Friday, February 27, 2009

The Daughter's Of Joe Hancock, Part 2

Well, as you can tell, I have a real soft spot for the Hancocks. We have seven that carry the blood. The geldings are what people say they are, big and kinda coarse, but extremely athletic. We even have one who likes to buck people off. I give him a bit of a break, because he had some physical issues that probably led to him starting to buck, but it is the Hancock that makes him so good at it.;-) The mares are much prettier and thankfully smaller, but no less athletic or cowy.

So back to those Hancock mares. Through the decades they have just kept churning out good horses. Their influence has even started separate and distinct families. Like the Hancock/Driftwood nick. Miss Hancock 1 was the dam of ROM Performance Offspring and the mother of Hancock Belle. When Hancock Belle was bred to Driftwood an entirely new family emerged and to this day is highly sought after in their own right and also synonymous with Hancock breeding

Driftwood Ike...


And his full brother Speedywood. These two stallions' get and grand-get have probably carried as many cowboys to the paywindow as the Hancocks have.

The late, great Sun Frost, a maternal grandson of Driftwood Ike...
Was a well known sire of arena horses in this area long before the appearance of Christie Petersen and her amazing barrel horse, French Flash Hawk, AKA Bozo brought him into the PRCA limelight. Here's a little secret...The horse's the Cowan's raised were always considered a little on the "tough" side. These were horses that they expected to use on the ranch all week, haul to rodeos all weekend and maybe do a little match racing with too. Anything less than a "tough" horse did not hold up. They also utilized the blood of John Red, South Dakota's first AAA racehorse in their broodmare band. John Red is the son of Roan Hancock by Joe Hancock.

Another highly renowned all-around sire is Two Eyed Jack...

He sported Lady Hancock, a daughter of Joe Hancock as his maternal grand-dam.

Okay, by now you are either saying...enough already, we get it...or you have quit reading?? Hope not...

My all-time favorite Joe Hancock daughter is a mare that does not even have a photo in existence so we know what she looks like...and that is Julie W.



Julie W produced Superior Performance offspring, AQHA High Point Performance offspring(today's equivalent of a World Champion), ROM Performance offspring, Race ROM offspring and race money earners.

Although everything Julie W produced a number of greats like Flutter, Julie Croton, Lena Horn, Mora Leota, Okie Twister, Peter John and Sugar Horn, two of her daughter's managed to revolutionize or at least significantly impact a wide variety of events.

The first is none other than the diminutive...Flit... (Sorry, the picture is so small, it's all I could find on the net) Flit's get accumulated 2 ROM in Race, 3 High Point Performance Awards, 11 Superiors in Performance and multiple Superiors in Halter.



Primarily she was bred to Sugar Bars, perpetuating probably the greatest triangle of bloodline 'nick's' the equine industry has ever known...The Hancock/Leo/Sugar Bars guarantee of success cross.



Flit's greatest Sugar Bars offspring include Bar Flit and Flit Bar, at least in terms of my interests.



Flit Bar was a disappointment on the track and was never shown, but his good looks and exceptional bloodlines earned him a chance to reproduced. And boy, once the barrel racers found out what he could produce...they flocked to him and his get.



His most recognizable son, recently deceased, but whose own get have flooded the barrel racing circuit is the beautiful, Fire Water Flit... A more "foundation-bred" barrel sire you probably will never see again. A son of Flit Bar-who carried the incredible mix of Sugar Bars, Leo and Joe Hancock up close and personal. His dam was Slash J Harletta-a daughter of Harlan(sired by Hank H by King and out of the immortal Dixie Beach by Beetches Yellow Jacket) and out of a double bred-Midnight mare. This horse just makes me drooolllllll. There is not a single nick in this horse's breeding that was not proven to cross extraordinarily well with Joe Hancock. Joe Hancock bred to a Beetches Yellow Jacket daughter produced Joan. She in turn was bred to Midnight and produced Hot Heels. And the King/Joe Hancock nick is coming up here real quick.




But, Flit Bar's contribution to the barrel racing world is not based solely on FWF. Another highly renowned son is Dr. Nick Bar... Dr. Nick Bar one of the very few(he might be the second) sire to have qualified his rider for and ran at the NFR and then had his own get do the same...
Yep, it's Martha again. This mare just carries the best of ALL the barrel racing bloodlines. I covet her!!

Okay, so enough of the running horses, sort of!

