Geronimo Fusco---Horse of the Americas #1001
Geronimo Fusco was awarded the
first registration number issued by
the Horse of the Americas
Registry. “G-Man”, as he is
affectionately known, was chosen
for this honor because he is a
worthy symbol of HOA: past,
present and future.
Geronimo
Fusco is a well-traveled equine.
He was bred in California from the
original Horse of the Americas
herd, and was once owned by John
Bozonich, the renown saddlemaker
and reinsman who promoted
Spanish Colonial horses with his
HOA mare Blossom. Geronimo
was purchased by screenwriter
John Fusco (along with the HOA
Registry) for his Red Road Farm
herd in VT. Finally Geronimo was
shipped to Texas with his mares to
join the Karma Farms herd and put
the pieces of the old HOA herd
back together again.
Horse of the Americas Registry is open to ALL Spanish
Colonial Horses. Our goals are to preserve and promote
America’s First Horse in an open forum. Whether the Horse
of the Americas is a tiny Havapai Pony from a small genetic
base of less than 40 horses, or a Sulphur or Pryor which the
BLM occasionally offers for adoption, or a tribal original like a Cherokee or Choctaw, HOA can
be the registry for them all. But just preserving them as Horses of the Americas isn’t enough if
one happens to be a breeder and preservationist for a particular strain of Spanish Colonial. We
would like to see each of the strains preserved for future generations. Each strain carries its own
bit of history. Some have been selectively bred for certain uses. Others have been selected
naturally for traits like hooves which handle the hardest terrain or ease of keeping for survival in
severe northern winters. These strengths make each strain unique and worthy of preservation in
their own right. Inside this first HOA newsletter, find stories about our origins, our national
awards program, our first championship competitive trail ride, but also stories about some of our
strains and the people who are preserving them. Like Geronimo Fusco HOA #1001, we have
come a long way by diverse routes to reach the New Millennium. Help us to take America’s
First True Horse forward into a secure and successful future.
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Horse of the Americas Officers
and Strain Representatives
Vickie Ives Speir, President, Webpage
Design
Tom Norush, 1st Vice President
Kyle Germany, 2nd Vice-President,
National Awards Committee Chair, Gaited
Activity Group Chairman
Gretchen Patterson, Registrar, Executive
Committee, Webpage Design
Lisa Germany, Secretary
Dr. Phil Sponenberg, Special Consultant
to the Executive Committee
Carol Stone, Reporter. Carol is not online
as yet. Write her at 2242 230th St., Afton,
IA 50830-8239.
Trish Stofiel, Printed Newsletter Editor
Publicity Committee: Carol Stone, Tom
Hebert, John Fusco, and Shiela Cochron.
Registrar’s Report—as we
look toward our 2nd year
By HOA Registrar, Gretchen Patterson
HOA has registered over 150 horses, and the number of
applications increases almost daily. Our numbering system
begins with the number #1001. We have reserved the first 1000
numbers to eventually record every foundation bloodline in the
approved Spanish Colonial strains. As our data base of HOA
recorded grows, the foundation horses of the strains will be
numbered.
Currently approved HOA Strains include:
1) Brislawn foundation
2) Bookcliff foundation
3) Original Horse of the Americas foundation
4) Jones foundation
5) Tribal strains: Choctaw/Cherokee/Huasteca
6) Painter Barbs
7) Wilbur-Cruce,
8) Romero/McKinley
Strain Club representatives appointed as of
9) Yates
first HOA annual meeting:
10) Belsky
11) Havapai Pony (Grand Canyon)
Sheri Wysong, Sulphur Representative
12) Bankers (Ocrakoke, Shackleford, Currituck, Corolla, and
Vickie Ives Speir, Havapai
Hatteras)
Representative
13) Florida Crackers and Marsh Tackies
Alan Bell, Romero/McKinley
14) Pryor Mountains
Representative
15) Sulphur
Doug Norush, Banker Representative
16) Kiger
Tally Johnson, Yates Representative.
17) Cerbat
Nanci Falley, Native American Strains.
Foundation horses for strains such as the Brislawn Foundation,
Book Cliff Foundation, the Painter Barb Lines, Jones Foundation,
We need more Strain Reps! Volunteer
the Tribal strains, the Wilbur-Cruce, Belsky, Havapai Strain lines
to represent your Strain. You’ll be
may be named with some accuracy today.
