In the many livestock publications and horse magazines published
in the West today, there has, I think, been a rather conspicuous
absence of write-ups on one of the all-time greats in usin’
mounts—the modern rodeo rope horse. In the editorial sections
of a number of these periodicals, trick and high school horses,
outstanding sire and top sprinters of the quarter-mile straightaway
have been given space for entertaining, interesting and authoritative
spreads. The racing Quarter Horse, especially, has been written
up time and time again. But reports on the rope horse have
been relatively few and far between.
This is partially due, perhaps, to the reluctance of some
rodeo men to submit to the so-called interview. Then, too,
I think, the rope horse is sort of taken for granted by many
people. “Sure,” they say, “he’s a great horse,” and let it
go at that. But why he is great and what makes him great doesn’t
bother them much, unless, of course, they are rodeo hands
themselves.
 The
publicity which breeders and race horse men get in our western
magazines, through articles by competent fact writers, not
only does them a world of good but also tends to create and
stimulate an ever-increasing interest on the part of the public
toward the Quarter Horse breed. Having felt for many years
that the rope horse is one of the finest equine athletes that
was ever developed by the hand of man. I have now taken it
upon myself—with the editor’s permission—to do a series of
stories on outstanding roping Quarter Horses for The Journal.
In subsequent issues I shall try and bring to the pages of
this publication, stories on the very best of rodeo arena
horseflesh, but now let’s take a look at the mount we have
on hand—Dusty Hancock 3609, owned by B.A. (Speck) Wilson of
Tucson, Arizona.
B.A. (Speck) Wilson mounted on Dusty Hancock P 3609 (Roan
Hancock x Triangle Lady 12, a daughter of Buck Thomas)
A big, rugged horse with plenty of bone and conformation,
a characteristic of the splendid Hancock breeding, Dusty was
foaled August 5, 1940, and was raised by the Tom L. Burnett
Estate. Like his daddy before him, Roan Hancock 456, by Joe
Hancock, Dusty is a roan—a blue roan stallion—with one of
the sweetest heads you’d ever want to see. Out of Triangle
Lady 12, No. 443, this Hancock horse stands 15 hands and,
in top condition, weighs close to 1300 pounds. He’s got a
heavy rear end on him and a tape around his forearm measures
25 ¼ inches. His only solid white markings are just above
his hooves on the left side and on his right foreleg. He has
a white splash on the left side of his nose. His feet are
small*, set on sturdy legs well bunched-up beneath him.
Dick Griffith, bull riding champion of the world for many
years and still one of the top-drawer trick and fancy riders
of the nation, was the first man to own Dusty after he left
Texas. Griffith bought the horse as a two-year-old from the
estate of the late Burnett for $1250, and brought him to Scottsdale,
Arizona, with the idea in mind of making a trick riding horse
out of him. Griffith liked the blue roan because of his gentle
disposition, another Hancock characteristic, and Dusty would
have made an excellent trick riding horse. But his owner wanted
a matched pair and soon found that he couldn’t duplicate Dusty’s
color or conformation very easily. So he sold him to Chick
Logan of Santa Barbara, California, who used him as a stud
and a race horse on the West Coast. Then Speck Wilson bought
the horse as a six-year-old for $5250. In the two years that
Speck owned him, Dusty has proved his mettle in more ways
than one, and, if money is any criterion of a horse’s worth,
Dusty, in the eyes of his owner, has increased about 400 per
cent since Griffith first brought him from Texas.
He is now a proven sire of good horseflesh. His first filly,
Hubba Hubba, owned by Nick Nichols of Tucson, was named champion
cow horse mare as a four-year-old at the 1948 Tucson horse
show. His colts are all good, sound animals with a tendency
toward blue and red roan colors, although Hubba Hubba** is
a chestnut sorrel.
Dusty’s racing career has been one interruption after another,
but during times he has been on the track, he has been indeed
worthy of the name “Quarter Running Horse.”  He
raced some as a two and three-year-old and raced against grade
“A” horses in 1944. He was then taken off the track and used
primarily as a rope horse. When Speck got him, he put him
back into circulation on the straightaway. Last winter, after
a three-year lay-off, Dusty came back to beat grade “A” and
“AA” race horses. He graduated from grade “A” to “AA” in two
races. On January 24, at 220 yards he won by a neck from Little
Beaver in the time of :12.6, equalling the Tucson rodeo track
record for that distance. Then on February 2, he won over
Little Beaver again by a nose at 300 yards, making “AA” time
of :16.2 on a good track. Speck says he has a couple more
races and then, after 35 days in training, he took him away
from his handlers the day before the Tucson rodeo and went
on, in that show, to win second day money in the team-tying.
This is one reason why Speck likes the horse so much. “You
can do anything with him,” Speck says, “at any time. You can
race him one day, rope off him the next and breed him the
third. It doesn’t make any difference to Dusty. He’s always
right there doing the job you want him to do. I’ve never seen
a horse that could do so many things on or with such a gentle,
even disposition.”
