DOC BAR’S INFLUENCE in the cow horse world is amazingly prevalent. The majority of cutting and reined cow horse, as well as ranch horses, trace to the 1956 chestnut stallion. It wasn’t what his breeders,
Tom and Jack Finley of Arizona, imagined when they bred a AA-rated race mare to a AAA-rated runner. Doc Bar won only $95 on the track, but he excelled in halter competition, winning nine grand championships.
His offspring demonstrated uncanny athleticism and cow sense, and they dominated the cutting arena during the 1960s and 1970s. That prowess has continued for another five generations, and ranchers have infused Doc Bar bloodlines into their remudas for decades.
In fact, six of the stallions ranked on this list have Doc Bar on their pedigrees. “We need to raise awfully good ranch horses, as far as ones that can get the job done in steep country, rough country and high country,” says California rancher John Lacey.
“Most all of our horses go back to Doc Bar. He goes in just about every line of horses that does anything in ranch country, in the show ring and everywhere else.”
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Holly Smith and Family bred their stud Jet N Go Frenchman to EBAR Colonel Nutmeg, a blue roan, who goes back to Colonel Freckles. She is due to foal anytime now April 20th.
Colonel Freckles first made his mark at the NCHA Futurity, where in 1976 he won the open championship with Olan Hightower riding. A mare out of his first foal crop, Colonel Lil, went on to win the 1981
National Cutting Horse Association Futurity. It was a telltale sign that the stallion, owned by Lou and Wanda Waters of Texas during the latter part of his life, was going to be an outstanding sire. His son Nu Cash, shown by Ted Robinson,
won the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity, and then sired three winners of the event’s open division. A grandson, Colonels Smoking Gun, was a reining champion who sired two National Reining Horse Association Futurity open winners.
An AQHA Hall of Fame inductee, Colonel Freckles is the grandsire or great-grandsire of AQHA champions in roping, versatility ranch horse and all-around competition. That versatility—a horse’s ability to work a cow, run a reining pattern or work a
rope—continues to make Colonel Freckles a sought-after name in a pedigree. “Versatility is the first word that comes to mind,” says Joni Hunt, whose family’s Open Box Rafter Ranch in South Dakota once stood a son of Colonel Freckles. “Sugar Bars crossed
on Leo is such a successful and strong nick. It seems like those Colonel Freckles bloodlines show up in every discipline. They’re pretty horses, and it doesn’t take long to train them. They’re smart, willing and have a lot of natural cow sense.”