Establishing
helping HOA promote YOUR favorite
foundation lines for some strains such as the accepted feral lines
Spanish Colonial.
is an on-going process. Many of these strains overlap. Good
examples are the many strains which primarily owe their original
conservatorship to Robert Brislawn, Sr. such as Bookcliff
Foundation, Brislawn Foundation, HOA Original Foundation and the Havapai Ponies. Others originally preserved
by Gilbert Jones and Jewel Whitmire make up both the Jones Foundation and Tribal Foundation horses. But the
strains are preserved in several groups for a reason. For example, the Jones foundation horses are not all tribal
horses. A good example is the Susie line, a Texas line which Gilbert had owned since he was a teenager. Not all
Brislawn foundation horses are Bookcliffs, such as the beloved San Domingo, but all Bookcliffs seem to owe their
preservation to the Brislawns.
The notation of each horse’s strain information on HOA registration papers is only one of the significant reasons
why registering with HOA gives Spanish Colonial breeders more. Each set of HOA papers has two color photos of
the horse printed right on the papers (no glued photos), a five generation pedigree plus strain information, and each
comes in a plastic sheet cover. Each set of papers is stored on CD so that they may be reprinted easily if papers are
lost or damaged. Breeders may submit pictures digitally and save costs of expensive reprints. Sending digital
pictures? Contact Gretchen Patterson at (903) 938-2908 or email her at tpranch@internetwork.net before sending
via email. Register with HOA and help us lead America’s First Horse in to the 21 st century.
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Strains of Colonial Spanish Horses - Why Conserve
Them
by D. P. Sponenberg, DVM, PhD
The Colonial Spanish Horse
stands as unique among horse breeds.
Its history and breeding both make it a
genetic resource of great value. It is
also distinct from most other horse
breeds, and ancestral to many. These
aspects make it all the more worthy of
conservation. Its uniqueness is also
one of the major impediments to
conservation - as the general
horseowning public has gone to the
Arabian, Thoroughbred, Warmblood,
and Stock Horse types the other
unique types of horses have become
very rare. International horsebreeding
is now very homogeneous, and the
more unique types are clearly being left behind.
The current Colonial Spanish Horse comes to
us because previous generations and breeders cared
enough to assure its survival. As with any conservation
effort, each breeder had slightly different ideas and
goals. The past has resulted in a variety of strains, each of which is slightly different by ancestry and type.
These differences are in some cases minor, and in some cases very distinctive. These differences have
been one source of disagreements as to what is pure and what is not pure within the Colonial Spanish
Horse, and have been one cause of multiplication of registries. Each group designates as slightly different
assembly of horses as pure. This can contribute to conservation, but likewise also contributes to
factionalism and divisions - which defeat effective conservation by splitting the advocacy of this breed as
well as discouraging new breeders from joining the effort. This breed deserves better!
Photo: Joker (Tasselhoff/SCSI) owner: Sary June
Ladd.
HOA Foundation/Bookcliffs/Brislawn/Havapai Pony
The strains of Colonial Spanish Horse are indeed important, because they reflect much of the
basic components of the present breed. Some ancestral strains are now lost - only present within the
overall melting pot. The melting pot is not a bad thing, but maintaining some horses within the various
strains does allow future breeders the option of going back into those strains for specific strengths.
Knowledge of and conservation of the strains is therefore a valid approach to conservation.
The most powerful aid to conservation, though, is to breed to type. Off type horses are going to
be produced in any breed, and the fate of these within the breed is going to determine much of the breed’s
future. Within the Colonial Spanish Horse is enough genetic variation to easily mold the breed in
directions other than its historical type and function. While it would be difficult to turn them into draft
horses without resorting to crossing, it would be relatively easy to turn them into Quarter Horses by
selecting for height and weight. But the world already has Quarter Horses, and to change the Colonial
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Spanish horse in that direction only serves to lose an unique resource rather than contributing to overall
diversity of horse types.
The following is a short discussion of the more unique strains of Colonial Spanish Horses. This
list is no doubt incomplete, and readers with further information should provide that to me. I have tried to
focus on ancestral strains that still persist, but at the same time composite strains built from otherwise
extinct components also deserve attention. Some of the controversies surrounding these are also explored,
but hopefully not to the point of alienating their proponents.
One very important strain, primarily behind Spanish Mustang Registry horses, but also
contributing to other registries, is what I call the Brislawn composite. This strain results from the work
and philosophy of Bob Brislawn initially, but also his descendants and other relatives. A part of that
philosophy was avoidance of inbreeding, and so the Brislawn strain contains elements of many founder
horses. Some of these include Crow Indian horses, as well as Bookcliffs horses, most of which are
otherwise now unavailable. Other early founders were from a variety of sources, generally as only single
horses from that source. Those sources are now unrepresented outside of the Brislawn composite strain.
Cerbat Mountain horses are a strain from Northern Arizona feral horses. Ira Wakefield was
responsible for the first ones of these, although the BLM has brought out other representatives since then.
