a beautiful dapple grey colt born on Dean Esther’s farm in 1964.  He was sold to Dale Ester as a yearling.  Dale said that he fox trotted the first time that he rode him; he had a big over stride and a headshake that moved his hands 4 inches.  Dale thought he was phenomenal but knew not everyone would agree.  So, before the Celebration, he would have his farrier mule foot Zane behind in order to shorten his overreach as much as possible.  He won the Three Year old championship in 1967 and became a world grand champion in 1968.

It was during Zane Grey’s time when they got away from capping their tracks like the older type horse.  This is when the rule, which required the horse to cap his track by stepping in his front tracks with his back feet, was changed.  Because of this, it is often said that Zane Grey changed the breed more than any other individual fox trotter.

In his short lifetime, Zane Grey was considered by many to be the greatest stallion in the history of the breed.  He sired a line of championship horses, including Missouri Traveler E, who consistently passed on the big lick stride and hind leg over reach.

Zane Grey died in 1973, two months short of his ninth birthday.  Because of his contributions to the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed and upon the recommendation of the MFTHBA Board of Directors, we would like to welcome Zane Grey into the MFTHBA Hall of Fame.

Editor’s Note:  Zane Grey was inducted into the MFTHBA Hall of Fame in 2013.  The above was read by MFTHBA Joyce Graening during the induction ceremony held during the 2013 World Show and Celebration

 

Zane Grey. Lucy is built a lot like him... oh, right.

But what about Zane's mom/favorite bedfellow, Lady Anne F-2555? I see she's in the hall of fame... but then I can't actually find any information about her. No photos. How typical, she's just as much a part of this family tree as the others, but the women never get the credit. Or maybe she just had more shame than her son-mates. With some digging I found this article about a horse named Old Fox. Near the bottom of the article, I found (bold is my notes):

Notes Old Fox sired Ozark Golden King, who sired Golden Governor F-107. Old Fox also sired the B. Mills mare, dam of Nancy Ann F-166.

Golden Governor sired 1966 world Grand Champion Golden Rawhide F-407 and Lady Anne F-2555 out of Nancy Ann.

Lady Anne produced 1968 World Grand Champion Zane Grey F-2815, Missouri Traveler E. 6408 (with her own son!), and Sun Dust E. 80-18217.

The Esther brothers, Dale and Dean, are the sons of a Laclede County livestock dealer. Dale, of Lebanon, Mo., owned Golden Governor, Nancy Ann, Golden Rawhide, and Zane Grey. Dean, of Bolivar, Mo., owned Lady Anne, Missouri Traveler, and Sun Dust E. When you see any of these horses' names in pedigrees, you're looking at Old Fox blood.

 Now it's Traveler's turn.

MISSOURI TRAVELER E.

1971-1997

Missouri Traveler E, by Zane Grey out of Lady Anne was a chestnut sorrel colt born on Dean Esther’s farm in 1971.  When fox trotting, words fail to describe the rhythm that flowed through the stallion’s body from his head to his tail.  Traveler never won a World Grand Championship, but he was part of perhaps one of the greatest Celebration championship shows in history in 1975.

In 1979, Traveler was sold to Lee Hodge and Donald Cunningham.  Donald said, “You can pick out a Missouri Traveler bred horse in the show ring.  They have a certain head shake, rhythm, and timing.  It’s unique.”

In 1981, Traveler was sold to Curtice Williams and Jerry Middleton, who bought him with plans to syndicate him.  This was done with Doug Montgomery’s help for a total of 44 shares, which sold for $2,000 each, making the stallion worth $88,000.  This syndication closed the breeding to all but the shareholders.

It has been said that Missouri Traveler set the standard for the breed.  His natural fox trot, his rhythm, his color, his hip, and his rooster tail carriage were repeatedly passed on to his foals, who won many championships.

Traveler died, just short of his 26th birthday in 1997.  He is buried just north of the main arena on the MFTHBA show grounds.  His grave marker reads, “The Sire”.  Because of his contributions to the Missouri Fox trotting Horse Breed and upon the recommendation of the MFTHBA Board of Directors, we would like to welcome Missouri Traveler E into the MFTHBA Hall of Fame.

Editor’s Note:  Missouri Traveler E. was inducted into the MFTHBA Hall of Fame in 2013.  The above was read by MFTHBA Joyce Graening during the induction ceremony held during the 2013 World Show and Celebration

And then, back to the present for more information about Lucy's sire, Boss' Midnight Cash.  

The MFTHBA congratulates Boss’s Midnight Cash on being named a 2014 Top 5 Breeding Sire.  Owned by Harry Patterson of Wichita Falls, TX, Boss’ Midnight Cash was previously honored as the 2012 MFTHBA Stallion of the Year, an honor that is based on the accomplishment of the stallion’s offspring.  Boss’ Midnight Cash was bred by the late Bill Sanders of Gainesville, Missouri.  He has had numerous honors in the model and versatility arenas including being named the 2011 Open Amateur Western Pleasure Reserve World Champion and the 2009 Open Senior Model Stallions and Geldings World Grand Champion.  Boss’ Midnight Cash was sired by Zane’s Boss Man and out of a Cassey’s Cookies N’ Cream (by Missouri’s Cassey Jones).

The MFTHBA thanks Mr. Patterson for his contributions to the future generations of Missouri Fox Trotters through his stallion Boss’ Midnight Cash.

It's like looking at a grayscale photo of Lu.

The Pattersons own 4P's Ranch, which is both where Lucy was born and where Fran got her (which is what makes me think I  have the correct horse, despite the leg markings not matching on the website).

I leave you with the following conclusion...