by Larry ThorntonStrait From Texas

F

F Fischer Farms of Wagner, South Dakota is a diversified farming operation with a lot of acres.

Fischer Farms is under the management of Jeffrey, Seth and Lynn Fischer. For many years the farm was under the management of Lynn and his brother Jerome. But with the retirement of Jerome, Lynn and his son Jeffrey and grandson Seth have continued the operation of this diversified farming enterprise.

The part of this farming operation that is the most visible could very well be the 400 head of horses of quarter and paint horse breeding that roam the pastures of this South Dakota farm. These performance bred horses carry the blood of some of today’s great bloodlines. This includes the blood of prominent stallions like High Brow Cat , CD Olena, Dual Pep, Hes A Peptospoonful, Smooth As A Cat and JR Colord Rambo. The visibility of this herd of horses was brought about through a black tobiano paint stallion named Strait From Texas and it was his visibility in the show arena that has made him a legend in the paint horse industry.

The fact that Strait From Texas provided the visibility for the horse herd on the Fischer Farms doesn’t mean that they started with him. Lynn Fischer explained it this way; “We’re just a bunch of ole farmers up here in South Dakota. But

we grew up with horses. Rode grade horses because that was all we could afford. But we learned to love them.”

He continued, “We developed a pretty nice herd of quarter horses in the 70’s and 80’s. In the 80’s we did a lot of business with the Pitzer Ranch run by Howard Pitzer and Dean Brinkman and now Jim Brinkman. We ended up with fifty to sixty broodmares out of Two Eyed Jack, Watch Joe Jack, Jack Eyed and horses like that. We have always run a lot of horses. Right now we might have 400 head on the place.”

Lynn is quick to credit the pastures on this farm as a key to the development of their horses, “Our big pastures help our horses learn a lot naturally with the hills and that helps us raise good horses.”

The buffalo are another key to the development of their horses. They have found that the buffalo provide them with an animal that lasts longer as a training tool than cattle do. He explained it this way, “Buffalo won’t go dead on you like a cow or calf will. They will stay workable longer. It is usually a minimum of 75 days to 100 days. Then they will be good for a two year old. They are quicker as well.”

The purchase of Strait From Texas sent the Fischer Farm horse program in a new direction in the mid 1990’s. Lynn tells us how it came about; “We bought him at auction in Mississippi. Jim Ware had an auction down there and we bought him at that sale in 1995.

Lynn talked about how Strait From Texas got to Mississippi, “Ron White had him leased from Larry Mathes and White had sent him to Dick Pieper. Pieper had him for about 60 days and showed him a couple times. I believe Dick showed him at one World Show and I think they got a third in reining and third in cow horse, something like that. We watched him go and it was late at night.”

Strait From Texas & Gary Wells & Strait GunsmokeNSugar

He continued, “Then he came up for sale at the sale in Mississippi. We drove down and thought we would spend from 10 to 20 thousand and the horse ended up bringing $47,500. We spent more than we should have. But we brought him home.”

The next step was to continue his show career. “We put him with Gary Wells, Bobby Lewis, Shawn Darnell, Ron Emmons and of course JD Yates.

“We didn’t really want to stand him to the public. We had enough mares of our own to overwhelm him. But as a four year old he was just about unbeatable. So we didn’t get many mares bred to him that first year. But they sure did get him shown. We left him there and pretty soon he had enough record and enough wins to make him prominent in the paint horse business.”

Prominent is an interesting word when you consider that Strait From Texas won 2,130 APHA performance points and that was a record for a stallion. He won his points in 56 shows and averaged 40 points per show, unmatched by any competitor to this day. He was ROM in six performance events and was Superior in each of them. The events were Tie-Down Roping (243 points); Heading (535 points)—still holds the record; Heeling (507 points); Reining (77 points); Steer Stopping (536 points) and Working Cow Horse (232 points)—still holds the record. He had one APHA halter point. He was a four time APHA World Champion and a four time APHA Reserve World Champion. His championships came in Heading with two; Reining and Steer Stopping. His reserve championships came in Tie-Down Roping, Heading, Heeling and Steer Stopping.

