A Tale of Cowboys and Englishmen
One Cowboy's Dream
By Pam Burke
Published in the Havre Daily News June 2012
Tom Brown grabs a halter off the wall and heads out of the barn toward a large bay horse trotting with notable elegance around the corral. With his weathered face and traditional western wear, both broke-in by a lifetime spent on horseback, Tom looks every bit the third-generation Bear Paw cowboy he is.
What Tom does not look like is a man with a 40-some-year-old dream that crosses the Atlantic Ocean and puts him within six degrees of separation from the queen of England — until you see the out-of-place dreamy gaze he levels on the he-ain't-a-cowpony English warmblood horse he's leading back to the barn. Because Tom's dream is this horse.
The Seed of a Dream
Like all family lore, the tales about his grandpa's horses are so familiar Tom can't recall not knowing them.
He just remembers his mom, Elizabeth Thompson Brown, always speaking so well of the horses her dad used on his Clear Creek Ranch in the foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains south of Chinook.
"She always talked about how nice and kind and quiet those horses were. Said they could go all day," Tom said, relaxing at his kitchen table with his wife, René, and daughters, Kodi, Tawnya and Wylee.
His grandpa, Jack Thompson, came from Canada to the United States with a small herd of horses around 1908. Within a few years of setting up his ranch, Jack wanted to increase his herd with horses of specific breeding so he "headed to that mythical place called 'back east,'" Tom said, joking about how the family lore treats some details.
What Jack had been looking for were pure or part-bred English horses called Cleveland Bays, a somewhat rare and coveted breed even in that age when horses were more commonly used in all walks of life and industry. Like so many of the deeper details of this tale, how Jack knew about the breed and why he wanted the horses so badly is lost to time.
"I suppose he might've had some contact with the breed while he was with the (Canadian) Mounties," Tom said.
Whatever the reason, though, Jack's decision to travel across the U.S. to fetch those horses back to Montana didn't just net him a herd of quality working horses, it eventually inspired a lifelong quest for his grandson.
Tom still has a magazine clipping he made as a child that has a black and white photo of a Cleveland Bay horse and a description of the breed. Over the years, he has stored it as carefully as he has studied its contents.
Cleveland Bay History
The specifics of how this all-purpose horse breed came to be were not recorded at the time of its origin. It is, however, well-documented that the breed originated during the Middle Ages in the Yorkshire County area of England. Named for the county district where the horse was predominantly bred and its breed-standard color, the Cleveland Bay is the only non-draft horse, or warmblood, breed developed from native English stock.
Breeders wanted a light draft-type horse of outstanding strength, stamina, movement and hardiness to use for farm work, hauling, packing or riding. And their easy-going temperament made them even more desirable.
When the carriage was invented in the 1500s, Cleveland Bays were the logical horses to pull these ground-covering coaches, and the breed's popularity spread farther afield.
The Cleveland Bay horse maintained great to moderate popularity into the 1800s, when technology changed history for them, and many other horse breeds as well.
A major decline in Cleveland Bay numbers occurred in the mid-1800s, when the railroad system was extensively developed — and the numbers would take another hit in the early to mid-1900s as machinery supplanted the horse on the farm and over the road.
But in 1883, a group of breeders, recognizing the danger of losing this unique breed, came together to form the Cleveland Bay Horse Society. Their preservation and promotional efforts paid off, especially in the U.S. and Australia, where enthusiasts imported thousands of horses of pure and part-Cleveland Bay breeding stock.
Tom's grandpa purchased his part-bred Cleveland Bays during the heyday of the breed's popularity in the U.S.
Eventually, though, the breed fell victim to its own popularity and capabilities, as well as technological advances.
England's Cleveland Bay herds were depleted by exportation — for use in work, driving and riding, but also as bloodstock to improve other breeds, especially other European warmblood breeds. Then World War I took its toll when Cleveland Bay horses proved their mettle once again, but this time on the battlefield where many were casualties of war.
By the 1960s only a handful of certified purebred Cleveland Bay stallions were known in England. When one of those stallions, Mulgrave Supreme, was slated for export to America, Queen Elizabeth II, whose grandfather bred Cleveland Bay horses, intervened. She purchased the young stallion and made him available to the public. This one act revitalized the Cleveland Bay breed in England and brought attention to the horses as an outstanding sporthorse for modern competition.
The Breed Standards
Though some changes have occurred over the centuries, modern Cleveland Bays are still recognizable as the horses depicted in the drawings and paintings of old.
