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Blue Blooded Mustangs
The Colonial Spanish Horses of North America
Compiled by the late Gilbert H. Jones, Chairman of the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association (SSMA)
Old Harry – SSMA #1
He was a sorrel Comanche Indian pony, 14 hands, 850 lbs. He was foaled in 1897. Gilbert’s uncle won 160 acres of land riding him during the first Indian Territory land run. He was a very fast pony, and was 100% Kansas Comanche breeding.
Gray Eagle – SSMA #5
He was foaled in 1900 on the Llano Estacado of New Mexico. He was 14 hand, 800 lbs., and was iron gray. He was the truest old time Mustang that Gilbert has ever seen, and was a superb cow horse. He was used on big ranches all of his life, and was 100% New Mexico, Llano Estacado breeding.
Baldy Sox – SSMA #8
He was an apron faced bay roan with four white socks, and was foaled in 1915. He was a really outstanding cow horse, and was bred, broke, and trained by a superb horseman. He was one of the fanciest looking Mustangs of his time in North Texas. His ancestors were of Chief Quanah Parker’s breeding, and he was 50% Llano Estacado breeding and 50% Oklahoma Mustang breeding.
Little Buck – SSMA #6
He was foaled in 1916, and was of Tom East breeding. He was one of the purest Spanish horses in North America. He was 14.1 hands, and 875 lbs. He was a coyote dun, and the best trained cow horse Gilbert Jones has ever seen. Little Buck spent his life on big ranches, and was a true old South Texas Spanish horse. 100% Tom East breeding.
Monte
Probably foaled about 1922. He was probably 14 hands, 850 lbs., and a dark dun color. This is as Bob Brislawn described Monte to Gilbert Jones. Monte was caught by Monty Holbrook and his family in 1927 out of the Utah Bookcliffs. Monte was probably the truest Northern type Mustang ever caught out of the wild bunches then or since. The Holbrooks, as a family of Mustangers, had no equal in catching wild horses with nor equipment other than saddle horses, ropes, and horse traps.
After Holbrook got Buckshot, SMR #1, and Ute, SSMR #2 out of Monte and a sorrel mare named Bally, SMR #35, Monte escaped back into the Bookcliffs and was never recaptured.
Ferdinand and Bob Brislawn both told Gilbert that Ferdy bought Buckshot as a two-year-old and Ute as a yearling. Gilbert has a photo of Ute as a yearling. These were bought from Holbrook, and then Ferdy gave Buckshot to Bob.
There will probably never be three Northern type Mustangs more noted than Monte, Buckshot, and Ute as Buckshot and Ute were the two foundation stallions in the SMR, the first Mustang registry which was established by the farsightedness of Bob and Ferdy Brislawn.
All three of these horses were 100% Bookcliffs, Utah Mustangs.
B. Julian Roan – SSMA
He was foaled in 1923, 14.2 hands, and was a beautiful red roan. He was very outstanding and was owned by B. Julian, a friend of Gilberts and a cowboy neighbor. B. Julian was an extraordinary cowboy of the Llano Estacado in Texas and Horse Springs, New Mexico.
B. Julian Roan was an extraordinary Mustang stallion, and had no equal at that time. He was one out of thousands for looks, bloodlines, and conformation. 100% Llano Estacado breeding.
Chief Nocona – SSMA #24-B
He was foaled in 1918 on the Llano Estacado of Texas, and was 14 hand and 800 lbs. He was a rare lemon and white pinto and had a fast running walk. 100% Llano Estacado breeding.
Woofter’s Zebra Dun – SSMA #26
He was foaled on May 30, 1930. This bloodline was acquired by Tom Waggoner in 1890 when he had selected 40 outstanding dun Spanish mares from the trail driving days. This blood was acquired by Paul Woofter, a big rancher of Magdalena and Socorro, New Mexico to use on his big, rough, mountainous ranch. 100% Tom Waggoner breeding.
Old Dunny Boy – SSMA #27
He was foaled April 3, 1932, was 14.2 hands, 950 lbs., and was a cream buckskin color. He had no dorsal stripe, and was black to the knees and hocks. His mane was black with frosty hair mingled in, and his tail was dark. He was extremely pin eared, and the ear points nearly touched at times. The ears were very notched. He had no chestnuts and a big moustached, and one clear glass eye, although is eyelids were black.
The was the best Mustang stallion Gilbert owned up to that time. Gena Autry of movie fame tried to buy him in 1937, but Gilbert would not put a price on him. This was during the Great Depression when a dollar was bigger than a wagon wheel! 50% Llano Estacado Comanche breeding, and 50% Llano Estacado Mustang breeding.
Little Allegros – SSMA #28
He was foaled June 2, 1935, was 14 hands and 850 lbs. He was a red and white pinto with glass eyes and dark eyelids.
He was a very outstanding stallion and was named after the little mountain peak four miles north of Gilbert’s ranch in Bear Canyon, near Horse Springs, New Mexico. 5/8 Llano Estacado, 1/4 Llano Estacado Comanche, and 1/8 Kiowa.
