Article by Betsy Lynch, published in Legends Volume 3
Many truly great horses were said to be “ahead of their time”. This was perhaps never truer than it was of Mr Gun Smoke. In fact, the performance horse industry may still be trying to catch up to the athletic potential available through this explosively talented line. But it took an elite class of horsemen and women to figure out how best to capitalize on the Gun Smoke firepower.
One such horseman was Dale Wilkinson, a National Reining Horse Association and National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame member. Wilkinson owned Mr Gun Smoke for most of the stallion’s 22 years. He called Mr Gun Smoke “a tremendous poor man’s sire”. He explained that the stallion so consistently passed on his own brand of courage, charisma, and cow sense that it didn’t take an extraordinary mare to get an extraordinary foal.
In turn, Gun Smoke’s progeny passed these traits on to their offspring, which is why Gun Smooke’s trademark style is still so highly visible in the arena today.
Most notably, Mr Gun Smoke sired cutting, reining and working cow horse winners. His AQHA get of sire record shows that his direct offspring have earned just shy of 2,000 performance points. Yet this doesn’t begin to accurately reflect his influence on the performance horse industry.
Many of Mr Gun Smoke’s best sons and daughters were never shown in AQHA events. Instead, they made their mark in National Cutting Horse Association, National Reining Horse Association, and National Reined Cow Horse competition. The latter was more formerly called the California Reined Cow Horse Association. Those associations didn’t always keep complete performance records – let alone comprehensive sire and dam records – so it is impossible to piece together a complete picture.
Yet even a brief overview is impressive. Among Mr Gun Smoke’s distinguished offspring are an NCHA Futurity Champion (Gun Smoke’s Dream), two NRHA Hall of Fame horses (Hollywood Smoke, Miss White Trash), an NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity champion (Kit’s Smoke), an NRCHA Hackamore Maturity champion (Political Smoker), and multiple NRCHA bridle horse sweepstakes champions.
What’s more, several of Mr Gun Smoke’s most memorable get and grandget are registered Paint Horses. Mr Gun Smoke’s propensity to produce Quarter Horses with excessive white enriched Paint Horse working lines tremendously.
Pedigree analyst, breeding consultant, and author Larry Thornton speculates that Mr Gun Smoke’s pronounced ability to produce overo cropouts may have been inherited through his sire line. The Leos, which were linebred Joe Reed, were well known for producing generous white markings. “But there could be other factors involved”, Thornton acknowledged. Whatever the source, the characteristic Gun Smoke white trim has been a source of both pride and frustration for many cow-horse breeders.
Nevertheless, Harley and Mamie Price of Bazine, Kansas were batting a thousand when they chose to breed their stallion Rondo Leo to Kansas Cindy. The recipe was ripe with cow sense, athletic ability, and speed. Without question, Mr Gun Smoke proved to be a silver bullet for cutting, reining, and working cow-horse breeders. He provided a much needed outcross for the King P-234 and Doc Bar families, and improved a host of other bloodlines as well.
Gun Smoke’s sire, Rondo Leo, was an AQHA Champion with 20 halter points, 25 cutting points, and 11 reining points. He also had an impressive pedigree. He traced to Leo through Leo’s Question, a AA race horse who earned a tremendous reputation as a cutting horse sire. Rondo Leo’s full brother, War Leo, was also an AQHA Champion, an NCHA Top 10 horse, and the 1963 AQHA High-Point Cutting Horse, as well as a stakes race winner. Both stallions were out of War Bird, a line-bred Oklahoma Star mare who produced four AQHA Champions.
Mr Gun Smoke’s dam, Kansas Cindy, was also line-bred Oklahoma Star through her sire, Kansas Star. Kansas Star was by Nowata Star and out of Star Jean. Oklahoma Star was a noted speed horse (as was Leo). In the early 1920’s he was such a great match race horse that owner Tommy Moore soon ran out of willing contenders. Oklahoma Star also passed on his speed. Nowata Star, for instance, sired nin ROM race horses.
