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Rowdy The
following is an article I wrote at the request of David McBride
One
of my favorite remembrances of being a child with parents in the Shetland
pony business is going to shows and sales all over the United States. At
one such show, I saw one of the most fabulous black and white show ponies
that ever existed, Kewpie Doll’s Oracle by Hillswicke Oracle, who was
foaled in 1945. He was as refined and elegant as any horse that ever
stepped into the show ring. Some years later, in the mid 1960s, my parents
took me to a production sale at the J. A. Stovall farm in Era, Texas,
where I saw the reason behind that beautiful stallion, his dam,
Streamliners Kewpie Doll, who was the model mare of the Shetland Congress
in 1948 and 1949. She was a beautiful-headed, tri-colored mare with the
highest tailset that I had ever seen. I begged my parents to buy her, but
to no avail. She was in her late teens and brought around $10,000, which
was way out of our budget! One of Kewpie Doll’s daughters and a full
sister to Kewpie Doll’s Oracle, Hillswicke Q P Doll, Grand Champion Mare
of the National Shetland Congress as a yearling in 1952, had topped the
sale in Perry, Oklahoma, not once, but twice. The first time, she was in
show shape and had a beautiful foal by her side. I couldn’t believe that
she could have a foal and still look ready to go into the show ring. For
those miniature readers who have never shown Shetlands, show shape meant
with a four inch "show hoof" with weighted shoes, tucked up, and
looking like a million!
Fast
forward to 1980. Carol, my wife, and our daughter, Lisa, then only six,
had just returned from almost four years of living in New York City. We
were back in Texas building a quarter horse stud farm in Valley View,
Texas, thirty miles north of Dallas. I still had a stallion from the
Shetland years who was the smallest that we had ever raised, Greaves Big
Un, 31" tall and a grandson of one of the stallions that we had
bought at that Stovall sale around 1960-61. I told my dad that I wanted to
get some miniature mares to breed to Big Un. He told me that his long-time
friend, Jno. W. Norman, in Winters, Texas, still had quite a few Shetlands
and he thought he also had a few miniatures, too. On a trip to West Texas
to pick up a quarter horse for my dad, I decided to swing by Mr.
Norman’s Lazy N Stables to see what he had. At this time Mr. Norman was
in his mid-eighties, I think, and was fairly incapacitated. I remember
visiting him when I was eight or nine and riding in his stage coach. It
was pulled by six ponies trained by his trainer, Vern Brewer. It was
called the Red, White, and Blue hitch - Two white, two sorrel, and two
blue roans!
Anyway,
after a nice visit, Mr. Norman called the man who worked for him and told
him to take me out to look at his ponies. He did not want to sell any of
the smallest, but he would sell me some of the "borderline"
miniatures if I was interested. When I saw his weanlings, I knew that they
were a special lot. They were much more refined than most of the
miniatures that I had seen. Looked much more like the modern show horses
but in miniature! My guide told me that they were all by a bay stallion
that Mr. Norman was using. The name of that stallion was Rowdy. I picked
out three yearlings that I thought were the best along with six mares.
When I went back to the house to talk to Mr. Norman, he said that the
three yearlings were not available because he was giving them to a friend.
I later found out that that friend was Vern Brewer, and those three
started the Brewer Family Miniature adventure! By the way, one of those
three turned out to be the National Grand Champion, Rowdy’s Charm, some
time later! It turned out that Mr. Norman had persuaded Vern to come out
and look at the horses. Always having an eye for a show horse, Vern had
accepted the gift of the three miniatures and bought three more to go
along with them. Vern had never liked the little Shetlands in the early
days because they were so coarse and heavy boned, but these were an
entirely different style. Anyway, I made a deal with him and bought six
mares all bred to Rowdy. After getting home I started doing some
investigation and found to my amazement that the sire of Rowdy was
Kewpie’s Sun who was a son of the horse that I had admired as a child:
Kewpie Doll’s Oracle!! I had wanted him as a child, but now I had some
of his descendants. In 1984 because of advanced age and failing health,
Mr. Norman had a dispersal sale at which time Rowdy was sold. Vern and
Betty Brewer were putting on the sale for their long-time friend and
encouraged Bob and Sandy Erwin of NFC Farm to purchase the 34"
stallion to add to their stallion roster. They bought the 1973 stallion
for $5,500 along with two daughters. After the sale I asked Vern why he
didn’t buy Rowdy. He replied that because of Rowdy’s size and Vern’s
age he felt he couldn’t use him. He wanted to breed them down and
already had five Rowdy daughters and one son to start his breeding
program. The
rest, as they say is history. That bay stallion sired some of the leading
winners in the AMHA history including, but not limited to: Lazy
N Boogerman NFC
Rowdy’s Can Do: 1986 National Grand Champion Jr. Gelding NFC
Rowdy’s Supreme: 1987 National Grand Champion Jr. Mare Rowdy’s
Charm: 1987 National Grand Champion Sr. Stallion Rowdys
Surprise: 1988 National Grand Champion Sr. Gelding Glenn’s
Southern Legend: 1989 National Grand Champion Jr. Stallion NFC
Rowdy’s Gem: 1990 National Grand Champion Sr. Mare Little
Man’s Blue Baby Rowdy: 1990 Reserve National Grand Champion Sr. Mare Runnin
Bear’s Classy Comet: 1991 National Grand Champion Jr. Mare NFC
Rowdy’s Bold Tradition: 1990 Reserve National Grand Champion Jr. Gelding
Tony
W. Greaves |
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