Some of the other titles include the 1997, 1998 and 2001 APHA World Show Oscar Crigler Cattle Award winner. He is the only horse to win this award three times. He was the 1996 and 1998 APHA World Wide Paint Congress Superhorse. He holds 16 Honor Roll Championships.

Lynn introduces us to how Strait From Texas was bred. Straits 6th generation consists of 63 Quarter Horses and 1 Paint and Leo is the dominant sire of Strait’s genetics. “Strait From Texas was bred by Dana Mathes from Montezuma, Iowa. He was foaled in 1992. His dam Gunners Pollyanna was

Reed Cheyenne Mr Highland Cherub’s Pixie Cheyenne Moon Bar Bruce’s Moon 4 Bars Moon Deck Little Sandy Seco Ris Key Business (P) Leo San Siemon Cherokee Siemon (P) Cherokee Maiden (P) Happiness Is (P) Raider’s Pal Miss Pioneer Pioneer Koy Strait From Texas (P) Rondo Leo Mr Gun Smoke Kansas Cindy Hollywood Smoke Hollywood Pistol Pistol’s Holly Poco Angelita Gunners Pollyanna Leo Golly Sheeglo Golly Polly Showdown Joe Miss Prisa Jo Miss Caroline

Strait From Texas & Dick Peiper

a good daughter of Hollywood Smoke. I believe she won Aksarben in reining with a 12 or 13 old girl and that was a big show way back then. They took this mare down to Texas where Terry Pattison owned Ris Key Business at that time to get the mare bred.”

Ris Key Business was a 1984 black tobiano stallion. He was shown to a World Championship in working cow horse and two Reserve National Championships in reining. He was ROM in reining, working cow horse and western riding. He was Superior in reining. He was shown to an APHA World Championship in amateur reining by J. T. Pattison. This stallion earned 187 APHA points in the open and amateur divisions. He also won the APHA Open Reining Sweepstakes.

Ris Key Business is the sire of 26 ROM performers with 11 earning the Superior Award in Performance. His foals have won 11 World and National titles. One of his leading performers is RR Risky Mastrpeice who has 1767 points in 8 events.

The sire of Ris Key Business was Cheyenne Moon Bar, a quarter horse stallion that won two AQHA halter points. He was shown seven times in the AQHA and won all seven classes. The sire of Cheyenne Moon Bar was Mr Highland. This stallion was shown in two AQHA halter classes as a yearling winning one of them.

The sire of Mr Highland was Cheyenne Reed, an AQHA halter point earner. Cheyenne Reed is the sire of Cheyenne Knox, the 1979 AQHA World Champion Junior Western Pleasure Horse. Cheyenne Knox was an AQHA Champion with 90 performance points with a Superior in Western Pleasure and 20 AQHA halter points.

The sire of Cheyenne Reed was Snipper Reed by Logan’s Bobby Reed. Logan’s Bobby Reed was sired by Reed McCue by Joe Reed P-3. Snipper Reed was an AQHA Champion that sired several AQHA Champions. They include Andy Coke, Lee’s Snipper, Red Buck Reed, Snipper’s Blaze and Snippy Coke.

Snipper Reed was the sire of the phenomenal show mare Snipper’s Sarah. This mare earned 207 performance points and 567 halter points in the open division alone. She was the 1976 AQHA Open and Youth World Champion Aged Mare; 1976 AQHA High Point Halter Horse and the 1974 and 1975 AQHA Youth Reserve World Champion Aged Mare. She earned seven Superiors in Open and Youth Halter; Youth Western Horsemanship; Youth Showmanship and Youth Hunter Under Saddle.

The dam of Ris Key Business takes us to the source of the tobiano paint color pattern for Strait With Texas. Her name was Happiness Is. She was a 1973 bay tobiano mare. She was a noted working cow horse. She counts among her wins the 1977 Valley Reining Horse Classic Hackamore Maturity.