The intensive Oklahoma Star breeding on both sides of Mr Gun Smoke’s pedigree infused him with a double dose of dynamite. It may also be responsible for his prepotency as a sire, noted Thornton. It certainly contributed to his “breedy” build. Unlike the stout-muscled, compactly built Leos, Mr Gun Smoke matured at 15.1 hands and had a lean, elegant look.
“His conformation was just exactly the way you’d build one”, said Wilkinson. “He had a little ol’ narrow chest, a little pencil neck, high wither, short back and his stifle just hung out there about 6 inches. He didn’t have much gaskin, but he was made like a modern athlete.”
“A Characteristic of Gun Smoke horses is that they’ve got a lot of movement in the front end”, Wilkinson continued. “I think that conformation complemented them so they could easily move the front end and do everything off of their hindquarters.”
Mr Gun Smoke was foaled in Kansas in 1961. The Prices didn’t own the blaze faced, stocking-legged sorrel for long however. By the time he had reached his first birthday, Mr Gun Smoke had already been sold twice. The first exchange took him to Ohio, where he would spend almost his entire life – not exactly the first place that comes to mind when you think of premier cow horses.
Another sale put him into the hands of Bill Nicodemus, who formed a partership with his brother-in-law, Tom Ryan. Nicodemus dabbled in racing and pleasure with Mr Gun Smoke before contacting Dale Wilkinson about training the colt for cutting. Nicodemus offered Dale one-third interest in the horse in exchange for his training fees. But Wilkinson wasn’t ready to take the plunge on the unproven 3-year-old. Instead, he agreed to take Mr Gun Smoke for 2 months at his regular training fee, after which time he would reconsider the offer.
Dale admitted he was less that impressed with the looks of the hors. But all that changed when he slapped a saddle on his back.
“Mr Gun Smoke was very impressive from the beginning.” Wilkinson said. “he was very athletic horse, very physical, with a lot of uncontrollable moves. He was also very, very cowy. He could move so fast. Too fast”, he chuckled. “He was really more than you could control”.
Two months wasn’t nearly enough time for Dale to figure out how to contain Mr Gun Smoke’s extreme reactivity. Yet he was intrigued by the stallion’s potential. Wilkinson accepted Nicodemus’ offer, and took part ownership of Mr Gun Smoke. He admits he never did collect his training wages.
Unfortunately, not lon into his schooling, Mr Gun Smoke sustained a front leg injury that sidelined his early show career. Wilkinson believes the stallion broke a bone in his ankle. As he was recovering from that, he developed ringbone in a hind leg. Over the next several years, Mr Gun Smoke vacillated between soundness and lameness.
Due to thin injury, no one probably ever saw Mr Gun Smoke at the top of his form. Dale speculates that the ailment may have slowed the horse down just enough to allow the trainer to get a handle on his phenomenal talent. When Mr Gun Smoke was finally sound enough to compete, he was awesome.
Gun Smoke had undeniable power and presence. He was light to the rein and leg. And he could stop and turn with such force that it often prompted some good natured ribbing. Wilkinson recalls western artist Lex Graham chiding him after watching Gun Smoke cut.
“Hey Dale, I sure wouldn’t have any need for your horse”.
“Oh, why is that?” Dale queried back.
“Well, I noticed you spent half your time just getting back on him”, Graham laughed.
Wilkinson explained that Mr Gun Smoke had a tremendous desire to control a cow. He considered it a personal challenge. And the horse’s ground-driving stop was built-in. Dale said he never had to teach the stallion to stop with a cow. Mr Gun Smoke reacted instinctively. The stallion also quickly figured out where to position himself to keep his working advantage. If a cow would stop and face the horse, Mr Gun Smoke would crouch and challenge the animal, just daring it to make a move.
Dale relates, “We were at Columbus, Ohio for a cutting. There was a small pen called the Cooper Arena and they would sprinkle the top of it with water to keep the dust down. Anyway, Ronnie Sharp worked first. The top of the dirt was wet and when Ronnie went in, he slipped around, almost fell down. After he quit and came out, he said “That ground’s dangerous. Somebody’s going to hurt themselves.”