The breed standards set forth by the Cleveland Bay Horse Society in 1884 and adopted by the breed societies of other countries are specific on many points.
Cleveland Bays are only acceptable if bay in color, with a red body and black legs, mane and tails. Aside from a few gray hairs allowed in the mane and tail, typical of certain bloodlines, only a minimal white star is an acceptable marking.
The breed's ideal height is 16 to 16.2 hands, or 64 to 66 inches at the wither, but somewhat taller or shorter horses are acceptable if all the other qualities are present.
The head, set on a long elegant neck, is bold with a kind eye, and the body is wide, deep and powerful with a long, sloped shoulder, moderate-length back and muscular hindquarters. The limbs have good muscle and sturdy bones. The cannon bone, measured just below the knee, must be 9 inches or greater in circumference. The hooves, of great importance, are large, hard, dark and of good quality shape.
Finally, the horse's way of traveling should be free and active in the shoulders, knees and hocks. "The action required," the standards state, "is free all round, gets over the ground and fits the wear-and-tear qualities of the breed." In other words, the movement is powerful, graceful and balanced, as is fitting for high-quality athletes.
Back in Montana
Although tales of his grandfather's Cleveland Bay-cross horses sparked Tom's imagination as a youngster, it was growing up riding his dad Steve Brown's ranch horses that gave Tom a true appreciation of athletic working horses.
"My dad always had great horses. They were just a mix of breeds, but they went all day out here in these hills," Tom said.
Steve mixed a variety of breeds in his herd — mostly Morgan, but also Arabian, Thoroughbred and Standardbred — by buying nice stallions or mares, or breeding to someone else's stock, to add special qualities to his string of horses. Though he appreciated various breeds' qualities, Steve cared more about the individual horse's attributes than anything else.
"It was more about the horse choice than about the breed," René said. "He wanted a horse that could go all day long, had a level head and could handle the daily work he asked of them.
"If you ask folks that knew Steve," she added, "they would tell you he had a very strong work ethic. He expected the same from his horses. He was also an incredible horseman."
Even after his dad's death, Tom and many members of his extended family and friends have proudly kept, used and continued to breed horses from that herd. Tom and René will pull out photo albums and a box of keepsakes that have as many horse pictures and items of horse memorabilia as they do human treasures.
Tom was still pretty young when he got the notion to cross the Cleveland Bay breed into the horse herd his dad built up during his lifetime of cowboying. In fact, Tom made sure René knew that he was a man of good horse intentions before they even got married, though she was skeptical about the mix.
"He very quickly educated me," René said, and one of their early vacations together was a road trip to Colorado to see a Cleveland Bay stallion in person. Although the price of a quality stallion put buying one out of reach for Tom and René — and most of the general public — six years ago they had enough of a nest egg put together to think about breeding some of their mares to a Cleveland Bay.
René researched prospective stallions on the Internet, and they were in conversations with a stallion owner about getting three mares artificially inseminated when life took a turn that delayed this dream.
Youngest daughter, Wylee, needed an operation, "and then life got in the way," René said, so Tom took a non-ranching job to help get the bills paid.
Of their accumulated herd of progeny from Tom's dad's horses, they kept a few select mares, but the rest they disbursed to family, and for six years the Browns went on with life while their mares got older.
Tom was able to go back to cowboying in 2011 when he was offered the foreman position at the Diamond Bar Ranch, where he'd worked for several years in his teens and 20s. While he welcomed the opportunity, he suddenly realized that he was missing a key ingredient to being successful at his job: a string of good horses that could go all day in the Bear Paws, working as hard as he did.
Not only that, his mares were getting old — close to the age that they wouldn't be working all day and close to the end of their breeding years.
"I had the sudden realization that my mares, with so much history, were 17, 18 years old," Tom said.
But fate wasn't done with Tom's dream yet.
The Royal Connection
In 1994, the year Tom and René were married, a purebred Cleveland Bay colt named Tregoyd William was born on Tregoyd Cleveland Bay Farm in Wales. William, as he was called, was a fourth-generation offspring of Mulgrave Supreme, the stallion Queen Elizabeth II purchased to save and revitalize the Cleveland Bay breed in its native England.
William grew to a height of 17 hands — 68 inches — and at the the age of 7 he was imported to the United States by Heather Spangler of Williams Knoll Farm in Oregon. He was trained to be a jumper early on then stood at stud there for 12 years. Heather and William developed a deep bond, and she spoiled him with his favorite treat, pears.
