Strait From Texas

Strait From Texas
by Larry Thornton
we grew up with horses. Rode
grade horses because that
was all we could afford. But we
learned to love them.”
F
Strait From Texas & Gary Wells & Strait GunsmokeNSugar
F
Fischer Farms of Wagner, South Dakota is a
diversified farming operation with a lot of acres.
Fischer Farms is under the management of Jeffrey, Seth
and Lynn Fischer. For many years the farm was under the
management of Lynn and his brother Jerome. But with the
retirement of Jerome, Lynn and his son Jeffrey and grandson
Seth have continued the operation of this diversified farming
enterprise.
The part of this farming operation that is the most visible
could very well be the 400 head of horses of quarter and
paint horse breeding that roam the pastures of this South
Dakota farm. These performance bred horses carry the blood
of some of today’s great bloodlines. This includes the blood
of prominent stallions like High Brow Cat , CD Olena, Dual
Pep, Hes A Peptospoonful, Smooth As A Cat and JR Colord
Rambo. The visibility of this herd of horses was brought
about through a black tobiano paint stallion named Strait
From Texas and it was his visibility in the show arena that has
made him a legend in the paint horse industry.
The fact that Strait From Texas provided the visibility for
the horse herd on the Fischer Farms doesn’t mean that they
started with him. Lynn Fischer explained it this way; “We’re
just a bunch of ole farmers up here in South Dakota. But
He continued, “We
developed a pretty nice herd of
quarter horses in the 70’s and
80’s. In the 80’s we did a lot of
business with the
Pitzer Ranch run by
Howard Pitzer and
Dean Brinkman and
now Jim Brinkman.
We ended up with fifty
to sixty broodmares
out of Two Eyed Jack, Watch Joe
Jack, Jack Eyed
and horses like that. We have
always run a lot of horses.
Right now we might have 400
head on the place.”
Lynn is quick to credit the
pastures on this farm as a key to the development of their
horses, “Our big pastures help our horses learn a lot naturally
with the hills and that helps us raise good horses.”
The buffalo are another key to the development of their
horses. They have found that the buffalo provide them with
an animal that lasts longer as a training tool than cattle do.
He explained it this way, “Buffalo won’t go dead on you like a
cow or calf will. They will stay workable longer. It is usually a
minimum of 75 days to 100 days. Then they will be good for
a two year old. They are quicker as well.”
The purchase of Strait From Texas sent the Fischer Farm
horse program in a new direction in the mid 1990’s. Lynn
tells us how it came about; “We bought him at auction in
Mississippi. Jim Ware had an auction down there and we
bought him at that sale in 1995.
Lynn talked about how Strait From Texas got to
Mississippi, “Ron White had him leased from Larry Mathes
and White had sent him to Dick Pieper. Pieper had him for
about 60 days and showed him a couple times. I believe Dick
showed him at one World Show and I think they got a third
in reining and third in cow horse, something like that. We
watched him go and it was late at night.”
Mr Highland
“We didn’t really want to stand him to the public. We had
enough mares of our own to overwhelm him. But as a four
year old he was just about unbeatable. So we didn’t get
many mares bred to him that first year. But they sure did
get him shown. We left him there and pretty soon he had
enough record and enough wins to make him prominent in
the paint horse business.”
Prominent is an interesting word when you consider
that Strait From Texas won 2,130 APHA performance points
and that was a record for a stallion. He won his points in 56
shows and averaged 40 points per show, unmatched by
any competitor to this day. He was ROM in six performance
events and was Superior in each of them. The events were
Tie-Down Roping (243 points); Heading (535 points)—still
holds the record; Heeling (507 points); Reining (77 points);
Steer Stopping (536 points) and Working Cow Horse (232
points)—still holds the record. He had one APHA halter
point. He was a four time APHA World Champion and a four
time APHA Reserve World Champion. His championships
came in Heading with two; Reining and Steer Stopping. His
reserve championships came in Tie-Down Roping, Heading,
Heeling and Steer Stopping.
Some of the other titles include the 1997, 1998 and 2001
APHA World Show Oscar Crigler Cattle Award winner. He
is the only horse to win this award three times. He was the
1996 and 1998 APHA World Wide Paint Congress Superhorse.
