Turning The Wheel
Our philosophy here at the Wagon Wheel Ranch is to do everything horseback whenever possible. I tell my crew, Hey, we raise horses, let s use them. The Wagon Wheel Ranch preserves the foundation lines that made the American uarter Horse. Story and photos by Richard Chamberlain T texas is where cowboys and cowboyin were born. It s where ranches and ranching developed. Not that it s news to anyone who reads this magazine, but it s where early ranchers bred and raised foundation American Quarter Horses the usin kind, solid stock for every kind of job on every type of rugged terrain in the West. And it s on places like the Wagon Wheel Ranch where cowboys and cowboyin and real good ranch horses are still alive and thriving. I sure like it here, much more than any other job I could think of, says ranch foreman Rusty Rodgers, 43. I love this ranch, I love this operation. I like running cattle, and I m definitely passionate about these foundation Quarter Horses that we raise. I truly believe we re raising some good horses. The Wagon Wheel is selling good horses, too stallions, geldings and mares with the Walking Stick brand on the left hip, from a breeding program concentrating the blood of legendary sires King P-234 and his son Royal King, and Joe Hancock, Blue Valentine, Gooseberry, Mr San Peppy, Driftwood and Dick Sonoita. An AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder, the Wagon Wheel held its annual production sale September 13, the second of a two-day Ranching Heritage Weekend at the headquarters ranch in Lampasas County near Lometa, Texas. The sale was only one part of the weekend that was an open-to-the-public celebration of ranching and ranch life. The day before the sale began early, with gathering the broodmares and their foals, and then weaning, vaccinating, deworming and branding the babies. Lunch was served after the Friday morning work, and the WWR crew then invited everyone to the arena to participate in a ranch penning and watch demonstrations of the sale horses. Each horse was demoed again the next morning before the sale, and Saturday night wrapped up with Red Steagall and The Boys in the Bunkhouse Band playing a live concert, with everything both days recorded for a documentary on the ranch by a crew from Emmy Award-winning Celebrity Films. That wasn t all. Between the sale and concert was a horsemanship and training clinic by well-known horsemen Buster and Sheryl McLaury, whose daughter Tiffany also trains horses as a member of the Wagon Wheel staff. The horses here have real good dispositions, Buster says. They re pretty easy to get along with. Their genetics are very important, too. The genetics they have here the Kings and Driftwoods, the Hancocks and Blue Valentines they re old foundation-type horses that have been around for a long time. They re versatile, they can do a lot of different things well. They rope on them, they cut on them, they run barrels on them. If they hadn t been the right kind of horses, we wouldn t still have them. If those genetics weren t right, they d be raising a different kind of horse here. They d have bred to something else. THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 121
Rusty Rodgers ramrods the Wagon Wheel Ranch. Rolling Along founded in 1872, the wagon wheel wanch was bought on its centennial anniversary by Elaine and Fred G. Gist for their children, Kim Skinner, Kathy Magee and John C. Gist. The Gist family runs a commercial cow/calf operation on the Wagon Wheel headquarters ranch at Lometa and on a nearby ranch on the Lampasas/Burnet county line, comprising approximately 10,000 acres. They also have cows on another 19,000 acres near Midland. Fred Gist died in 2009, leaving wife Elaine and son John to carry on with the ranching operation. We had horses and cattle when I was growing up, says John, 42, who last year married Molly Anne Gilbert, a childhood friend from Midland. I didn t do any cowboyin myself. But I was around the ranching lifestyle my whole life. Mom s family primarily ranched in West Texas, near Goldsmith. Dad s family ranched in New Mexico, near Roswell and Las Vegas. We bought this place (at Lometa) in 1972. Mom and Dad picked this part of the country after doing some research and talking to acquaintances, and they just loved the country. So does Rusty. Hired on seven years ago, he was raised in a ranching family at Graham, Texas, and earned a degree in computer science before returning to his roots. His wife Juanita Perez grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. They married eight years ago and the couple moved to the Wagon Wheel from western Kansas, where Rusty at the time was the shipping manager at a Cargill feedlot. Rusty now runs the day-to-day operation at Wagon Wheel, where Juanita is an all-around hand and the foreman s assistant. Rusty is my right-hand man, and I m extremely grateful to have his help, John says. We both manage the place for my mom. She runs the place she is the matriarch. As far as Buster and Sheryl McLaury come to the Wagon Wheel Ranch to break colts each year, and conducted a horsemanship clinic after the ranch s production sale.