It was a good life for both of them, but by 2011, when William was 17 years old, Heather needed to cut back on her daily work and had decided that her good friend William deserved retirement somewhere he could enjoy life a little.
Knowing the Right People
While Heather was making her life-changing decisions, Tom and René had decided to send some mares out to get bred, to start replenishing their string of horses, while they searched for a stallion of their own choosing to buy.
René enlisted some horse-loving friends to help find a stallion that would suit both their "champagne taste and their near-beer budget."
Though many stallions of various breeds and crossbreeds were considered, it soon became clear that Tom and René would like to take this opportunity to find a pure or part-bred Cleveland Bay stallion.
It was also clear that the possibility of finding a stallion they liked, at a price they could afford and that was close enough to transport without major added expense was about nil. Even if they considered a part-bred, weanling or yearling with those criteria, success would be iffy.
While driving to Helena in September, René received a call from an excited friend who told her she had found the perfect stallion, for only $7,500 — an unheard of low price. The friend had, on a whim, sent an email to the owner of a stallion whose website was little more than a photo, a short description and the stud fees. No foals were listed for sale, but she had made contact in hopes of getting names of people selling the stallion's offspring. Instead of finding a young stud prospect, she'd discover that the stallion's owner, Heather Spangler, was looking for the perfect place to retire her stallion.
"I couldn't believe it," René said.
Her friend was telling her about a beautiful stallion named Tregoyd William being for sale in Oregon — he was the stallion Tom and René had been considering breeding to their mares so many years before.
Phone calls flew through the airwaves as Tom and René tried to figure a way to afford their dream stallion; emails did their part too once René returned home. Within three weeks, the Browns had figured out finances for the purchase price and the trip expenses, and within five weeks, they were on the road home with the stallion they had only dared to dream owning.
Dreams Do Come True
"Never in my wildest dreams — I figured we might find a half-blood," René said, adding, "When William walked in there, he literally took my breath away."
For weeks, Tom couldn't stop grinning "like a kid in a candy shop," he said. "I was almost in shock. It took a while for it to sink in."
Apparently Tom isn't the only family member in shock.
"I've never seen him spoil a horse before," his oldest daughter, Kodi, said.
And, in fact, after Tom brings William into the barn from the corral, it's clear that the only dirt on the horse is a little mud on and above his hooves, but Tom takes a brush out and gives him a head-to-tale grooming, taking a moment to point out the dappling across William's back and ribs — while William munches on a couple pears.
"It's an ongoing affair," René says, willing to add her good-natured jabs — at which Tom only grins, like a kid in a candy store.
Many family members, friends and neighbors have stopped by to see Tom's dream horse since he came to live with the Browns.
Although Bear Paw cowboys as a whole tend to be receptive to non-traditional breeds of horses and crossbreeds they use for working cattle — meaning, they don't necessarily ride American quarter horses, the standard-issue cowboy mount — William is even more unusual than the horses usually seen in these parts.
"He's never got a bad review yet," Tom said, "even with the die-hard quarter horse people who have asked to see him."
"William's got the buff," said Wylee, who most likely weighs less than William's bold head.
Perhaps the review that most pleased Tom came from his brother George Brown.
"George, he's pretty picky about horses, he came out and looked William over for about a half-hour and finally said he couldn't find a thing he didn't like about him," Tom said.
But despite the rave reviews from William's many new admirers and Tom's own lifelong dream, Tom is still clear that his priorities are the same as his dad's and his grandpa's: He expects a horse to be athletic, hardy and "cowy."
William, it seems, is not destined to disappoint.
Tom rode him and found that William's big stride was easy to sit.
"You could feel the power, but no jerk and jam, just smooth and go," he said.
Then William, the trained jumping horse, proved his cowiness this spring. While free in his own corral, he tracked bulls in the corral next to him, staying with them "just like a trained cutting horse," Tom said. Later, when a calf got loose in his pen, the stallion quietly herded it around.
Tom isn't breeding the stallion to outside mares, so William has covered only one mare this spring until Tom's other mares foal out in June. This first mare is a descendant from his dad's herd that Tom had given to a nephew when Tom and René disbursed their herd. The nephew gave the mare back when he heard Tom had finally gotten his Cleveland Bay stallion.
Tom's expectations are that his Cleveland Bay/ranch horse crossbreds will be "a little taller, rangier (ranch horse, with) more bone and the good dispositions. Ain't got quit."
René is confident that Tom's dream will prove out.
"If those horses are good enough for the queen of England," she said, "I guess they're good enough for us."