He holds 16 Honor Roll Championships.
Leo San Siemon
Cherokee Siemon (P)
The next step was to continue his show career. “We put
him with Gary Wells, Bobby Lewis, Shawn Darnell, Ron
Emmons and of course JD Yates.
Little Sandy Seco
Ris Key Business (P)
He continued, “Then he came up for sale at the sale in
Mississippi. We drove down and thought we would spend
from 10 to 20 thousand and the horse ended up bringing
$47,500. We spent more than we should have. But we
brought him home.”
Bruce’s Moon
4 Bars Moon Deck
Strait From Texas & Dick Peiper
Cherub’s Pixie
Cheyenne Moon Bar
Reed Cheyenne
Cherokee Maiden (P)
Happiness Is (P)
Raider’s Pal
Miss Pioneer
Pioneer Koy
Strait From Texas (P)
Mr Gun Smoke
Kansas Cindy
Hollywood Smoke
Hollywood Pistol
Pistol’s Holly
Rondo Leo
Poco Angelita
Gunners Pollyanna
Golly
Leo
Sheeglo
Golly Polly
Showdown Joe
Miss Prisa Jo
Miss Caroline
Lynn introduces us to how Strait From Texas was bred.
Straits 6th generation consists of 63 Quarter Horses and 1
Paint and Leo is the dominant sire of Strait’s genetics. “Strait
From Texas was bred by Dana Mathes from Montezuma,
Iowa. He was foaled in 1992. His dam Gunners Pollyanna was
a good daughter of Hollywood Smoke. I believe she won
Aksarben in reining with a 12 or 13 old girl and that was a
big show way back then. They took this mare down to Texas
where Terry Pattison owned Ris Key Business at that time to
get the mare bred.”
Cherokee Siemon was bred by Rebecca Tyler-Lockhart.
Rebecca was instrumental in the formation of what is now
the American Paint Horse Association. She is considered
the founder of the American Paint Stock Horse Association,
which was the predecessor to the APHA.
Ris Key Business was a 1984 black tobiano stallion. He
was shown to a World Championship in working cow horse
and two Reserve National Championships in reining. He was
ROM in reining, working cow horse and western riding. He
was Superior in reining. He was shown to an APHA World
Championship in amateur reining by J. T. Pattison. This
stallion earned 187 APHA points in the open and amateur
divisions. He also won the APHA Open Reining Sweepstakes.
Rebecca and her late husband George Tyler had such
noted horses as Leo San Siemon, Flit Bar and a little ole paint
mare named Cherokee Maiden. Cherokee Maiden was the
first paint horse registered by Rebecca. She is number 23 in
the paint horse registry. Cherokee Maiden was the dam of
Cherokee Siemon.
Ris Key Business is the sire of 26 ROM performers with
11 earning the Superior Award in Performance. His foals
have won 11 World and National titles. One of his leading
performers is RR Risky Mastrpeice who has 1767 points in
8 events.
The sire of Ris Key Business was Cheyenne Moon Bar, a
quarter horse stallion that won two AQHA halter points.
He was shown seven times in the AQHA and won all seven
classes. The sire of Cheyenne Moon Bar was Mr Highland.
This stallion was shown in two AQHA halter classes as a
yearling winning one of them.
The sire of Mr Highland was Cheyenne Reed, an AQHA
halter point earner. Cheyenne Reed is the sire of Cheyenne
Knox, the 1979 AQHA World Champion Junior Western
Pleasure Horse. Cheyenne Knox was an AQHA Champion
with 90 performance points with a Superior in Western
Pleasure and 20 AQHA halter points.
The sire of Cheyenne Reed was Snipper Reed by Logan’s
Bobby Reed. Logan’s Bobby Reed was sired by Reed McCue
by Joe Reed P-3. Snipper Reed was an AQHA Champion that
sired several AQHA Champions. They include Andy Coke,
Lee’s Snipper, Red Buck Reed, Snipper’s Blaze and Snippy
Coke.
