The Much Maligned Hancocks

Few bloodlines inspire as much admiration or as much cursing or snorts of derision as the working horse line of Joe Hancock horses. Depending on what side of the fence you sit on, they are either the epitome of the working horse world or they are nothing but a bunch of big, coarsely-made broncs.


A Hancock is NOT always what they seem. Joe Hancock sired a relatively uniform set of get, big, with plenty of bone and plenty of speed...and then the family branched.


The only place I know to make any sense of this is in the beginning, with old Joe himself.


I'm sure that almost everyone has heard the stories, turned legand, some turned urban myth about Joe Hancock. It is true, he was a hair's breath away from being gelded. It is also true that he has draft blood...the consistent bone, feet and size we see on most Hancock bred horses today is no accident. On the top, Joe Hancock is a son of John Wilkins, who is a son of none other than Peter McCue. But Joe got a good dose of speed from his bottom side too. The Mundell Mare, his maternal grand-dam was also the dam of a noted sprinter in the early 1900's, named Jeff. The Mundell Mare was bred to a fine riding-type Percheron. Most of us think of modern Percherons, but it is told with authority, that this particular Percheron was Ralph Wilson's personal riding horse, used to work cattle and even match raced. I have always found it interesting and petty, that people make such a big deal about the 1/4 draft blood that Joe Hancock had when it is pretty obvious in some other founding stallions were not of the purist blood either....

Old Fred being the first one who comes to my mind. His breeding is unknown and he was origionally used as a freight horse. There is little except draft blood that will put this kind of size and bone on any horse. A smidgeon is all it takes.

But anyway, Joe Hancock was sent to race, and race he did. He was unbeatable. In his recorded race history, he was only beat one time at the 1/2 mile. His advantage was his ability to break so hard from the starting line. Those tremendous hips and powerful loin(thanks to his draft grand-daddy) rocketed him from stop to all out in one huge push. This is the trait that probably propelled the Hancocks from the race track to the arena. That and their size. Joe Hancock's size is a bit debated. Some say he was a solid 16H, but most agree he was probably between 15.2-15.3H. That is still a pretty good sized horse in my book.

Another hot topic is the look of the Hancocks. Joe Hancock himself was a good looking individual. It's true, that as he matured he thickened up and that is something we see in a lot of Hancock bred horses. The one's I have been around, keep right on growing and maturing until they are 6 to 8 years of age. That is pretty late by modern standards, now that most people want to see a fully developed 3y/o. There are several types of Hancock horse out there now as depicted by the three stallions I have pictured below. All are heavily in-bred and line-bred Joe Hancock.

I think if all Hancocks looked like this stallion, people would find little to fault them on...

But most look like this stallion...

Sadly, we also see this type...
Now, one thing I really want to point out...the red roan stallion, Drew's Hancock and the heavy blue roan stallion, Blue Apache Hancock are in fact...3/4 brothers. They have the same sire and their dams were sired by the same sire. Pretty interesting huh??

Blue Apache Hancock was featured on FUGLY(my introduction to that forum and not a pleasant experience) as everything that is wrong with foundation breeding. I have to say, the Hancock bred horses we have are bred the exact same way that his owner crosses bloodlines, and I don't think I have ever rode more athletic or intelligent horses. They are big, stout, fast and incredibly easy to train. Which is where I think a lot of people get into trouble with the Hancocks. But that is a discussion for the next post.