One Cowboy's Dream
By Pam Burke
Published in the Havre Daily News June 2012
Tom Brown grabs a halter off the wall and heads out of the barn toward a large bay horse trotting with notable elegance around the corral. With his weathered face and traditional western wear, both broke-in by a lifetime spent on horseback, Tom looks every bit the third-generation Bear Paw cowboy he is.
What Tom does not look like is a man with a 40-some-year-old dream that crosses the Atlantic Ocean and puts him within six degrees of separation from the queen of England — until you see the out-of-place dreamy gaze he levels on the he-ain't-a-cowpony English warmblood horse he's leading back to the barn. Because Tom's dream is this horse.
The Seed of a Dream
Like all family lore, the tales about his grandpa's horses are so familiar Tom can't recall not knowing them.
He just remembers his mom, Elizabeth Thompson Brown, always speaking so well of the horses her dad used on his Clear Creek Ranch in the foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains south of Chinook.
"She always talked about how nice and kind and quiet those horses were. Said they could go all day," Tom said, relaxing at his kitchen table with his wife, René, and daughters, Kodi, Tawnya and Wylee.
His grandpa, Jack Thompson, came from Canada to the United States with a small herd of horses around 1908. Within a few years of setting up his ranch, Jack wanted to increase his herd with horses of specific breeding so he "headed to that mythical place called 'back east,'" Tom said, joking about how the family lore treats some details.
What Jack had been looking for were pure or part-bred English horses called Cleveland Bays, a somewhat rare and coveted breed even in that age when horses were more commonly used in all walks of life and industry. Like so many of the deeper details of this tale, how Jack knew about the breed and why he wanted the horses so badly is lost to time.
"I suppose he might've had some contact with the breed while he was with the (Canadian) Mounties," Tom said.
Whatever the reason, though, Jack's decision to travel across the U.S. to fetch those horses back to Montana didn't just net him a herd of quality working horses, it eventually inspired a lifelong quest for his grandson.
Tom still has a magazine clipping he made as a child that has a black and white photo of a Cleveland Bay horse and a description of the breed. Over the years, he has stored it as carefully as he has studied its contents.
Cleveland Bay History
The specifics of how this all-purpose horse breed came to be were not recorded at the time of its origin. It is, however, well-documented that the breed originated during the Middle Ages in the Yorkshire County area of England. Named for the county district where the horse was predominantly bred and its breed-standard color, the Cleveland Bay is the only non-draft horse, or warmblood, breed developed from native English stock.
Breeders wanted a light draft-type horse of outstanding strength, stamina, movement and hardiness to use for farm work, hauling, packing or riding. And their easy-going temperament made them even more desirable.
When the carriage was invented in the 1500s, Cleveland Bays were the logical horses to pull these ground-covering coaches, and the breed's popularity spread farther afield.
The Cleveland Bay horse maintained great to moderate popularity into the 1800s, when technology changed history for them, and many other horse breeds as well.
A major decline in Cleveland Bay numbers occurred in the mid-1800s, when the railroad system was extensively developed — and the numbers would take another hit in the early to mid-1900s as machinery supplanted the horse on the farm and over the road.
But in 1883, a group of breeders, recognizing the danger of losing this unique breed, came together to form the Cleveland Bay Horse Society. Their preservation and promotional efforts paid off, especially in the U.S. and Australia, where enthusiasts imported thousands of horses of pure and part-Cleveland Bay breeding stock.
Tom's grandpa purchased his part-bred Cleveland Bays during the heyday of the breed's popularity in the U.S.
Eventually, though, the breed fell victim to its own popularity and capabilities, as well as technological advances.
England's Cleveland Bay herds were depleted by exportation — for use in work, driving and riding, but also as bloodstock to improve other breeds, especially other European warmblood breeds. Then World War I took its toll when Cleveland Bay horses proved their mettle once again, but this time on the battlefield where many were casualties of war.
By the 1960s only a handful of certified purebred Cleveland Bay stallions were known in England. When one of those stallions, Mulgrave Supreme, was slated for export to America, Queen Elizabeth II, whose grandfather bred Cleveland Bay horses, intervened. She purchased the young stallion and made him available to the public. This one act revitalized the Cleveland Bay breed in England and brought attention to the horses as an outstanding sporthorse for modern competition.
The Breed Standards
Though some changes have occurred over the centuries, modern Cleveland Bays are still recognizable as the horses depicted in the drawings and paintings of old.