Happiness Is was sired by Cherokee Siemon, a tobiano paint. Happiness Is was out of Miss Pioneer, a quarter mare. Miss Pioneer was sired by Raider’s Pal by Sky Raider by Star Duster. Her dam was Pioneer Koy by Hondo K and out of Kitty Koy.

Cherokee Siemon was bred by Rebecca Tyler-Lockhart. Rebecca was instrumental in the formation of what is now the American Paint Horse Association. She is considered the founder of the American Paint Stock Horse Association, which was the predecessor to the APHA.

Rebecca and her late husband George Tyler had such noted horses as Leo San Siemon, Flit Bar and a little ole paint mare named Cherokee Maiden. Cherokee Maiden was the first paint horse registered by Rebecca. She is number 23 in the paint horse registry. Cherokee Maiden was the dam of Cherokee Siemon.

With the purchase of Cherokee Maiden, Rebecca Tyler started her on a show career. The highlight of that career came at the1963 Southwestern Livestock and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth. It was at this show that Cherokee Maiden won the three-year and under mare class. She was then named the Grand Champion Mare. She won the Junior Western Pleasure class at this same show. She followed this up by being named the High Point Senior Halter Mare for three year olds and up and the Reserve High Point Horse for halter and performance combined at the American Paint Stock Horse Association Finals in Lubbock, Texas that same year.

Cherokee Maiden was sired by a quarter horse named Osage Dan. This horse was sired by Little Dandy by King P-234. The dam of Osage Dan was Evans’ Duel by Little Dandy. This makes Osage Dan 1 X 2 inbred to Little Dandy. The dam of Cherokee Maiden was Maggie by Silver T. He was sired by Yankee Doodle. The dam of Maggie was a bay tobiano mare whose pedigree is unknown.

Leo San Siemon was the sire of Cherokee Siemon. Leo San Siemon was sired by Leo San by Leo and his dam was Flying May. Leo San Siemon was a noted halter horse with Grand Championships at shows like the Houston Livestock Show. He was an AQHA Superior Halter Horse with 85 points. Leo San Siemon was the sire of several successful arena horses including the AQHA Champions El San Siemon and Siemon Joe. He was the sire of Blue Siemon, an AQHA Superior Halter Horse with 311 halter points.

The paint descendants of Leo San Siemon include Leo San Cita and QT Poco Streke. Leo San Cita earned 347 APHA performance points with ROM’s in Heading, Heeling, Reining, Steer Stopping and Working Cow Horse. He is Superior in all of these events except reining and he missed that superior by two points. QT Poco Streke is an ROM reining horse in the APHA and a Reserve Champion of the APHA World Show Reining Sweepstakes. The common tie between Leo San Siemon and these two horses is his dun tobiano son Leo San Man. Leo San Man is the broodmare sire of Pepsi Poco, sire of QT Poco Streke and he is the broodmare sire of Leo San Cita.

Cherokee Siemon earned 39 halter points with six Grand Championships and eleven Reserve Grand Championships. He was the sire of the RW Heaven Bound, 1984 Reserve National Champion Amateur Cutting Horse; Lotta Chatter, an APHA Champion and R Lee Siemon, an APHA Superior Western Pleasure Horse.

The dam of Strait From Texas was Gunners Pollyanna.

This bay quarter mare was foaled in 1976. She has no official AQHA show record. Robin Glenn Pedigrees shows that she is an arena money winner but they give no designation as to which area she won the money. Her sire was Hollywood Smoke, an NRHA Hall of Fame stallion. He is the sire of several prominent reining horses including the 1984 NRHA Open Futurity Co-Reserve Champion Havegunwilltravel. His other son Gunners Brawny Lad was a Co-Reserve Champion in both the 1979 NRHA Open Futurity and the All American Quarter Horse Congress Reining Futurity.