Big Allegros – SSMA #29
He was foaled June 2, 1935, was 14.1 hands, and 850 lbs. He was a yellow buckskin with black mane and tail, glass eyes, and black eyelids.
Gilbert considers him to have been one of the most outstanding colts he has ever raised in his 70 years of raising horses. He was named after the big peak north of Gilbert’s ranch, and was killed by mountain lions. 5/8 Comanche, 1/8 Chickasaw, and 1/4 Llano Estacado breeding.
Chief Apache – SSMA #34
One of the early stallions used in Gilbert’s career breeding Mustangs. He was a very well conformed horse with lots of action and with a history of purity. He was Grullo color.
Mr. Medicine Hat – SSMA #33
Of the best breeding, this stallion is the one that put color early in Gilbert’s band of mares over the years. This band has continued until Gilbert’s retirement, and is still being carried on by Bryant Rickman. He is snow white with red ears and shield in color.
Chief Geronimo – SSMA #37
He was a very old Indian stallion when Gilbert traded for him in the vicinity of Laguna Sabinas, locally known as Cedar Lake, where Gilbert grew up as a boy on the Llano Estacado.
This area was one of the largest Comanche and Kiowas Indian camps and burial grounds on Llano Estacado, comprising ten sections of land which was semi-dry salt alkali lake. The only drinkable fresh water was two big springs, one on the north end and one on the south end of the lake, where the Indians and thousands of their Indian ponies and mules got drinking water.
It was this area where the buffalo hide hunters slaughtered the last remnant of the buffalo in 1871 to 1873.
Gen. Ronald S. McKenzie butchered the last remnants of the Indians in Palo Duro Canyon, killing 800 Indian ponies. He then marched the remnants of the Indians back to their reservation in Indian Territory on foot and hungry.
The big ranchers could then gobble up the Indian Buffalo Hunting Ground for cattle to replace the buffalo.
Gilbert always thought that his getting Chief Geronimo, of this rare buffalo running horse blood, was his greatest luck. Gilbert was sure at the time that this stallion was about the last descendant of the horses slaughtered by Gen. McKenzie.
It must also be remembered Chief Quanah Parker was born at Cedar Lake.
A big battle between the army and Indians was fought on the east side of the lake, and as a boy Gilbert found soldiers’ brass uniform buttons, arrow heads, buffalo horns, and also human bones when the sand was drifted about by big wind storms.
Chief Geronimo was a very rare colored lemon and white pinto.
Tijeras New Mexico Pony – SSMA #53
He was as wild as a deer, always alert, and no rider, to Gilbert’s knowledge, ever rode any horse that could stay in his dust.
Gilbert ran one of Tijeras’s three-year-old fillies seven days straight, riding a real good fresh horse every day from daylight until sun down. At the end of a week Gilbert thought he had her run down as she would let him get almost close enough to rope.
On the seventh day a top rodeo roper drove up with a really good 1100 pound roping horse, so Gilbert went over and asked him if he wanted to take a run at her.
He said he would give her a whirl, so after seven days of steady running Gilbert hauled him out on the eighth day to rope her and collect $10.
She was running with a fairly gentle mare in a 400 acre rough pasture, and they would go into small patches of timber which had a level space of a quarter mile.
They rode out early on Sunday morning, and Gilbert posted this good roper on his race horse. Gilbert rode into the woods and ran her out by him. He was right on her, but lo and behold, when she saw a race horse was after her she put all four feet down and left him like a jet airplane.
He ran off a rocky slope, his race horse crippled itself, and they were barely able to get him back to the trailer. He was a year recovering from this run.
To make a long story short, Gilbert finally trapped her. This was Tijeras Lightning, SSMA #54, named by Colleen Brislawn, Bob Brislawn’s youngest daughter. In 1957 they lived by Gilbert in Tijeras, NM.
When Gilbert moved this mare to Oklahoma the same year they ran her and her colt in 1960 with eight riders and teams of dogs in relays for one day before catching her. This was in March, after she had suckled a colt all winter with only grass to eat.
This kind of Mustang is the kind of horse that can run 50 miles in two hours and 46 minutes. Gilbert never bred many wild unpedigreed horse blood into his horses in 70 years of breeding except for Ute, SMR #2 and Tijeras New Mexico Pony, SSMA #53.
Although Gilbert is against wild unpedigreed Mustangs, he feels one of his luckiest finds was the wild Tijeras New Mexico Pony, SSMA #53. His blood has enabled Gilbert to breed a strain of Mustangs that Bryant Rickman is now continuing with today.
Tijeras New Mexico Pony was a very bright red sorrell; his hair wined like it was greased.
The Zebra Dun – SSMA #48
His sire was Little Buck, SSMA #6 of Tom Est breeding, from deep south Texas. Of all stallions that Gilbert raised in his 70 years as a breeder, he considered this one the most perfect of them all.