“I went in on Mr Gun Smoke, and when we got done cutting, I’d marked a 76”, Wilkinson continued. “So I told him, Ronnie, there’s lots of dry dirt down there if you just get down in there and get it.”
“You know, you can be a smart alec when you’re ricing one like that”, Wilkinson chuckled. “But that was the difference with Mr Gun Smoke…He was such a strong-stopping horse. When a cow would stop, he’d just drop his butt in the ground. It’s one of the things I feel like he’s passed on”.
Long before Mr Gun Smoke had his banner show year in 1967, the stallion had earned Wilkinson’s respect. He was hot blooded, light-footed, and exceptionally responsive. He was also extremely intelligent. According to Dale, he was a giant step ahead of many of the cooler-tempered horses who were popular at the time. His big eyes and alert, intelligent appearance prompted Texas cutting horse legend Pat Patterson to tell Wilkinson that his horse “looked like a truck driver on bennies”. He cut cattle with intensity, and commanded a great deal of respect. Wilkinson and others have often described Mr Gun Smoke as an athletic genius. Legendary reiner Bill Horn agrees. Horn is the first rider in the history of the NRHA to have won more than a million dollars in reining competition. More than a few Mr Gun Smokes contributed to that tally, including NRHA Hall of Famers Miss White Trash, Hollywood Smoke, and Trashadeous.
Horn rode with Dale during the early days when Wilkinson was training and showing Mr Gun Smoke. He says that the stallion was one of the most physically powerful horses he’s ever seen. Unlike Dale, who said he was discouraged from reining on the Gun Smokes because they tended to be hot, Horn was one of the first horsemen to successfully channel that explosive energy in the reining pen.
Due to fate, however, Horn’s first Mr Gun Smoke became a cutter. In 1966, Horn bred his Quarter Horse mare Little Miss Hank to Dale’s stallion. What he got was a flashy sorrel filly he named White Trash. That’s because the mare’s generous white markings made her ineligible for AQHA registration papers. They also kept her out of the NRHA Futurity. At that time, the event was open only to registered Quarter Horses.
But White Trash was no throwaway in Horn’s eye. He competed with the mare at the 1970 NCHA Futurity, placing sixth in the most prestigious cutting event in the country. She won more than $10,000 in cutting before Horn turned her physical prowess to reining. From 1976 to 1980, Miss White Trash won a number of open reinings, earning more than $13,000 at a time when the prestige was a lot greater than the payback.
An even greater contribution to the industry is the one Miss White Trash made as a broodmare. She produced five offspring who won more than $150,000 in NRHA events. They are Patrasha, Im Not Trash, Mr White Trash, Mark Him Trash, and Trashadeous. She was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 1993.
Her most famous son is Trashadeous, a 1987 stallion by Be Aech Enterprise (AQHA). In spirit, appearance, and sheer unbridled talent, Trashadeous is the image of his grandsire. With Horn in the saddle, the Paint stallion electrified audiences every time he entered the show ring. He retired with more than $100,000 in NRHA earnings.
But Trashadeous’ road to riches got off to a rocky start. Horn, who bred the stallion, says he knew from the start that Trashadeous was special. Horn personally took charge of breaking and training the colt. He was “cocky”, according to Horn, but fragile as well. People who worked for Horn still like to tease him about his runaway colt.
“It was so easy to scare him”, Horn said. “And for him to scare himself – he could do so much.” For a year, Horn never even touched Trashadeous with a spur. He just kept trying to build the colt’s confidence and trust and get him under control. Horn felt certain that if he could just capture the colt’s ability, he would be awesome in the show pen. At his first show, Trashadeous reared straight up. Hardly an auspicious beginning for a future Hall of Famer.
But Trashadeous more than redeemed himself by winning the reserve championship in the 1990 NRHA Futurity. He finished a half point away from the top spot.