the technical aspects the Xs and Os, so to speak well, we are just the managers. Rusty has been able to pick up where Dad left off. Dad educated Rusty, Rusty educated himself, I ve educated myself and we ve educated each other. Rusty s vision has always been to make this ranch the very best that it can possibly be, to continually improve on the breeding program and to improve our horses. Improving horses is not as simple as just turning a stud in with the mares. As an old-time cowman once said, most people don t breed livestock; they merely multiply them. That s right, Rusty says. Not to get too complicated, but we use linebreeding to maximize hybrid vigor, size, speed and other desirable characteristics in our foals. We also try to increase the number of matched pairs of chromosomes produced in our foals, which allows us to maintain and sometimes increase (depending on pairings) the percentage of foundation blood in our foals. By doing that, we try to consistently produce all of the desired characteristics a person looks for in a horse good conformation, good feet, gentle attitude, good withers and cow sense, and even color in some cases. The ranch now stands Gists Fifty King and has in its broodmare band the Cow Bo Country mare Miss Fifty King Gist, who might well have the highest percentage of King P-234 blood of any horses alive today. Wagon Wheel also stands Roan Hancock Man (a son of the Wagon Wheel s former stallion Rowdy Blue Man and who the ranch says has the highest percentage of any Blue Valentine stallion), and the Mr San Peppy stallion Hix Freckles Peppy. The ranch bred to a dozen of its own stallions this year: Claytons Romeo Ike, Gists Fifty King, Mr Cat Hancock, Mr Forty Six King, Pig Creek Hancock, Roan Hancock Man, Royal Tony Too, WWR In 2004, Red Steagall interviewed Fred Gist on his Cowboy Corner radio program. Steagall and The Boys in the Bunkhouse Band wrapped up the weekend on Saturday night, and after the show visited with Molly and John Gist. Blue Hancock, WWR King Hancock, WWR Driftwood Ike, WYO Chuckar Hancock and Berry Sweet Whizard. We just recently acquired Berry Sweet Whizard, Rusty says. He s a line-bred stud who goes back to Hollywood Jac 86 and King who we plan to cross on our Royal King, Mr San Peppy and Hancock mares, Rusty says. This particular stallion on the top sire side of his pedigree has some Topsail Whiz, goes back to reining horses. I believe that cross will put a little performance-type blood in with the foundation cow-sense blood to produce some performance-type geldings and mares in other words, some riding horses that we think the general public is looking for. The foundation breeding program that Wagon Wheel is practicing today was started by Fred Gist some 36 years ago. Until then, the ranch had just been breeding grade geldings for ranch use. His foreman knew of a good horse for sale, told Mr. Gist he could make some money in the horse business and encouraged him to buy a Two Eyed Jack stallion named Jaggidy Jack, Rusty recalls. Mr. Gist bought the horse and he became one of the cornerstone stallions of the Wagon Wheel Ranch breeding program. To further improve his stock, Fred began gathering mares and studs with the blood of Leo, Bert, Oklahoma Star and Mr Gunsmoke, and the Thoroughbreds Three Bars and Top Deck. Mr. Gist gradually built the horse-breeding program from that Two Eyed Jack stallion, one thing led to another, and at one time, he had one of the largest number of horses in the United States something like 1,000 head, Rusty says. He bred horses not only for ranch use, working cattle and that kind of stuff, but also to sell as breeding stock to other breeders. Lilly Staley, 17, shows Quala Te Tabasco in the sale ring, riding bareback with only a halter.
Early on, he noticed that his foals were OK, but didn t have the uniformity he would have liked. He began to study Ed Heimann s genetic formulas concerning homozygosity, which is a fancy word for matched pairs of chromosomes, hybrid vigor and inbreeding coefficients, and then he applied those formulas to his horse-breeding operation. When he did that, he started producing exceptional foals with a lot of uniformity. He said, Oh, I ve got on to something here: I can t just breed A Good Stallion to A Good Mare, not knowing their (genetic) background. When he started looking at both the outside of the horse as well as the inside genetics, his breeding program really took off. In 2010, after Mr. Gist s passing, John and I analyzed the entire breeding operation and decided to concentrate on the bloodlines we re currently raising, he says. We picked those for a number of reasons: marketability, preference of what we like characteristic-wise: attitude, how they ride around, what we thought would be the best sellers, which sometimes is a gamble. Then we dispersed the bloodlines that we didn t want to hone in on, got leaner and meaner, and started producing better quality but not as much quantity. That is what we strive for here: Better quality. Tiffany McLaury moves cattle on Haidas Wood prior to the sale. OK, that s all well and good theories of homozygosity and inbreeding coefficients are great. But down here on earth, what do you get if you bring home a horse from the Wagon Wheel sale? I was looking for a finished horse that had a reputation, says Jane Owens, who ranches at Dripping Springs, Texas, and paid $17,500 for the highest seller, Gin Beam Merada, a 13-year-old Freckles Plaboy/Peppy San Badger/Doc Bar/ Hollywood Gold-bred gelding owned by Wagon Wheel trainer Kelsey Mosby. Anybody would be an idiot to not buy a horse that has been trained by Kelsey. She owned that horse for five years, and with the training she put into him, 17-5 is a total deal. His breeding is exceptional, he s quite an athlete and he s such an easy-going horse he had a 12-year-old girl riding him around most of the sale day. I ride him nearly every day, moving and working cows, and he is right on top of the game. He can cut a cow, no problem he really gets into it. I m exceptionally pleased with the horse. I also own two yearlings that I bought as weanlings from the Wagon Wheel, she says. I ll tell you, if you are looking for good ranch stock good, solid horses go to the Wagon Wheel. Kelsey Mosby demonstrates WWR Goldnugget King prior to the sale. Rusty Rodgers puts the Wagon Wheel s Walking Stick brand on the left hip of a weanling colt.