The breed standards set forth by the Cleveland Bay Horse Society in 1884 and adopted by the breed societies of other countries are specific on many points.
Cleveland Bays are only acceptable if bay in color, with a red body and black legs, mane and tails. Aside from a few gray hairs allowed in the mane and tail, typical of certain bloodlines, only a minimal white star is an acceptable marking.
The breed's ideal height is 16 to 16.2 hands, or 64 to 66 inches at the wither, but somewhat taller or shorter horses are acceptable if all the other qualities are present.
The head, set on a long elegant neck, is bold with a kind eye, and the body is wide, deep and powerful with a long, sloped shoulder, moderate-length back and muscular hindquarters. The limbs have good muscle and sturdy bones. The cannon bone, measured just below the knee, must be 9 inches or greater in circumference. The hooves, of great importance, are large, hard, dark and of good quality shape.
Finally, the horse's way of traveling should be free and active in the shoulders, knees and hocks. "The action required," the standards state, "is free all round, gets over the ground and fits the wear-and-tear qualities of the breed." In other words, the movement is powerful, graceful and balanced, as is fitting for high-quality athletes.
Back in Montana
Although tales of his grandfather's Cleveland Bay-cross horses sparked Tom's imagination as a youngster, it was growing up riding his dad Steve Brown's ranch horses that gave Tom a true appreciation of athletic working horses.
"My dad always had great horses. They were just a mix of breeds, but they went all day out here in these hills," Tom said.
Steve mixed a variety of breeds in his herd — mostly Morgan, but also Arabian, Thoroughbred and Standardbred — by buying nice stallions or mares, or breeding to someone else's stock, to add special qualities to his string of horses. Though he appreciated various breeds' qualities, Steve cared more about the individual horse's attributes than anything else.
"It was more about the horse choice than about the breed," René said. "He wanted a horse that could go all day long, had a level head and could handle the daily work he asked of them.
"If you ask folks that knew Steve," she added, "they would tell you he had a very strong work ethic. He expected the same from his horses. He was also an incredible horseman."
Even after his dad's death, Tom and many members of his extended family and friends have proudly kept, used and continued to breed horses from that herd. Tom and René will pull out photo albums and a box of keepsakes that have as many horse pictures and items of horse memorabilia as they do human treasures.
Tom was still pretty young when he got the notion to cross the Cleveland Bay breed into the horse herd his dad built up during his lifetime of cowboying. In fact, Tom made sure René knew that he was a man of good horse intentions before they even got married, though she was skeptical about the mix.
"He very quickly educated me," René said, and one of their early vacations together was a road trip to Colorado to see a Cleveland Bay stallion in person. Although the price of a quality stallion put buying one out of reach for Tom and René — and most of the general public — six years ago they had enough of a nest egg put together to think about breeding some of their mares to a Cleveland Bay.
René researched prospective stallions on the Internet, and they were in conversations with a stallion owner about getting three mares artificially inseminated when life took a turn that delayed this dream.
Youngest daughter, Wylee, needed an operation, "and then life got in the way," René said, so Tom took a non-ranching job to help get the bills paid.
Of their accumulated herd of progeny from Tom's dad's horses, they kept a few select mares, but the rest they disbursed to family, and for six years the Browns went on with life while their mares got older.
Tom was able to go back to cowboying in 2011 when he was offered the foreman position at the Diamond Bar Ranch, where he'd worked for several years in his teens and 20s. While he welcomed the opportunity, he suddenly realized that he was missing a key ingredient to being successful at his job: a string of good horses that could go all day in the Bear Paws, working as hard as he did.
Not only that, his mares were getting old — close to the age that they wouldn't be working all day and close to the end of their breeding years.
"I had the sudden realization that my mares, with so much history, were 17, 18 years old," Tom said.
But fate wasn't done with Tom's dream yet.
The Royal Connection
In 1994, the year Tom and René were married, a purebred Cleveland Bay colt named Tregoyd William was born on Tregoyd Cleveland Bay Farm in Wales. William, as he was called, was a fourth-generation offspring of Mulgrave Supreme, the stallion Queen Elizabeth II purchased to save and revitalize the Cleveland Bay breed in its native England.
William grew to a height of 17 hands — 68 inches — and at the the age of 7 he was imported to the United States by Heather Spangler of Williams Knoll Farm in Oregon. He was trained to be a jumper early on then stood at stud there for 12 years. Heather and William developed a deep bond, and she spoiled him with his favorite treat, pears.
