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Tally Johnson
1/4 Cherokee
I was born on November 6, 1926 near Terlton, Oklahoma to a ranching family. My grandad was a buffalo hunter and skinner and Spanish horseman in Eastern Colorado in 1870.
He had a little spotted pony that a man once borrowed and while riding him, killed 18 buffalo. The little horse had no trouble at all keeping up with the herd.
Dad used Spanish horses in his ranch work and ran several head of steers.
I started herding cattle at the age of four on a horse that dad bought for me from a band of gypsies. Her name was Cricket. She was a small white Spanish horse, standing about 13.2 or 13.3, weighing about 750 pounds. She died of sleeping sickness at a young age.
Tally's Horses
My next horses were Chigger and Trixie that we bought from the Otoe Indians. Chigger and I started together in 1935. He was a gelding, light sorrel with flaxen mane and tail with a blazed face. He was about 13.2 or 13.3 and weighed 850 pounds. He had more endurance than any horse I ever saw and was the best cowpony I ever rode. He could run cattle from daylight to dark everyday. I roped 1,200 pound bulls and he never had any trouble handling them. He was well known in these parts and old-timers still remark about him today. Chigger and I were together until the early fifties when he died.
Trixie was a brown mare about the same size as Chigger. She was a good mare, but could not compare with Chigger. Trixie was my relief horse because at that time, I was in the saddle every day. I didn’t get to attend school much because it was just dad and I taking care of the cattle and horses as my brothers were born later.
I made my first trip to New Mexico in the fall of 1935 to the Henderson Ranch just out of the town of Dusty. Dad and I really went to go deer hunting, but ended up visiting ranches instead.
We also went to the Moore Ranch and others while there. I rode small Spanish horses on these ranches. I don’t remember the names of these horses but one named Buckshot, a buckskin dun or yellow dun. I picked up a lot of Spanish ways of handling horses. This was quite an experience for a boy of nine.
A Letter to "Cap" Yates
By the early fifties, my horses had gotten too old to use. I rode some other breeds, but was never satisfied.
Dad told me to find some more Spanish horses. I wrote letters and telephoned people I knew, trying to find some but wasn’t having much luck.
Finally, I wrote a letter to an old friend in Marathon, Texas, I.G. (Cap) Yates at the Y-Ranch, and told him what I was looking for. We drove down there to talk to him about the horses. He finally realized what I was talking about was what he called the Old Spanish or small-boned Spanish horse.
After a long silence he asked me, if he got me a start, would I promise to keep the seed of them. I told him if I ever got a start of them, I would not lose it. He wrote me a letter in October a year later that he had found the horses and had them. He said he would winter them that year because of the climate change.
The Pick-Up
I picked the horses up April 16, 1955 at his ranch. They were really poor, but I could tell by looking at them they were what I had been looking for.
There were 2 bay studs, 1 bay mare with a bald face, and a grulla mare.
One of the studs had a Spanish dagger (Cactus Spine) in his leg, and he was sterile. I used him but he always limped. The other stud was my herd sire. When I got the horses they were 3-year-olds. They were sadly stunted, poor and weak. They were under 12 hands and weighed less than 450 pounds.
“Cap” told me that he had gotten these horses from some Indians in t he mountains about 150 miles Southwest of Mexico City. He also told me that the blood lines there had not been changed since the 1700’s. This is true in the cattle as well as the horses in that area.
The Horses Described
The grulla mare named “Kitten” had tiger stripes on her legs and up the shoulders, black mane and tail, one white foot and dorsal stripe down the buck. She weighed about 800 pounds and stood about 14 hands high.
They all continued to grow until they died. The bay mare, “Wasp” was smaller. She weighed about 750 pounds and stood about 13.3.
My herd stallion “Juarez,” filled out to about 13.3 and weighed 800 pounds. I broke him to ride and work cattle. After a rough start in Mexico he came across the border with a hip knocked down and mule-footed, and wore only triple “0” shoes.
I remember one time, chasing a cow across an old field that had b een turned back to grass on a neighbor’s place. While chasing the cow at full speed I came upon a gully that had washed out about 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep. When we saw the ditch, his next step would have been into it. He jumped and turned completely around and kicked dirt into the ditch when he came down. He was the most sure-footed horse I ever saw.
"Finest Cow Horses"
This was the start of the herd I have today. I have raised some of the finest cow horses in this area.
My herd consists of offspring of the original herd. About two years ago, it got to the point that I would have to get a new stud or start inbreeding. So once more I started the hunt.
I met Walt Banner. Until now, I was unaware of an association of any Spanish horses. He located a stud in New Mexico, Windrift Jack Dandy, who was a son of Rawhide. A few months later, he took me to Nebraska and introduced me to Ilo Belsky, who has been breeding Spanish horses for many years, where I bought a fine blue roan stud and a bay mare.
A few years ago, Herman Newman moved here from Arkansas and helped me move some cows. He saw my small horses and said I should breed my mares to his brother’s Quarter horse stud and get me some “good horses.” I told him I was satisfied with what I had.
After some time, he saw my horses were tougher than he first thought. One day he asked if I had a horse he could break. Said he wanted to try one. He now has 2 horses from my string and says not to change them a bit.
My sons and I all ride Spanish horses. We round up several cattle but don’t consider ourselves good cowboys because we don’t have to be. We ride and let our horses do the work.
Although my youngest son never met Cap Yates, he as well as the oldest, think enough of the horses that I am convinced there will be good Spanish horses on the Johnson Ranch many years to come.
I am convinced the Spanish horse, like the Longhorn cattle, has a future in this country.
Tally and Bessie Johnson always enjoyed the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association (SSMA) sanctioned playdays and endurance races.
When Tally was the young age of 79 he rode and finished the 50 mile endurance race. It was not on his horse who he lost but on Mike and Autumn Hamner’s stallion, Distant Drums “Drummer.”
Tally and Bessie spent many years preserving these horses and we thank them!
Visit the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association website for more Spanish Mustang horses and articles.
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