Snipper Reed was the sire of the phenomenal show mare
Snipper’s Sarah. This mare earned 207 performance points
and 567 halter points in the open division alone. She was
the 1976 AQHA Open and Youth World Champion Aged
Mare; 1976 AQHA High Point Halter Horse and the 1974 and
1975 AQHA Youth Reserve World Champion Aged Mare. She
earned seven Superiors in Open and Youth Halter; Youth
Western Horsemanship; Youth Showmanship and Youth
Hunter Under Saddle.
The dam of Ris Key Business takes us to the source of the
tobiano paint color pattern for Strait With Texas. Her name
was Happiness Is. She was a 1973 bay tobiano mare. She was
a noted working cow horse. She counts among her wins the
1977 Valley Reining Horse Classic Hackamore Maturity.
Happiness Is was sired by Cherokee Siemon, a tobiano
paint. Happiness Is was out of Miss Pioneer, a quarter mare.
Miss Pioneer was sired by Raider’s Pal by Sky Raider by Star
Duster. Her dam was Pioneer Koy by Hondo K and out of
Kitty Koy.
With the purchase of Cherokee Maiden, Rebecca Tyler
started her on a show career. The highlight of that career
came at the1963 Southwestern Livestock and Fat Stock Show
in Fort Worth. It was at this show that Cherokee Maiden won
the three-year and under mare class. She was then named
the Grand Champion Mare. She won the Junior Western
Pleasure class at this same show. She followed this up by
being named the High Point Senior Halter Mare for three
year olds and up and the Reserve High Point Horse for halter
and performance combined at the American Paint Stock
Horse Association Finals in Lubbock, Texas that same year.
Cherokee Maiden was sired by a quarter horse named
Osage Dan. This horse was sired by Little Dandy by King
P-234. The dam of Osage Dan was Evans’ Duel by Little
Dandy. This makes Osage Dan 1 X 2 inbred to Little Dandy.
The dam of Cherokee Maiden was Maggie by Silver T. He
was sired by Yankee Doodle. The dam of Maggie was a bay
tobiano mare whose pedigree is unknown.
Leo San Siemon was the sire of Cherokee Siemon. Leo San
Siemon was sired by Leo San by Leo and his dam was Flying
May. Leo San Siemon was a noted halter horse with Grand
Championships at shows like the Houston Livestock Show.
He was an AQHA Superior Halter Horse with 85 points. Leo
San Siemon was the sire of several successful arena horses
including the AQHA Champions El San Siemon and Siemon
Joe. He was the sire of Blue Siemon, an AQHA Superior Halter
Horse with 311 halter points.
The paint descendants of Leo San Siemon include Leo
San Cita and QT Poco Streke. Leo San Cita earned 347 APHA
performance points with ROM’s in Heading, Heeling, Reining,
Steer Stopping and Working Cow Horse. He is Superior in all
of these events except reining and he missed that superior
by two points. QT Poco Streke is an ROM reining horse in the
APHA and a Reserve Champion of the APHA World Show
Reining Sweepstakes. The common tie between Leo San
Siemon and these two horses is his dun tobiano son Leo San
Man. Leo San Man is the broodmare sire of Pepsi Poco, sire of
QT Poco Streke and he is the broodmare sire of Leo San Cita.
Cherokee Siemon earned 39 halter points with six Grand
Championships and eleven Reserve Grand Championships.
He was the sire of the RW Heaven Bound, 1984 Reserve
National Champion Amateur Cutting Horse; Lotta Chatter,
an APHA Champion and R Lee Siemon, an APHA Superior
Western Pleasure Horse.
The dam of Strait From Texas was Gunners Pollyanna.
This bay quarter mare was foaled in 1976. She has no official
AQHA show record. Robin Glenn Pedigrees shows that she
is an arena money winner but they give no designation as
to which area she won the money. Her sire was Hollywood
Smoke, an NRHA Hall of Fame stallion. He is the sire of
several prominent reining horses including the 1984 NRHA
Open Futurity Co-Reserve Champion Havegunwilltravel. His
other son Gunners Brawny Lad was a Co-Reserve Champion
in both the 1979 NRHA Open Futurity and the All American
Quarter Horse Congress Reining Futurity.