After recovering from colic surgery, Trashadeous went on to win the NRHA Derby, NRHA Superstakes, NRHA Congress Open, and the Lazy E Classic Open. He became the NRHA’s 1992 Open World Champion. In 1996, Trashadeous was inducted into the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Trashadeous and Bill…but maybe more for Bill”, acknowledges Wilkinson. “Trashadeous was so much like Mr Gun Smoke. My God, he was so physical. You never knew where he was going to go or what he was going to do. But you did know he was going to do something.”
Among horsemen, the Gun Smokes did have a reputation for being volatile. And in truth, they weren’t for everyone. Yet in the right hands, they exhibited such courage, determination and raw physical talent that they were hard to beat. But getting along with them required patience and strategy rather than force. One needed to be careful about lighting matches while sitting on a powder keg.
“They took a little more of your time than a fellow really wants to spend on one,” admits Wilkinson. “They took a lot of riding, a lot of quiet riding, a lot of sensible riding. As far as hurting them, that wasn’t in their program at all. I don’t think very many people won if they used that approach on them. Most of the Gun Smokes are very intelligent. Mr Gun Smoke himself was very intelligent.”
Wilkinson also pointed out that many of the Gun Smokes matured a bit slower than horses from other popular performance lines – both physically and mentally. It didn’t necessarily pay to be in a hurry.
When Dale first saw Mr Gun Smoke as a 3-year-old he thought the colt was scrawny, light-muscled, and as fractious as any youngster he’d ever started. By the time Mr Gun Smoke was a 5 and 6 year old, he had made a remarkable transformation. Not only was he physically handsome, he was also mentally mature enough to be all business.
California horseman Pat Hubbert can relate to that assessment. He experienced a similar situation with his great Gun Smoke daughter Smokes Belle. The mare is out of Mac’s Sujo and is a full sister to 1976 CRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Champion Kit’s Smoke. Hubbert teamed up with Smokes Belle at the end of her 3-year-old year when his client bought her at the CRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Sale.
Although Smokes Belle had finished in the snaffle bit futurity finals, she was on pretty shaky ground.
Hubbert said Smokes Belle was athletic and cat quick, but extremely flighty. She had so much stamina that there weren’t enough hours in the day to wear her out. Training her was a mind game. Hubbert liked the challenge.
“She used to be m morning’s work”, Hubbert recalled. “I’d go out and saddle her up and ride her. I could see she was a basket case, but I didn’t fight with her. I just tried to get something done with her every day.”
His persistence paid off. She got better and better. In her second year of NRCHA hackamore competition, Smokes Belle won the hackamore division year-end award. In fact, Hubbert had begun to think so highly of the mare that when the opportunity came up to buy her, he and his wife Judy mortgaged the ranch and bought Belle and her full sister, Nuthin But Smoke.
By the time Smokes Belle was retired to the Hubbert broodmare band, she had won more than $57,000 and had earned her NRCHA Supreme Working Cow Horse title. Nuthin But Smoke also did her part and earned more than $30,000 before she was given broodmare status. What’s more, Smokes Belle has produced 12 foals who have won more than $150,000 in working cow horse, cutting, and reining competition.
Her daughter Smokinic, by Reminic, won the 1986 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity and has lifetime earnings of more than $80,000.
Belle’s cropout Paint son by Winnerinic, Smokes Dude, is an APHA world champion and the association’s No 1 lifetime leading working cow horse, at the time of this writing. He also has superiors in cutting and reining.
Although Mr Gun Smoke’s own performance career was short, Wilkinson made the most of it. He didn’t haul very much because “there was too much work to be done at home,” but Dale took the horse to fairs, fat stock shows, and the occasional Quarter Horse show. Mr Gun Smoke was shown approximately 30 times. He earned 71 AQHA performance points, an AQHA Superior cutting award, and received his NCHA Certificate of Ability with nearly $8,500 in winnings. In fact, Mr Gun Smoke did well enough in 1967 with limited showing to place 11th in the NCHA’s year end standings.