The sire of Hollywood Smoke was the legendary Mr Gun Smoke, a Cow Horse Hall of Fame member and leading sire. Mr Gun Smoke was sired by Rondo Leo, an AQHA Champion son of Leo’s Question. Leo’s Question was sired by Leo. Leo was sired by Joe Reed II by Joe Reed P-3. The dam of Leo was Little Fanny by Joe Reed P-3.

The dam of Hollywood Smoke was Pistol’s Holly by Hollywood Pistol. Hollywood Pistol is sired by King’s Pistol by King P-234. The dam of King’s Pistol was Flit by Leo.

The dam of Gunners Pollyanna was Golly Polly. This sorrel quarter mare was sired by Golly by Leo. Golly Polly was out of Miss Prisa Jo by Showdown Joe. Showdown Joe was sired by Showdown and out of Panzarita Daugherty. Our Mares with More subject this month and you will note that there were some pretty good roping horses in this family.

Gunners Pollyanna was the dam of six AQHA foals and four of them were NRHA money winners. They include Mister Kinze by Mr Mui Twist; Banjo Anna, by Heza Banjo; Top Lady Gunner by Be Aech Enterprise and Kalalannah by Kaliman. The leading money winner from this group was Banjo Anna with $2,293.77 earned in the arena. She was a finalist in the 1990 NRHA Non-Pro Derby. Strait From Texas was the only paint foal out of Gunners Pollyanna.

Strait From Texas was the sire of 397 APHA registered foals in which 32 were shown. Some of his ROM performers were Strait Smart Lena, Strait Texan, Pure Texas Smoke, Strait Leo N Lena, Strait Texas, Strait Ole Paint, Texas Baron, Strait Texas McCue, CF Strait From Texas, Strait Gunsmoke, Strait From Ryan and Strait N Handsome. His APHA World show participants would include Strait Gay Bar Lena, a Reserve World Champion in working cow horse and CF Strait From Texas, a 2 X Reserve World Champion in Steer Stopping.

But the colt whose show record most closely follows his sire is Strait Gunsmokensugar. This 1997 bay tobiano son of Strait From Texas earned 876 APHA performance points. He is ROM in six events including Tie-Down Roping (85 points); Heading (199 points); Heeling (236 points); Reining (77 points); Steer Stopping (177 points) and Working Cow Horse (102 points). This makes him Superior in all six of these events. He is a six time APHA Reserve World Champion. Twice in Heading, three times in Working Cow Horse and once in Heeling. He was the 2001 APHA World Champion in Steer Stopping. He won six APHA Honor Roll titles and the 2005 APHA World All Around Champion.

Mr Gun Smoke

Strait GunsmokeNsugar and Robbie Boyce

The reined cow horse record for Strait Gunsmokensugar includes the High Desert Classic Western Spectacular Limited Open and 2000 Limited Open Championships. He was the 2000 NRCHA Limited Open Horse of the Year. He was a finalist in the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. Robin Glenn Pedigrees show that he won $25,357.20 in the arena.

The pedigree for Strait Gunsmokensugar is an interesting one. He is out of Smokin Bar Sox, a daughter of Smoke Nine. Smoke Nine is a son of Mr Gun Smoke. This gives Strait Gunsmokensugar a breeding pattern of 4 X 3 to Mr Gun Smoke.

This is what Lynn had to say about this breeding pattern, “Strait Gunsmokensugar may have been better than Strait. He was out of a daughter of Smoke Nine out of a Sugar Bars mare. Smoke Nine was by Mr Gun Smoke and we like that Gunsmoke breeding. We love that Gun Smoke breeding or for that matter the Leo breeding, either one.”

He then responded, “When you look at Strait’s pedigree you see that old Golly by Leo. When we talked to Dick Pieper and some of the old timers, they told us about Golly. He was a good match race horse in Oklahoma” Golly had what is considered today a 75-speed index. That would probably put him in the A category in the old letter system of a speed index above 90 being AAA. He did have an AQHA show record with four halter points and two Grand Championships at halter.