Gunners Pollyanna was the dam of six AQHA foals and
four of them were NRHA money winners. They include Mister
Kinze by Mr Mui Twist; Banjo Anna, by Heza Banjo; Top Lady
Gunner by Be Aech Enterprise and Kalalannah by Kaliman.
The leading money winner from this group was Banjo Anna
with $2,293.77 earned in the arena. She was a finalist in the
1990 NRHA Non-Pro Derby. Strait From Texas was the only
paint foal out of Gunners Pollyanna.
Strait From Texas was the sire of 397 APHA registered
foals in which 32 were shown. Some of his ROM performers
were Strait Smart Lena, Strait Texan, Pure Texas Smoke, Strait
Leo N Lena, Strait Texas, Strait Ole Paint, Texas Baron, Strait
Texas McCue, CF Strait From Texas, Strait Gunsmoke, Strait
From Ryan and Strait N Handsome. His APHA World show
participants would include Strait Gay Bar Lena, a Reserve
World Champion in working cow horse and CF Strait From
Texas, a 2 X Reserve World Champion in Steer Stopping.
Mr Gun Smoke
The sire of Hollywood Smoke was the legendary Mr Gun
Smoke, a Cow Horse Hall of Fame member and leading sire.
Mr Gun Smoke was sired by Rondo Leo, an AQHA Champion
son of Leo’s Question. Leo’s Question was sired by Leo. Leo
was sired by Joe Reed II by Joe Reed P-3. The dam of Leo was
Little Fanny by Joe Reed P-3.
The dam of Hollywood Smoke was Pistol’s Holly by
Hollywood Pistol. Hollywood Pistol is sired by King’s Pistol by
King P-234. The dam of King’s Pistol was Flit by Leo.
The dam of Gunners Pollyanna was Golly Polly. This sorrel
quarter mare was sired by Golly by Leo. Golly Polly was out of
Miss Prisa Jo by Showdown Joe. Showdown Joe was sired by
Showdown and out of Panzarita Daugherty. Our Mares with
More subject this month and you will note that there were
some pretty good roping horses in this family.
Strait GunsmokeNsugar and Robbie Boyce
But the colt whose show record most closely follows his
sire is Strait Gunsmokensugar. This 1997 bay tobiano son
of Strait From Texas earned 876 APHA performance points.
He is ROM in six events including Tie-Down Roping (85
points); Heading (199 points); Heeling (236 points); Reining
(77 points); Steer Stopping (177 points) and Working Cow
Horse (102 points). This makes him Superior in all six of these
events. He is a six time APHA Reserve World Champion. Twice
in Heading, three times in Working Cow Horse and once in
Heeling. He was the 2001 APHA World Champion in Steer
Stopping. He won six APHA Honor Roll titles and the 2005
APHA World All Around Champion.
Strait From Texas accomplishments
The reined cow horse record for Strait Gunsmokensugar
includes the High Desert Classic Western Spectacular
Limited Open and 2000 Limited Open Championships. He
was the 2000 NRCHA Limited Open Horse of the Year. He
was a finalist in the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. Robin Glenn
Pedigrees show that he won $25,357.20 in the arena.
Golly shows his speed as the sire of Real New, a mare that
ran AAA time. She in turn was the dam of Real Wind, the
1976 All American Futurity winner. Real Wind was the 1976
American Quarter Running Champion Two-Year-Old Filly and
the 1977 American Quarter Running Champion Three-YearOld Filly.
The pedigree for Strait Gunsmokensugar is an interesting
one. He is out of Smokin Bar Sox, a daughter of Smoke Nine.
Smoke Nine is a son of Mr Gun Smoke. This gives Strait
Gunsmokensugar a breeding pattern of 4 X 3 to Mr Gun
Smoke.
Of course Golly is only a portion of the Leo blood. Strait
From Texas had a breeding pattern of 6 X 6 X 4 to Leo. Leo
was 2 x 2 inbred to Joe Reed P-3. Then we can add in the Joe
Reed blood of Snipper Reed by Logan’s Bobby Reed by Reed
McCue by Joe Reed P-3 and we see an interesting breeding
pattern to Leo and his double grandsire.
This is what Lynn had to say about this breeding pattern,
“Strait Gunsmokensugar may have been better than Strait.