A rear shot that shows the powerful hindquarters that helped propel Dusty Hancock down the racetrack in record time and out of the roping box at full speed.
A story Speck
likes to tell, which doesn’t exactly show how gentle the horse
is but does show that it takes crazy things to “spook” him,
happened at Benson, Arizona, a few years ago when Speck was
coming back from a rodeo at Willcox. He took Dusty out of
the trailer, which he had parked in a service station, and
tied him to a nearby tree. “Then,” says Speck, I went into
Page Lee’s saloon for a beer. I hadn’t been there very long
when some drunk comes in and asks me if that’s my horse tied
across the street. I told him it was and he sets a funny look
on his face and says, ‘Well, he ain’t there any more.’” Speck
went out and found Dusty wandering the streets. He thought
it was kind of funny but tied him up again at the same tree.
He went back to finish his beer. “A few minutes later,” Speck
continues, “the drunk came in again. ‘Say,’ he says, ‘you
know that horse of yours? Well the son-of-a-gun has gone and
done it again.’ This time I got him off the street for good,
loaded him and headed for Tucson. It wasn’t till I was down
at Benson later on that year that I found out the trouble.
I had tied him to a tree where a pipe elbow from a hydraulic
car hoist came up from the service station. It had been put
slap against the trunk of the tree so that cars wouldn’t run
over it. Every time they let the hoist down the air came out--swo-o-o-sh--right
into Dusty’s face.”
Normally, however, provided there are no hidden outlet pipes
to hydraulic hoists, Dusty can be tied and left any place
and will stay put. Children can crawl all over him and under
him. He can get so fouled up in a rope that he looks like
a double bowline, and he’ll never fight or struggle to get
away. Some time ago Speck turned a saddle over on him while
roping a heavy steer. He never made a move to buck or run
off but just stood there, bracing himself against the weight
until the rope was cut and the rig straightened up.
Dusty has never been used as a calf or single steer horse
to any great extent, but as a team-tying mount he excels.
Ray Boss used to rope a few calves on him, but Speck, due
to a leg injury he got while loading cattle at Nogales, now
only enters the team contests. In the Southwest, riding Dusty
and paired with top heelers, Speck has won his share of Rodeo
jack-pots and purses.
A quiet, sensible horse in a chute, Dusty stands stock still
until the proper moment comes to move. He scores well and
is at full speed in two or three jumps. After overtaking the
steer, he knows the right distance at which to follow and
when Speck connects and throws his slack rope, Dusty sets
up good and hard, moving out to the left of the animal at
about a forty-five degree angle. Speck says no matter how
big the steer is, the old blue roan has never been jerked
off his feet nor lost his balance, and he knows just as much
about heeling as he does heading.
When I asked Speck about Dust’s ability to cut cattle, he
had this to say: “I’ve never entered him any cutting contests,
but he does know his business. At the 1947 Tucson show, Dusty
was one of the horses that hazed the cattle back to the herd
for the contestants. Since Dusty was working the stock head
on, I think he did more of a job than the contesting horses
that were working from the rear of the steers. Anyway, only
one horse pushed his steer through us and that was a horse
owned by Ross Perner of Seligman.
“For an all-around purpose horse,” says Speck, “I don’t think
you can beat Dusty. At least I haven’t seen one that I like
better in the last couple years.” I’m inclined to agree with
Speck and I think many people who know the horse will, too.
For in Dusty Hancock are combined all the ingredients that
make a truly great Quarter Horse—bloodlines, conformation,
performance and the ability to transmit his likeness to his
colts. A proven sire, a race horses and a great roping horse,
Dusty is a mount to which the most exacting Quarter Horse
critic would be compelled to hand the purple ribbon.
*Some of you may wonder why Willard
Porter described Dusty Hancock as having small feet... like
it was a good thing? But a reader has to remember the type
of hoof and leg that Mr. Porter was talking about (in 1948,
60+ years ago) was to point out conformational qualities that
made a finely bred saddle horse different from horses of inferior
breeding… many of whom may have been platter footed with course
rough legs and joints… something that was likely more common
in that day. It is obvious from the photos included with this
article that Dusty Hancock had excellent feet and legs. In
1948 the quite newly formed AQHA was promoting the American
Quarter Horse as a well bred racehorse, cow horse, saddle
horse…a horse that could go from the race track into the show
ring then out onto the ranch and look good doing it all. True
versatility!
** The AQHA mare registered as Hubba Hubba is not a daughter
of Dusty Hancock so I had a quick look, without actually printing
a get record out, and came up with Huba Huba C-- a Dusty Hancock
daughter foaled in 1943 out of a Triangle Mare. Huba Huba
C was awarded a Race ROM in 1950. ~Michelle Thompson
Thank you to George and Sally Tvedt for submitting this article.
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