Even prior to the stallion’s show ring success, Wilkinson had a hankering to acquire sole ownership of Mr Gun Smoke. In early 1967, tight financial circumstances convinced Bill Nicodemus and Tom Ryan to part with their shares. Nicodemus set a price, but as part of the bargain, he also wanted the trophy he anticipated that Mr Gun Smoke would win at an upcoming show.
“I said all right, but there isn’t any guarantee on the trophy,” Wilkinson recalled with a laugh. “But I won the cutting and Bill got his trophy and $2,500.”
For his part, Tom Ryan received a 2-year-old Mr Gun Smoke filly in trade.
Prior to 1967, Mr Gun Smoke had bred only a handful of mares. But once the stallion debuted on the show scene, his strong cutting performance and good looks began to generate some local interest.
Then, as the handful of Gun Smoke sons and daughters began to trickle into the show arena, serious cow horse breeders couldn’t help but notice. In 1970, Bill Horn and Miss White Trash finished sixth at the NCHA Futurity. In 1971, Two D’s Dynamite, another Gun Smoke daughter, became the NCHA Non Pro Futurity reserve champion. That same year, Smoked Out was on the AQHA’s list of top 10 reining horses. The next year, Dale won the 1972 NCHA Cutting Futurity with Gun Smoke’s Dream.
Mr Gun Smoke’s ability to sire talented performance horses was obviously no fluke.
After Wilkinson won the NCHA Futurity, regional interest expanded to national interest. In what could hardly be considered a hot-bed of cutting, Mr Gun Smoke was breeding more than 3 dozen mares from all over the country. His book was starting to fill with a better class of mares and his offspring were being saddled by some of the nation’s better trainers.
Mr Gun Smoke’s get continued to make inroads. In 1973 Two D’s Dynamite was the AQHA high-point cutting horse. In champion and world champion mare. The next year, she became the AQHA reserve world champion senior cutting horse.
In 1974, Gun Smoke’s Dream reasserted herself by winning the All American Quarter Horse Congress Cutting Maturity. The same year Smoke 49 won the Texas-New Mexico Cutting Horse Maturity. Smoke 49 went on to become and AQHA Champion, earning 25 halter points and 16 working points in cutting and English pleasure. Incidentally, Smoke 49 later sired the cropout Paint, Smokes Peppy San, a two-time APHA world cutting champion.
With Mr Gun Smoke’s increasing credentials as a sire, California horseman Charlie Ward recognized and opportunity to introduce new blood into the West Coast cow-horse industry. He invited Dale to stand Mr Gun Smoke at the Doc Bar Ranch in 1975. Dale sent the stallion west, and Ward bred several of his good mares to the stallion. But to Ward’s and Dale’s disappointment, few other California breeders chose to take advantage of the service. Mr Gun Smoke was returned to Ohio.
Yet Ward had had the right idea. He was simply ahead of the game. The next year, trainer Benny Guitron won the 1976 California Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity riding Kit’s Smoke. Guittron and partner Bert Crane had purchased the mare in Georgia and Benny had just put 4 1/2 months of training on her when they claimed their snaffle bit victory by 4 points.
Suddenly reined cow-horse breeders recognized the name Mr Gun Smoke. They began clamoring for his get. The demand for breedings “was more than you could dream”, recalled Wilkinson.
In 1978, Kit’s Smoke, again with Benny Guitron riding, won the NRCHA A Division year-end hackamore championship. In 1979, she claimed title to the 1979 CRCHA Bridle Horse Sweepstakes Championship, and won every major event she showed in that year. She was the first horse to accomplish this prestigious series of wins and became the first horse in CRCHA history to earn the special designation of Supreme Working Cow Horse.
By the time Kit was retired at age 6, she had earned more that $40,000 in competition. What’s more, Kit’s Smoke went on to produce Reminikit – a three-time AQHA world champion – and numerous snaffle bit futurity finalists.
By then, Guitron had begun to beat the drum about bringing the stallion back to the West Coast. The sire’s age, however, deterred many would-be investors.
“I told a group of men, We ought to buy this horse”, recalled Guitron. “But they said ‘No, he’s too old, he’ll never pencil out.’ I said, ‘Well, he’s going to come to California and he’s going to haunt us. You guys are going to be sorry that you didn’t do it’.”
