IMPORTANT OUTCROSS STALLIONS: THE LITTLE JOE FAMILY
In our next and final installment, we’ll analyze the conformation of Old Sorrel and his most important sons and grandsons. But first it’s important to develop our perspective by taking a look at the unrelated or “outcross” stallions used in the King Ranch breeding program.
Offered at stud from 1910 on by Ott Adams, Little Joe became an important part of King Ranch breeding when Bob Kleberg noticed that mares by him crossed very well on Old Sorrel. Little Joe (1905) is by Traveler out of Jenny. Jenny is by Sykes Rondo, out of May Mangum by Anthony. Jenny is a double descendant of Old Billy (1860) and the legendary Shiloh (1844). (See “Change on the Horizon,” EQUUS 493, for my analysis of Traveler’s likely pedigree and phenotype.) Almost certainly of Mountain Horse descent, Traveler threw smooth conformation, speed and loud (rabicano) coloration. Little Joe himself was brown with minimal white but many of his descendants resembled Traveler in manifesting white hairs at the top of the tail, high white on the legs, wide blazes and white ticking over the neck, rib cage and haunches. Little Joe is the most important Billy used in
the King Ranch breeding program.
Ada Jones (1918) brought a goodly dose of old Billy blood into the King Ranch manada. She is out of Mamie Crowder by John Crowder by Old Billy by Shiloh; John Crowder is out of the legendary Paisana by Baile’s Brown Dick. Ada Jones’ tail-female is unknown, but her dazzling rabicano coloration—so typical of Traveler’s descendants—is hard to miss. While this substantial mare passed on speed, bone substance and smooth topline with a long, elegant neck, she had a coarse head and often threw more white than the Klebergs wanted.
Verna Grace (1926) was out of the mare Johnny Wilkens, who was by Horace H (a Thoroughbred of the Vedette sire line bred by Illinois racing man Sam Watkins). Note the “skunk” tail. Kleberg had this lightly-built mare covered by the Old Sorrel son Babe Grande, a massive stallion who certainly lived up to the humorous name the Klebergs bestowed upon him. Verna Grace also mothered Chicaro Bill (see “The End of the Open Range,” EQUUS 498) to the cover of the short-coupled Thoroughbred Chicaro. These coverings are excellent examples of Kleberg’s effort to achieve complementary matings.
Lady of the Lake (1926) was bred by Ott Adams. An outstandingly beautiful and correct mare with rock-solid conformation, she is out of Silver Queen by Warrior by Captain Sykes by Sykes Rondo. Her tail-female is unknown but looks to have been Thoroughbred. This mare mothered the stallion Wimpy’s Greylake (1945) and five broodmares by Old Sorrel, Wimpy, and Hired Hand which were incorporated into Kleberg’s Sorrel Horse gene pool.