Jane Owens paid $17,500 for the highest seller, Gin Beam Merada. From left: auctioneer Bruce McCarty; Jane Owens and Rusty Rodgers; Gin Beam Merada, with 12-year-old Morgan Squires, who showed the horse in the ring; and Kelsey Mosby. Buster McLaury joined the Wagon Wheel crew to gather mares on Friday morning. Set To Turn i think it s incumbent on all breeders of the american Quarter Horse to breed responsibly, Rusty says. What I mean by breeding responsibly is every foal that is produced should have a purpose, and that purpose should not be just hoping to produce a quality horse. I believe genetics play a large role in the breeding of quality horses, yet so many breeders don t take the time to understand the genetic side of the equation. Many breeders today are more interested in breeding to the hype the stallion of the day but they re apt to later find out that the great hyped stallion cannot produce nearly as advertised. That s not necessarily to take away from that horse, because he might be great himself, great in the show ring, but he doesn t have the genetics to back it up so his offspring aren t uniformly as good as he is. Understanding the genetic side of it plays a big role. If someone brings a mare to one of our stallions, I can tell you exactly what the foal is going to be genetically everything except whether it ll be a colt or a filly, he declares. I can tell you everything else about it: What it s hybrid vigor is going to be, how many matched pairs of chromosomes it ll have, is it more likely to be a reproducer itself or more likely to be a performance horse. The Wagon Wheel managers expect their horses to perform. Raising mostly Beefmaster/Angus cattle all commercial, no registered stock the ranch calves twice a year, springtime in March and April, and in the fall in September and October. The ranch sells weanling calves twice a year, at the end of April and the first of November. We maintain our own heifers and usually purchase our bulls, Rusty says. We always keep some heifers around headquarters to assist in the training of our ranch horses. This serves two purposes: It helps our young colts learn how to track cattle and it makes our heifers gentle and broke to being gathered and driven around horseback. And gentle heifers make good mother cows. Our philosophy here at the Wagon Wheel Ranch is to do everything horseback whenever possible. That includes checking fence, checking water in various pastures, riding through our cattle during calving season, dragging our calves for branding, gathering our broodmare band, halter-breaking our weanlings, even just going to shut a gate somewhere we take a horse. I tell my crew, Hey, we raise horses, let s use them. Time in the saddle is one of the perks at Wagon Wheel. It s not a job, Rusty says. There s an old saying, when you re working at something you like, you never work a day in your life. I don t know that that s true, but at least you enjoy your work. I might work seven days a week, because livestock doesn t know Sundays from Tuesdays or Christmas from a day in September. You have to take care of them. But I don t feel tied down. It s something I want to do. It s something I love to do. We re raising some good horses. I can t claim they re the best in the world or the best in Texas or whatever, because I haven t seen them all. But I truly believe we re raising some really good ones. Everybody here on the ranch has a passion about it, and when people come here, I believe it overflows into them, they see that passion and commitment, and they feel it as a family. And that s big to me. You can go to a lot of operations where they might have good stock, but if you feel like an outcast or an outsider, do you really want to go back there? Or would you rather go to some place that makes you feel welcome? That s the way I want it to be here: We want to raise good stock, but still be good people. Those can go hand in hand, even though a lot of people don t think so. Changes might well loom on the horizon, however. The Gist family is set to turn the Wagon Wheel. Like the horses and cattle they raise, and any other business anywhere else, the ranch is on the market. We re looking for the right people, John says. We have a turn-key system, a breeding operation where somebody with the passion to continue where my family and I leave off can take this program in any of several different directions, keeping the core of what we ve built and what Dad left us with, so this ranch and the breeding program can continue to preserve the bloodlines that Dad set out to preserve. The program can be tweaked by bringing in whatever horse individuals that somebody desires. It doesn t have to stay the same. It s a dynamic system, ready to go, plug and play, and I d like to pass it to somebody who has the passion, the desire and the knowledge to move it forward. But if we can t get it into the right hands, we won t let it go. This was Dad s lifework, John concludes. It was his passion and now it s his legacy. We are going to do everything we know how to do to preserve it, take care of it and get it into the right hands. Richard Chamberlain is a special contributor to the Journal. To comment, email aqhajournal@aqha.org. THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2014 125