QUARTER HORSES IN ARIZONA

Outdoor wear. They range from simple cottons, plain or of modest stripe, to flannels and worsteds, sometimes elaborately embroidered in brilliant colors and complicated designs. Jackets are made from a wide variety of heavy cloths and probably an equally wide variety of leathers and may be either plain or ornate. Although jackets are available in every conceivable style, the most popular one is still the fringed-leather of tradition. Regular blue jeans of cowboy persuasion and known as levis are generally used for riding, and well-chosen slacks are acceptable practically everywhere. Skirts may be made either to harmonize with the blouse or to be part of a two-piece combination with the jacket. A neckerchief is optional but should be a brilliant solid color. It may be held in place by tying it under one ear or by using a slide under the chin. A slide may be any kind of circular arrangement from a simple leather band to a studded bit of jewelry. And if one wishes, one may wear the droopy cowboy tie, usually mounted on a band that fastens under the collar and found in a wide range of colors, all screamingly bright. And nothing else is required or even desirable. A jacket is frequently unnecessary during the day, and a hat is seldom convenient within doors. Boots, then, assume an even more important role than that of conventional footwear in one's own environment, and, if given a small part of the thought usually devoted to shoes for city wear, will respond with a comfort and beauty that will go a long way toward making one's vacation a happy one. And by setting out on this adventure, the guest will discover, when she arrives in the West, that she is already attuned to its all-pervading individualism. Its guiding principle is not that of buying an exclusive to insure against meeting oneself, but rather that of discovering what she needs and wants and doing something about it herself. Such is the genius of the West, both the country itself and the people rugged enough to satisfy its requirements.

Quarter Horses in Arizona PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR

Three weather-tanned old cowmen were hunkered down on their boot heels, talking about Quarter Horses while the show judge waited out in the center of the adjacent arena for the last of twenty-some glistening stallions to enter the ring. "'S a funny thing," spoke up one of the Stetsonhatted trio. "Thirty years ago I used to sell all of my colt crop as yearlings-to cow ranches. Two weeks ago I sold a horse to a fellow from California. Said he was a used car dealer. The horse business sure has changed."

"I was just noticing the same thing here not too long ago," replied one of his cronies. "We sold our cow outfit fifteen years ago and built a small place in town near Rillito Wash, north of Tucson. We had to drive in over desert at that time-no road. The other day I counted up and there are sixty horses stabled within two blocks of us. Feed company trucks goin' by the house every day. I guess everybody's raisin' Quarter Horses these days."

That ring-side conversation epitomizes what has happened within recent years to the breed of horses that has long been the favorite of the cattle rancher, the cowboy and the rodeo contestant-Quarter Horses. They have been lovingly adopted by a large group of people all over the Southwest, and in no place more than in Arizona. The cowboy's cow pony has taken hold, not alone of the heartstrings, but also the pursestrings of many newcomers and old-timers alike, some of whom have never been on a cattle ranch in their lives. Quarter Horses deserve their growing popularity. They are the "world's most useful breed" in the words of their most enthusiastic boosters. Others, less verbose, are content to let the breed's abilities and beauty point up their worth. It has been said that Quarter Horses are the only type left that is of essential economic importance. The cowman expresses it more aptly when he explains that they are a "usin'" horse. What he means is that the jeep or pickup truck hasn't yet been invented that will pop cattle out of the brush on the mesquiteor scrub-oak-covered slope of a rock-studded canyon.

"But where does the name come from?" the newcomer asks. "Are they a quarter Thoroughbred?" Quarter Horses get their name from one of the breed's chief attributes-their tremendous sprinting speed up to distances of a quarter mile. But speed alone isn't their only merit. A good Quarter Horse has to possess strength and intelligence combined with a lightness of foot and the dexterity to "turn on a dime." And they are a definite breed, though this statement is sometimes bitterly disputed by the breeders of other kinds of horses.Quarter Horse "short" races, in the early colonial days of the tidewater country in Virginia and Carolina, were one of the chief sources of amusement-not alone of the aristocratic planters who, for the most part, were their own-ers, but these race meets and matches were of widespread interest to the sport-loving public as well. There are fascinating accounts still in existence of numerous match races where the outcome meant not only huge sums of pounds sterling changing hands but sometimes land and other property as well-even as now. The "track" selected was often some country crossroads where the trees had been cleared enough so that a quarter mile straightaway could be laid out. Then, even as today, crossroads were an excellent site for a tavern, so race meets were apt to take on a festive air of conviviality, enhanced by spielers, medicine men, acrobats and early day versions of hotdog stands that were set up near the starting line to cater to the crowd's material wants.

These first Quarter Horses had been bred for short distance speed. The early gentlemen of the tidewater country were good farmers and husbandmen and soon recognized that the native Chickashaw mares, when crossed with their own English-bred stallions of high caste, produced superior sprinters with stamina and endurance. But fashion in racing circles was dictated by the mother country, and in England long distance racing had become the sport of kings. So as more land was cleared of forests, longer tracks were laid out to accommodate the distance horses that were brought over from England.Quarter Horses and short racing did not die out, however. As the frontier inexorably pushed over the mountains, they moved westward into Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois, where century-old court records show such honorably historical names as Clay replacing those of Randolph and Jefferson on the dockets in disputes over race results that got serious enough to have to be taken to court for settlement.

The mountaineers, like their tidewater cousins, kept on breeding for short speed, and for generations they too produced a number of famous horses, the bloodlines of some still traceable, though somewhat sketchily, in our best Quarter Horses today.