Flit was bred to King P-234 twice and produced two sons-King Flit and King's Pistol...
King's Pistol ws the 1957 NCHA World Champion Cutting Horse and founded one of the first great families of cutting horses. The majority of his get went directly to the cutting pen, but he did sire one AAA race horse, Pistol Mike. True to the King family tradition, it was the produce of King's Pistol's mares that were most appreciated. Crossed on other cutting lines, they repeatedly outproduced themselves. And one of his best was was Pistol Lady 2 Be-when bred to Tanquery Gin, she produced the sensational House Mouse, who earned over $700,000 in NCHA competition. Pistol Lady 2 Be also produced Miss Silver Pistol(by Doc's Hickory), the 1985 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Champion. Miss Silver Pistol is none other than the dam of...

Playgun...


And just because I cannot leave out one of my favorite show and performance stallions...



Yes, the halter world and to some extent the show-performance world has been affected by this son of Juleo, another daughter of Julie W's and a full sister to Flit. It's hard to find an event that does not have some Otoe in it. He changed the halter world, affected the show world, produced some race horses and is well-thought of in the roping and barrel racing world as well. Again, we see the dynamic combination of Joe Hancock/Leo and Sugar Bars. Effectively, he could be considered a genetic equal to Flit Bar since their mother's are full sisters and they have the same sire.

I hope I haven't bored you to tears with this walk down memory lane. There is still the other aspect of the Hancocks that does involve the sons of Joe Hancock and how so many have become so heavily inbred and linebred. And how their reputations came to be...

10 comments:

Leah Fry said...

You get lots of credit in the last few weeks of being my something new to learn everyday. I, for one, was far from bored.

Melanie said...

Wow!!! These post's are informative and educational...thanks BEC!!!! As someone who has always just dabbled in QH pedigrees, I love to learn more about them.

They are great horses, who seem to face a lot of issues today (due to breeding practices), and it is nice to know that they have not always been so problem-prone.
Let's hope that more breeders take an interest in improving this great breed.

I liked learning that Hancock horses have a lot of draft influence. Now I know why I sometimes see QH's who are built like Mac trucks and look drafty...they are...lol!!!!
Some of those old-type Morgans that Pony Girl likes have that drafty look too. :)

Grey Horse Matters said...

I've been reading this Hancock series with great interest. I have a mare (palomino-Dusty) whose line includes Joe Hancock and Beetches Yellow Jacket among others. Since I'm not educated in QH bloodlines I didn't know much about her ancestors. This was very interesting to me, I would love to research her history but really don't know how.
I guess she's got some good background, that must be why she thinks she's such hot stuff.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Leah-Glad you liked. I really enjoy reading my Legands books and researching on the net. Occasionally I find new and interesting information.

Melanie-Last year when the price of fuel got so high, I was joking around with my mom that if we had to go back to horse and buggy, at least we didn't have to buy a draft team. I was referring to the Hancock geldings. She didn't really see the humor in that, but I thought it was funny as all get out.

Grey Horse-You could just start by typing in the names of the horses you are interested in learning about. It takes time to find relavent info sometimes, lots of clicking back and forth. Beetches Yellow Jacket was a premier broodmare producer. Two of his daughter's, Lady Coolidge and Dixie Beach are considered blue hens. But you just see a lot of outstanding individuals that are out of BYJ daughters.

LuLo Designs/Blue Eyed Tango said...

Thanks for sharing your stroll down memory lane and filling in some gaps we had on the gene pool! We have some Hancock, Harlan, Leo and King bred horses.

Chelsi said...

Another great post... Some of those horses are just gorgeous!! Of course my fav is Playgun...he is one of my favorite stallions out there and his dam was an exceptional producer and cutter herself.... I actually knew of this old footage of her that I think is really cool....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD14fTMxkrM

Chelsi said...

PS- I certainly can appreciate these great crosses of Hancock bloodlines and what they contributed to QH's in general...the Hancocks that stand out in my mind (in a not so good way) are often the linebred ones that go to Hancock 18 ways from Sunday... which I dont believe is a good thing no matter how great the stallion!

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

Horse Crazed-You bring up a very good point on the in-bred/linebred horses. I'm working on the son's of JH, where you primarily see these sort of breeding "programs". It just takes a while to sort through the information...there is just so much and so many good ones to talk about and the effects they have had, good and bad. Trying to make it sysinct, without making it read like a stats book.

Tammy Vasa said...

Enjoying this series. Thanks!

Andalusians of Grandeur said...

This sounds a lot like the Old Testament, but it's a whole lot more interesting. lol!