He had every trait known to the Spanish breed – black rimmed ears, dorsal stripe down his back, stripe over shoulders, distinct zebra leg stripes on both front and rear legs, roan hairs at base of tail, coal black mane and tail, coal black eyes showing lots of white sclera, and coyote dun body color.
He was really a snorty booger with rollers in his nose, which all Llano Estacado Mustangs had. Gilbert always liked a snorty horse. This was a true Mustang trait which Bob Brislawn looked for, along with much white around the eyes, which he always looked for in judging the old time Mustang.
This horse was also mule footed, and was a one man horse; no stranger could go anywhere with this zebra dun stallion. Some call this a mule disposition.
This horse also had heavy bone protruding over eyes, a big mustache, and no chestnuts.
This was the only horse Gilbert ever raised that he could never ride when he decided to buck. The first time he was saddled he threw Gilbert three times in succession, and the fourth try Gilbert feebly managed to ride him. Though Gilbert broke all of his horses he was never a bronc rider.
At four-years-old, the Zebra Dun bucked Gilbert off a bad trail, and then hit a big rock and killed himself.
His dam, The Gotch Eared Dun, SSMA #14, had the same perfect conformation and disposition. She was killed by Mexicans and the meat sold in Albuquerque, NM for human consumption.
With the loss of these two Mustangs, Gilbert had lost his best chance for raising some super endurance horses. However, he was lucky in saving the fast endurance mare described above (Tijeras Lightning, SSMA #54), whose dam was out of Gotch Eared Dun, SSMA #14.
Over the years Gilbert has been almost wiped out of breeding stock, but has always managed to save a few to stage a comeback.
Mr. Sulphur Canyon – SSMA #39
Roy Bell raised some of the best looking grey Choctaws Gilbert ever saw as far as conformation and purity. Gilbert met many old breeders 35 years ago when he moved to the Choctaw nation. Roy Bell seldom sold his Choctaw horses. Mr. Sulphur Canyon was gray in color.
Mr. Charley Helms – SSMA #41
Mr. Charley Helms was sorrel.
Charley Helms was probably the oldest and largest breeder of old type Choctaw horses, except the Locke Indians in Pushmataha County.
It was said Charley used Native Indian stallions. Charley’s range was around Medicine Springs. At one point a man killed 30 wild Choctaw horses that ranged around Medicine Springs to get a pair of logging mules that had taken up with the wild Choctaw horses.
Kiamichi Mountain – SSMA #44
A bay, this horse was the sire of Chief Pushmataha, SSMA #60, therefore the Kiamichi Mountain hroses of LeFlore Indian breeding sired the number one stallion of them all: Chief Pushmataha, SSMA #60.
Chief Pushmataha was the king of all the Choctaw horses. when Bob Brislawn saw him in 1960 he said Chief Pushmataha was the best Appaloosa he had seen in 40 years. That is enough said, as Bob and Ferdy Brislawn were raised in Nez Perce Palouse country and knew the old Nez Perce Indian Appaloosa.
Mr. Doc Taylor – SSMA #40
A buckskin, this is the sire of Chief Kiamichi (Rooster).
Mr. Doc Taylor was from a strain of Locke Indian Choctaw blooded Indian horses, which had the Trail of Tears Choctaw in their blood. Doc Taylor was an old Choctaw breeder that rode Choctaw horses and was a noted horseman.
He told Gilbert the history on Mr. Doc Taylor and Chief Kiamichi, which Gilbert hopes to publish in the SSMA newsletter some day.
The Doc Taylor stallion was used as a roping horse around Antlers and could short lope along beside a pedestrian walking all day. This short loping was a trait with all Llano Estacado Mustangs when Gilbert was a boy. For some reason this short lope is uncommon today.
Straight Arrow – SMR #5
Founding Bob Brislawn Mustang. He was sired by Ute, SMR #2, also an SMR founding sire. He was a rare buttermilk roan in color. He was the blockiest built northern Mustang Gilbert ever saw. He was only 13 1/2 hands tall, and many expert horse men guessed him weighing 1,000 pounds. He was most horse for his hands tall Gilbert has ever seen.
Chief Kiamichi – SSMA #56
A buckskin and white pinto, Gilbert considers him the purest Choctaw horse that he found in Oklahoma when he moved to Choctaw nation in 1958. Yet he is the most controversial stallion in the Mustang registry today.
He was foaled right in the middle of the Choctaw nation and grew up to five-years-old being ridden by a boy who rode him on the run no matter what distance, and was never known to weaken or hurt his wind for endurance.
This horse proved his Trail of Tears heritage in every way. He was of pure and straight Locke Indian blood, and his ancestors were ridden by big, tough Indians who owned (it was said) 700 Choctaw horses around Antlers in the early days. When Locke and his sons proved themselves in the Pushmataha – Jones Choctaw Indian war around Antlers in early days they were big tough Indians riding Choctaw horses.