The status of this herd management area is currently unknown to me, but for several years there has been
concern that foal recruitment is so low as to not sustain this strain in the wild. The horses in this herd are
generally bay, chestnut, red roan, or strawberry roan. One, Midnight Special, was a minimally marked
sabino paint.
The Ilo Belsky is somewhat controversial among some breeders - some accept it as central and
pure, others do not. Ilo assembled his horses from those trailed north with the Longhorns. He long kept,
used, and promoted his horses through a variety of local and national media. A handful of breeders are
keeping his strain going. Color varied, with duns, roans, and dark colors all in evidence. His bloodlines
are especially kept going by the SBBA and the SSMA.
Tribal strains are now very rare, and may be nonexistent except for the Choctaw strain that
Bryant Rickman and others are working to conserve. The Choctaw conservation project also includes
Cherokee and Huasteca horse breeding, since these two are related and so numerically precarious that it is
impossible to conserve them independently. Individual Choctaw horses are widely represented in various
registries, and have made a broad contribution to several composites. Certain horses within the Choctaw
strain have become controversial, and one, Rooster, was at least partially responsible for the split of SMR
and SSMA breeders. Choctaw and Cherokee horses also frequently have the controversial tobiano pattern.
These strains have great historic importance for the Colonial Spanish horse.
Wilbur-Cruce Horses hail from the border of Arizona and Mexico. These horses were an isolated
strain, and are another strain that meets with variable acceptance by the different registries. SBBA runs a
special herdbook for these so that pedigrees can be maintained and information won’t be lost for future
breeders. The Wilbur-Cruce breeders tend to keep this strain reasonably isolated from the others, so that
minimal contribution has yet been made to the overall composite of the Colonial Spanish horse.
The Romero-McKinley strain hailing from New Mexico is numerically small, and still raised on
the original ranch. McKinley horses are present in many SBBA bloodlines, and are present in the SMR as
well. Recent dispersal of some newer horses from this bloodline should be of interest to breeders.
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Yates horses hail from Mexico, having been given to Tally Johnson by Ira Yates of Texas
Longhorn fame. I will never understand why Longhorn breeders use Quarter Horses and Paints instead of
being more traditional with a Colonial Spanish horse! The Yates line has always been numerically small,
and figures more into the SSMA horses than the other registries. Yates horses are typically dun of some
shade, although some darker colors are present, too.
Other identifiable strains are fairly few. Kiger Mustangs and Pryor Mountain Mustangs both
maintain their own breeding groups, as well as having reserve populations on BLM land. These two
strains are not accepted by all associations as legitimate Colonial Spanish horses, although Spanish type
characterizes both. These two strains are maintained both in feral herds and in private herds as identifiable
strains of horses. Neither strain has made much contribution to the overall composite conservation efforts,
but both are reasonably secure within themselves.
Sulphur Mustangs stand in contrast to the other BLM herd areas in that these horses have been
accepted into a number of the registries, and so have contributed to the composite conservation effort. In
addition the Sulphur breeders have assured some strain-pure breeding.
Southeast strains have met with variable acceptance. The Florida Cracker horse breeders have
their own association and programs. They are diligently conserving many family strains as well as a
composite built on those family strains. These are handy, gaited horses long used in Florida for general
ranch work. They have contributed minimally to the overall North American composite, but have secured
a place for themselves in the array of Colonial Spanish horses.
Banker horses have met with variable acceptance into the general mainstream of Colonial
Spanish Horse conservation in the USA. Some individual horses have been accepted into the registries.
Conservation efforts targeted at the various islands, or Banks, have included Okracoke, Shackleford,
Corolla, and Hatteras. The horses on these Banks have been bloodtyped by Gus Cothran, although visual
inspections have not been accomplished for all of these. They do fit into the overall array of Colonial
Spanish horses in the USA. A third group of Southeastern horses was recently turned up by Florida
Cracker breeders. These are the Lawther Marsh Tackies located in South Carolina. This is an old family
strain of Spanish type horses, including many roans and duns. Their discovery is a reminder that
occasional pockets of horses are likely to turn up for a considerable time into the future.
I have no doubt overlooked some strains of these horses. That is somewhat inevitable, in the
interest of space. But, if you know of one that has been overlooked, let me know so I can list it! The value
of these strains is that each one is a survivor from a previous time when Colonial Spanish horses were
THE horse in North America. Each has a portion of the overall genetic mix that was brought here during
Spanish exploration. Each has a role to play in the conservation of the Colonial Spanish Horse. This role
consists of two parts. One is that these strains should be maintained as distinct entities. For some the
numbers are going to preclude conservation with absolute purity (whatever that is, anyway), and in most
cases it is appropriate to include horses that are ¾ or 7/8 of the strain in question. Those horses combine
some genetic vitality with the overall genetic package that is each strain.