It was a good life for both of them, but by 2011, when William was 17 years old, Heather needed to cut back on her daily work and had decided that her good friend William deserved retirement somewhere he could enjoy life a little.
Knowing the Right People
While Heather was making her life-changing decisions, Tom and René had decided to send some mares out to get bred, to start replenishing their string of horses, while they searched for a stallion of their own choosing to buy.
René enlisted some horse-loving friends to help find a stallion that would suit both their "champagne taste and their near-beer budget."
Though many stallions of various breeds and crossbreeds were considered, it soon became clear that Tom and René would like to take this opportunity to find a pure or part-bred Cleveland Bay stallion.
It was also clear that the possibility of finding a stallion they liked, at a price they could afford and that was close enough to transport without major added expense was about nil. Even if they considered a part-bred, weanling or yearling with those criteria, success would be iffy.
While driving to Helena in September, René received a call from an excited friend who told her she had found the perfect stallion, for only $7,500 — an unheard of low price. The friend had, on a whim, sent an email to the owner of a stallion whose website was little more than a photo, a short description and the stud fees. No foals were listed for sale, but she had made contact in hopes of getting names of people selling the stallion's offspring. Instead of finding a young stud prospect, she'd discover that the stallion's owner, Heather Spangler, was looking for the perfect place to retire her stallion.
"I couldn't believe it," René said.
Her friend was telling her about a beautiful stallion named Tregoyd William being for sale in Oregon — he was the stallion Tom and René had been considering breeding to their mares so many years before.
Phone calls flew through the airwaves as Tom and René tried to figure a way to afford their dream stallion; emails did their part too once René returned home. Within three weeks, the Browns had figured out finances for the purchase price and the trip expenses, and within five weeks, they were on the road home with the stallion they had only dared to dream owning.
Dreams Do Come True
"Never in my wildest dreams — I figured we might find a half-blood," René said, adding, "When William walked in there, he literally took my breath away."
For weeks, Tom couldn't stop grinning "like a kid in a candy shop," he said. "I was almost in shock. It took a while for it to sink in."
Apparently Tom isn't the only family member in shock.
"I've never seen him spoil a horse before," his oldest daughter, Kodi, said.
And, in fact, after Tom brings William into the barn from the corral, it's clear that the only dirt on the horse is a little mud on and above his hooves, but Tom takes a brush out and gives him a head-to-tale grooming, taking a moment to point out the dappling across William's back and ribs — while William munches on a couple pears.
"It's an ongoing affair," René says, willing to add her good-natured jabs — at which Tom only grins, like a kid in a candy store.
Many family members, friends and neighbors have stopped by to see Tom's dream horse since he came to live with the Browns.
Although Bear Paw cowboys as a whole tend to be receptive to non-traditional breeds of horses and crossbreeds they use for working cattle — meaning, they don't necessarily ride American quarter horses, the standard-issue cowboy mount — William is even more unusual than the horses usually seen in these parts.
"He's never got a bad review yet," Tom said, "even with the die-hard quarter horse people who have asked to see him."
"William's got the buff," said Wylee, who most likely weighs less than William's bold head.
Perhaps the review that most pleased Tom came from his brother George Brown.
"George, he's pretty picky about horses, he came out and looked William over for about a half-hour and finally said he couldn't find a thing he didn't like about him," Tom said.
But despite the rave reviews from William's many new admirers and Tom's own lifelong dream, Tom is still clear that his priorities are the same as his dad's and his grandpa's: He expects a horse to be athletic, hardy and "cowy."
William, it seems, is not destined to disappoint.
Tom rode him and found that William's big stride was easy to sit.
"You could feel the power, but no jerk and jam, just smooth and go," he said.
Then William, the trained jumping horse, proved his cowiness this spring. While free in his own corral, he tracked bulls in the corral next to him, staying with them "just like a trained cutting horse," Tom said. Later, when a calf got loose in his pen, the stallion quietly herded it around.
Tom isn't breeding the stallion to outside mares, so William has covered only one mare this spring until Tom's other mares foal out in June. This first mare is a descendant from his dad's herd that Tom had given to a nephew when Tom and René disbursed their herd. The nephew gave the mare back when he heard Tom had finally gotten his Cleveland Bay stallion.
Tom's expectations are that his Cleveland Bay/ranch horse crossbreds will be "a little taller, rangier (ranch horse, with) more bone and the good dispositions. Ain't got quit."
René is confident that Tom's dream will prove out.
"If those horses are good enough for the queen of England," she said, "I guess they're good enough for us."