Guitron finally found a receptive listener in California businessman Gary Wexler. Wexler was just getting started in the horse industry, with Guitron’s enthusiasm for the Gun Smokes, the possibility of owning the stallion began to intrigue Wexler. The businessman also had the financial resources to make it possible. Wexler approached Wilkinson and the men negotiated a deal that would install Mr Gun Smoke at GW’s Futurity Farms.
At about the same time, renowned Quarter Horse breeder B.F. Phillips contacted Wilkinson about bringing Mr Gun Smoke to Texas. Although tempted, Wilkinson said he declined Phillips’s offer because he’d already shaken hands on a lease-purchase agreement with Wexler.
When Mr Gun Smoke returned to California in 1979, it was to a far warmer reception than he had received the first time. Jeff Oswood, who was the stallion manager for GW’s Futurity Farms, remembers that the response from mare owners was tremendous. Mr Gun Smoke bred more than 80 mares his first year standing at Wexler’s Ranch in Temecula. His court included a number of well-bred Doc Bar, King Fritz, and Sugar Vandy mares. An advertisement for Mr Gun Smoke in the April 1991 California Horse Review magazine listed his breeding fee at $5,000. He was booked full.
It didn’t hurt that the Gun Smokes continued to flex their muscles in cow-horse competition. In addition to Kit’s Smoke’s ongoing success, Aledo Smoke won the 1979 California Cutting Horse Futurity. Hol E Smoke was the 1979 RECHA Champion Novice Cutting Horse and the 1979 Jim Reno High-Point Award Winner. Political Smoker won the 1981 CRCHA World Championship Hackamore Maturity. Kit’s Smoke’s full sister, Smokes Belle, was both the 1980 and 1981 CRCHA Bridle Horse Sweepstakes Champion. And the list of winners continued to grow.
GW’s Futurity Farms added more gun powder to its arsenal. Wexler stood two of Mr Gun Smoke’s sons. One Gun was the 1977 AQHA Reserve World Champion Junior Cutting Horse and 1979 All American Quarter Horse Congress Open Cutting Champion. Hollywood Smoke was a Congress open reining champion, who also earned an NCHA Certificate of Ability and a ROM in AQHA cutting competition.
Bright Smoke, a grand champion at halter and a Congress novice cutting champion, also stood at GW’s Futurity Farms and was owned by Triple A Stock Farm.
Hollywood Smoke, out of Piston’s Holly became an outstanding sire in his own right. He sired two NRHA Futurity reserve champions – Gunner’s Brawny Lad in 1979 and Havegunwilltravel in 1984. Gunner’s Brawny Lad also won the 1979 Congress Reining Futurity and was the 1980 NRHA Open Reserve World Champion Reining Horse.
Hollywood Smoke’s daughter, Walk Away Rene, was the 1978 NRHA World Champion and the 1979 Congress Junior Cutting Champion. White Is was the 1980 NRHA Open World Champion and Path of Smoke was the 1975 AQHA World Champion Junior Reining Horse.
When GW’s Futurity Farms was dispersed in 1982, Mr Gun Smoke was sold to Rapps Quarter Horses. Oswood went with him and continued to manage Mr Gun Smoke until the time of the stallion’s death. He had tremendous regard for the horse.
“Mr Gun Smoke was pretty laid back, pretty quiet. He was probably the kindess horse I’ve ever been around” Oswood said. “He was a very friendly horse, very affectionate toward me. I was pretty much the only person who ever messed with him (in California), so he and I had a pretty good rapport.”
Oswood had the honor of leading Mr Gun Smoke into the arena during the ceremony at the 1980 World Championship Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, when Mr Gun Smoke was inducted into the Cow Horse Hall of Fame. He also had the burden of being by the horse’s side the day that the great stallion was humanely put down due to failing health. It was 1983 and Mr Gun Smoke was 22.