He was out of a daughter of Smoke Nine out of a Sugar Bars
mare. Smoke Nine was by Mr Gun Smoke and we like that
Gunsmoke breeding. We love that Gun Smoke breeding or
for that matter the Leo breeding, either one.”
He then responded, “When you look at Strait’s pedigree
you see that old Golly by Leo. When we talked to Dick Pieper
and some of the old timers, they told us about Golly. He
was a good match race horse in Oklahoma” Golly had what
is considered today a 75-speed index. That would probably
put him in the A category in the old letter system of a speed
index above 90 being AAA. He did have an AQHA show
record with four halter points and two Grand Championships
at halter.
History tells us that the Leo horses were “Short Horses” or
horses that had a powerful start and quick speed to win a
race at 220 to 350 yards. This is the kind of power and speed
needed by the calf roper.
The power and speed of Leo reminded me of what Lynn
said about Strait and his son, “You know Strait may have
been small for some, but there wasn’t a calf made that could
outrun him in calf roping. He passed that on and Strait
Gunsmokensugar could fly.
Lynn recalled one incident that shows the speed of
Gunsmokensugar and how he could fly, “It is hard to find
a rider like the Oklahoma guys, like Yates or Wells, here in
South Dakota. But I took Gunsmokensugar out to a Stock
Show that he have here in January. We unloaded him and
Strait From Texas & Strait GunsmokeNsugar winning Senior and Junior Super Stakes
Photo Credit to Lynn Fischer, Fischer Farms
shoed him and I asked Paul Tierney to ride him. Paul said he
didn’t know if he would ride him but he would try him. Well
they run a 5.6 in the calf roping and won the thing. He was a
horse that just had it.”
He then added, “When men like Gary Wells, J. D. Yates,
Bobby Lewis, Paul Tierney and Ron Emmons ride your horse
you know you have something special and that makes Strait
and Gunsmokensugar special.”
The story of Strait From Texas continued and the next
event occurred in 2003 when the Fischer Farms sold half
interest in him to Strait From Texas LLC syndicate. Then
in 2006 tragedy struck and Strait From Texas died of
complication from internal bleeding. The horse was sent to
Iowa State University but just when it seemed he was going
to pull through and be able to go home he died.
But life has gone on for Fischer Farms and they have
continued to breed good horses. They have bred to the top
stallion in the performance horse industry to ensure the
ongoing success started by Strait From Texas.
The farm has sold a couple of stallions including Strait
Gunsmokensugar and another Paint stallion named Cat
Prints, NCHA Futurity Limited Open Finalist. But the way it
looks the future of the horse program seems to be resting
in the hands of another paint stallion named Catzanne and
quarter horses like NCHA Champion, Lil Lewis Long Legs,
Haidas San Badger and NRCRA Champion Peptos Pretty Pep.
Catzanne is a full brother to Cat Prints. They are sired by
the number one cutting stallion in the world High Brow
Cat. They are out of Miss Delta Elan, by Delta Flyer, an NCHA
Super Stakes Champion and paint horse sire. Miss Delta Elan
is out of the famous Miss Elan, by Doc O’Lena. She is a ¾
sister to the leading sire Smart Chic Olena.
This is what Lynn said about Catzanne, “I don’t know if I
have ever had a more athletic horse than I have right now in
Catzanne. This horse is big and will go 15 to 15.1 hands and
weigh 1250. He will lay down in the sand to cut a cow. We
haven’t shown in years so what he has on him is from little
ole cuttings to work on his Certificate of Ability.
But what about Strait From Texas, well his memory is alive
and well and we will let Lynn sum up his feelings about this
great show stallion, “I don’t know if I have ever had a horse,
that when I unloaded from the trailer, like Gunsmokensugar,
I was as sure as I could be, that I was going to beat the
competition.
But there will never be another
Strait From Texas.”
Larry Thornton is a pedigree analyst and breeding consultant.
If you have any questions concerning this article or other
bloodlines, feel free to call him at 479-885-3144
in the evening.
Please try again if you do not reach Larry
the first time you call.
Also visit his website: www.PedigreeNotes.com