The other value of strains is that they can be combined into a very effective composite. This is
done in most of the registries to date. The crossing of the strains gives a genetic boost from hybrid vigor,
but the result stays within the confines of the Colonial Spanish horse. Many of these combination strain
horses are going to outlook and outperform the strain pure ones, for that is how genetics works. Very few
of them (some, but few) will outproduce the strain pure horses in reproduction. We, as conservationists,
need to assure the continuation of both the strain pure and the strain cross horses to assure the
perpetuation of these wonderful horses.
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D.Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, Professor, Pathology and Genetics
Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. e-mail: dpsponen@vt.edu
phone: 1-540-231-4805
fax: 1-540-231-6033
Windsor by Chato’s Shadow
out of Chocolate
1st HOA Competitive Trail Ride Championship and
Second Annual Meeting
by Sharon Hughel
The Whispering Pines Competitive Trail Ride will be held
October 27-28, 2001 near Salem, Missouri. The ride is a
Type A with OPEN, NOVICE, COMPETITIVE
PLEASURE divisions, and will be limited to 60 riders. This
ride is open to all horses registered with the HOA, SMR,
SBBA, AIHR-O and Barb Horse International. It will run
simultaneously with the regular NATRC ride, using the
same judges and scores, but Spanish Colonial Horses also
Fandango Mist, NATRC
Novice Sweepstakes winner,
will be eligible for HOA Championship Awards. The HOA
owner Peggy Johnson up.
will use this chance to get together in a fairly central
location to hold its second annual meeting during the ride
weekend. Watch www.horseoftheamericas.com online for more meeting information.
CAMPING: George & Anna L. Nichols own this facility. All horses entered will have a covered
stall, the stall fee is $3.00 per night except during the competition when the fee is waived. 60
electric hookups are available for $12.00 per night. Primitive sites are $10.00 per night, payable
upon arrival. If you wish to camp next to a buddy, make your reservations TOGETHER and in
advance. Long rigs may have to unhook to avoid blocking the road. You will be given a PREdesignated spot if you do not make your reservations early. If you do not have bedding for your
stalls, it can be purchased onsite.
RESERVATIONS: Phone: (573) 729-7591. Please let them know if you are bringing a stallion!
Check-in begins at 2 PM Friday. If you are checking in on Saturday, please note it on your entry
form.
MEALS: Saturday buffet lunch is available for $5.00 each, lunch is out on the trail. Potluck
dinner Saturday night.
DIRECTIONS: From Roll, MO. go south to 72 to Salem, then south on 19 to K,
Go right on K, then turn right on ZZ.
FEES: Adults $60.00, Juniors $35.00, minimum deposit is $25.00. Any entrant deemed unfit to
compete at check-in will be refunded all but $10.00, all no-shows/cancellations after OCT. 22,
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2001 will be refundable for HOA Championship Awards
JUDGES: Ron Pappan D.V.M. and Gretchen Patterson.
Mail entries to: Carol Roberts (ride secretary), 1545 B Highway Liberty, MO 64068. Carol’s
phone: (816) 792-0338.
Other contacts: Kim Downing (Ride Chairman), 6710 Raines Rd., Liberty, MO. Phone (816)
781-2218, email kdown@swbell.net
Whispering Pines Emergency Phone: (573) 729-6591.
Horse of the Americas Points System
Events
Awarded
Participation in parades
Participation in pleasure trail rides
Promotion to the Public ( schools, festivals, youth groups etc.)
Riding Lessons (1 hour minimum)
Ranch Work (3 hours = 1half day)
day
Camping Trips
Riding or Judging Clinics
News Article (local)
News Article (area)
Add 1 point for photos
News Article (national)
Advertising (per ad)
Must promote as HOA
Buckaroo Award
Toward advanced awards
Sundance Award
Toward Caballos de Corazone
Legends Award
Toward Caballos de Corazone
Trail Horse of the Year
Endurance Horse of the Year
Points Sire of the Year
Points Dam of the Year
Placing in Show and Timed Events
1st
2nd
3rd
Classes must be full to receive full points.
4th
5th
6th
Show Champion
Division Champion
Points
5
5
5
1
3/ 1 half
2/day
2/day
1
2
3
3
5
10
20
5
5
3
3
6
5
4
3
2
1
10
6
15
Placing in Competitive Trail / Endurance Rides
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
Finish ride
Sweepstakes
Best conditioned
High point HOA horse
Top 10
Participation (safety riders, runners, etc. )
10
9
8
7
6
5
3
10
10
5
5
5
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