Golly shows his speed as the sire of Real New, a mare that ran AAA time. She in turn was the dam of Real Wind, the 1976 All American Futurity winner. Real Wind was the 1976 American Quarter Running Champion Two-Year-Old Filly and the 1977 American Quarter Running Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.

Of course Golly is only a portion of the Leo blood. Strait From Texas had a breeding pattern of 6 X 6 X 4 to Leo. Leo was 2 x 2 inbred to Joe Reed P-3. Then we can add in the Joe Reed blood of Snipper Reed by Logan’s Bobby Reed by Reed McCue by Joe Reed P-3 and we see an interesting breeding pattern to Leo and his double grandsire.

History tells us that the Leo horses were “Short Horses” or horses that had a powerful start and quick speed to win a race at 220 to 350 yards. This is the kind of power and speed needed by the calf roper.

The power and speed of Leo reminded me of what Lynn said about Strait and his son, “You know Strait may have been small for some, but there wasn’t a calf made that could outrun him in calf roping. He passed that on and Strait Gunsmokensugar could fly.

Lynn recalled one incident that shows the speed of Gunsmokensugar and how he could fly, “It is hard to find a rider like the Oklahoma guys, like Yates or Wells, here in South Dakota. But I took Gunsmokensugar out to a Stock Show that he have here in January. We unloaded him and

Strait From Texas accomplishments

shoed him and I asked Paul Tierney to ride him. Paul said he didn’t know if he would ride him but he would try him. Well they run a 5.6 in the calf roping and won the thing. He was a horse that just had it.”

He then added, “When men like Gary Wells, J. D. Yates, Bobby Lewis, Paul Tierney and Ron Emmons ride your horse you know you have something special and that makes Strait and Gunsmokensugar special.”

The story of Strait From Texas continued and the next event occurred in 2003 when the Fischer Farms sold half interest in him to Strait From Texas LLC syndicate. Then in 2006 tragedy struck and Strait From Texas died of complication from internal bleeding. The horse was sent to Iowa State University but just when it seemed he was going to pull through and be able to go home he died.

But life has gone on for Fischer Farms and they have continued to breed good horses. They have bred to the top stallion in the performance horse industry to ensure the ongoing success started by Strait From Texas.

The farm has sold a couple of stallions including Strait Gunsmokensugar and another Paint stallion named Cat Prints, NCHA Futurity Limited Open Finalist. But the way it looks the future of the horse program seems to be resting in the hands of another paint stallion named Catzanne and quarter horses like NCHA Champion, Lil Lewis Long Legs, Haidas San Badger and NRCRA Champion Peptos Pretty Pep.

Catzanne is a full brother to Cat Prints. They are sired by the number one cutting stallion in the world High Brow Cat. They are out of Miss Delta Elan, by Delta Flyer, an NCHA Super Stakes Champion and paint horse sire. Miss Delta Elan

is out of the famous Miss Elan, by Doc O’Lena. She is a ¾ sister to the leading sire Smart Chic Olena.

This is what Lynn said about Catzanne, “I don’t know if I have ever had a more athletic horse than I have right now in Catzanne. This horse is big and will go 15 to 15.1 hands and weigh 1250. He will lay down in the sand to cut a cow. We haven’t shown in years so what he has on him is from little ole cuttings to work on his Certificate of Ability.

But what about Strait From Texas, well his memory is alive and well and we will let Lynn sum up his feelings about this great show stallion, “I don’t know if I have ever had a horse, that when I unloaded from the trailer, like Gunsmokensugar, I was as sure as I could be, that I was going to beat the competition.

But there will never be another Strait From Texas.”

Larry Thornton is a pedigree analyst and breeding consultant. If you have any questions concerning this article or other

bloodlines, feel free to call him at 479-885-3144in the evening.

Please try again if you do not reach Larrythe first time you call.

Also visit his website: www.PedigreeNotes.com

Strait From Texas & Strait GunsmokeNsugar winning Senior and Junior Super Stakes

Photo Credit to Lynn Fischer, Fischer Farms