After the plains of Texas had been cleared of the lumbering bison, and the fleet-footed Longhorn cattle moved in to take their place, some of the first mortal migrants were the more enterprising mountaineers. These long-rifled hoi polloi from the backwoods brought their horses with them and they soon discovered, if they didn't already know it, that their muscular "short horses" sired an ideal cow horse. And as one equine generation succeeded another these Quarter Horses' cow "savvy" became almost instinctive, inbred. For some reason, and there are a variety of theories to account for it (a potent subject for hoss arguments), certain strains produced a number of stallions that were especially prepotent; that is, they passed on their symmetrical conformation, their equable dispositions, their stamina and their ability to thrive when left to fend for themselves, and, above all, their sprinting speed, to their offspring-a not too common characteristic in equine genetics. Many good horses are potent enough but they lack prepotency.

Many of these Texas stallions have become legendary with old-time cowmen and horsemen as have these horses' breeders and various owners. In the genus bomo sapiens there is no single species that appreciates a good horse more than a cowpuncher does, nor recognizes a horse's merits (and demerits) more quickly and with surer eye.

Naturally, as the cattle industry got a good start in Arizona, along about 1880 and 1890, the cowboys who drove in the herds, large and small, brought along their horses. The turbulent history of the cattle business in Arizona was different from that of the surrounding states in that, when the Apaches were finally subdued (less than 80 years ago), the big movement of cattle into the better grass areas came from all four directions. There was no gradual sweep from the north, or the east, as in other states. Californians moved in from the west, into the Kingman country. Mexican corrientes were driven up from the south, and from the east it was the Texans and New Mexicans who came looking for open country and more breathing space. Just which group was better mounted and which were better riders is a highly disputatious subject that is fought out every month in the numerous horse and livestock magazines. It is interesting to note that on the older, long established outfits in Arizona today you can still find "dally" men and "hard tie" ropers, the latter being cowboys who catch a calf as is done in the rodeo arena, "Texas style," with a short rope that is tied to the saddle horn, in contrast to the dally men, who, after looping their critter with a loose rope which is sometimes forty feet or more long (old-timers used leather woven reatas), play the roped animal something like a fisherman might play a hooked game fish.

Somewhere along the line in the migration that followed the frontier as it advanced from the Mississippi, the Quarter Horse lost that distinctive name, as a general term, and different strains of the breed were designated by the various stallions that had become noted for their ability and prepotent manner in which they passed on their good qualities to their offspring. For example, there were the Steeldusts, the Copperbottoms, the McCues, the Rondos, the Old Joe Baileys and others. In every case these superb horses stamped their fine qualities indelibly on the horse population of their respective surrounding areas. Their offspring, even past the second and third generations, were sought after not only as speedsters but as cowhorses, contest roping horses, pleasure mounts, even polo ponies. In most cases, too, these famous old sires were owned by breeders who never let their deep knowledge of equine genetics, cattle ranch economics and geographical limitations on types of forage available get the better of their shrewd judgment. In other words, they had developed, or continued to develop, a superb type of horse, the kind that fit the wide open cattle country like a Longhorn steer fits the brush country. Luck-ily, too, these old-timers were horse lovers in the truest meaning of the phrase in that they not only bred for speed and performance but their horses had to look good. They had to have that pleasing, hard-to-define symmetry that can be seen so markedly in the show rings of present day Quarter Horse shows of which Arizona alone has at least eight a year.

A peril to the bloodlines of these old-time Quarter Horse families began to appear about the same time as the present wave of popularity for the breed began to surge ahead, around fifteen years ago. Some of the newer fanciers, in order to breed for what they thought would be even great-er speed, began to infuse Thoroughbred blood, some indis-criminately. Thoroughbreds are a definite breed of horses, bred to run up to distances of two miles and even more. The word, a breed name, is often confused with the word pure-bred. For the most part Thoroughbreds are raised for only one quality-long distance racing ability.

At the same time other Quarter Horse breeders went to the other extreme and even introduced draft horse blood in an effort to get blockiness. The result was often a lumber-ing, dull-witted slow poke that couldn't catch a calf on level ground with a tailwind.

Meanwhile, and even back before 1900, a number of good Quarter Horses were brought in to Arizona by old-time cattlemen and horse breeders, several of whom are still in the business and all of whom are notable char-acters, worthy of more than just passing note. Quarter Horse racing at picnics, fairs and rodeos became the order of the day just as it had in Virginia 250 years before. Every cowtown in the state had its match races, and the shenani-gans that went on at these meets, when an old-timer can be induced to tell about them, make interesting listening.

Short racing became so popular that a little over a decade ago it began on what might be called an organized basis, in contrast to the old system of I-bet-fifty-dollars-Igot-a-better-horse-than-you. Interest in this type of race became so widespread and so many people started raising and riding them, especially around Tucson, that the Old Pueblo became known as the Quarter Horse capital of the world. It was no misnomer and Tucson can still claim that title even though the same enthusiasm has spread to other parts of the Southwest and California. "Association" racing is held at a number of tracks and many of the abuses inherent in match racing have been eliminated by such devices as electric timers, starting gates and a registration system. The salty arguments by the rail jockeys at match races of old have been reduced with the coming of regulated racing.

In 1940 the American Quarter Horse Association was formed and a system of registration for all Quarter Horses set up-a stud book. The organizers were life-long admirers of the breed who realized that a stud book was a necessity if all of their horses' attributes were to be retained. The hectic history of the association need not be discussed here except to note that, on the whole, Quarter Horse men are excelled by no other group in the country for rugged and vocal individualism. But from it all has emerged a stable organization that is doing a lot to preserve and enhance the breed.

By a system of personal inspections by association representatives some 15,000 horses have been entered in the stud book, with many more tentative entries which must prove their merit. The racing division keeps a strict account