Gun Smoke’s offspring continued their winning streak after he died. Docs Gunsmoke, for example, a cropout Pain stallion out of Tykes Molly Reed (AQHA), finally third in the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity and was the high-scoring horse in the fence work. He earned more than $30,000 at the event and went on to win the Idaho Reined Cow Horse Snaffle Bit Futurity. In 1987 Docs Gunsmoke was the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Hackamore Maturity Champion. Docs Gunsmoke also became an APHA National Champion in cutting in 1987 and a two-time APHA reserve world champion in 1995. He has won more than $45,000 in prize money. He also sired an NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity reserve champion, Smokin Vogt, and an APHA World Show cutting futurity champion and reserve world junior cutting champion, Smokes Partee.
Docs Gunsmoke is joined by several other outstanding Paint sons and daughters of Mr Gun Smoke. Strait Smoke, for example, is an APHA youth world reining champion. Smokes Last Spot, a gelding out of Chex Design, is a reserve world champion in reining and working hunter under saddle. Jester Smoke earned his Superior in cutting with 70 points. Kid Smoke is reserve world champion in working hunter under saddle.
Miss Smokette became an APHA Champion with 79 points in halter and over 30 points in performance, including bridle path hack, reining, and western pleasure.
Bonnie Smoke, out of two-time Paint national champion working cow horse Ropers Calcutta, has won more than $27,000 in cutting and working cowhorse competition for owner-trainer Smoky Pritchett, and her offspring have won even more.
Mr Gun Smoke’s 16 APHA performers have earned more than 400 APHA performance points and nearly 100 APHA halter points.
During his lifetime, Mr Gun Smoke sired 556 AQHA foals, 67 paints, and 4 Appaloosas. In his last 2 years at stud, the horse Dale Wilkinson had called his “tremendous poor man’s sire” commanded a breeding fee of $10,000.
Mr Gun Smoke’s last foals were born in 1984. What’s truly remarkable is that the dynasty continues to grow. NCHA performance records from the 1980s to the 1990s show that Mr Gun Smoke’s grandget won more than $3 million in cutting competitions during that period alone. Mr Gun Smoke continues to appear on the leading maternal and paternal grandsires lists for the NCHA, NRHA, and NRCHA. Even well into the 1990s some of his direct son and daughters continue to accumulate points and awards.
The sheer number of great Gun Smoke horses becomes unfathomable as you start to trace pedigrees. For example, Boomernic, who won the 1992 NRHA Futurity, was out of Docs Leavum Smoke, an own daughter of Mr Gun Smoke.
The 1996 NRHA Futurity reserve champion was a Paint stallion named Colonels Smokingun, who was out of Katie Gun, a great-grandaughter of Mr Gun Smoke through One Gun.
Lenas Telesis, the 1991 NCHA Super Stakes champion, is a great-grandson of Mr Gun Smoke through Gun Smokes Dream.
Smokin Jose, the 1980 AQHA World Champion Junior Cutting Horse and a Masters Cutting champion, is a grandson of Mr Gun Smoke through Gunsmokes Rpple.
The CRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity champion and California Cutting Futurity Champion and California Cutting Futurity champion, Sanpeppy Smoke, is a Mr Gun Smoke grandson through Mr Fools Smoke. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Says Benny Guitron, who is no riding and winning on Kit’s Smoke’s grandget, “People may call me an idiot for saying this, but I think Mr Gun Smoke outsired Doc Bar, if you consider the number and caliber of mares who were bred to him. He sired winners in the major reining, cutting and reined cow-horse futurities. Doc Bar himself never did that.
“I made a prediction”, continued Guitron. “I really believed in that horse so much that I said, ‘If you don’t have a Gun Smoke mare in your broodmare band, you ain’t got a broodmare.’ But it’s a proven fact. You look at the stats at every major event and there will be a colt out of a Gun Smoke bred mare in the finals.”
“It’s really strong breeding,” confirmed Wilkinson. “Mr Gun Smoke contributed to all of us through his offspring. He was a tremendous, strong willed horse. He’s done some wonderful things for our industry. I feel fortunate to have been a part of his life.”