92 EQUUS 498 AUTUMN 2019
Joe Moore. Two-Eyed Jack’s dam was
Triangle Tookie, a Waggoner mare
tracing back to Grey Badger II and
Joe Hancock).
In the 1970s and 1980s, the J-A
bred both Paints and Quarter Horses
from the tobiano Special Cash (1976
by Bar Y Showboy, sire line Skipper W,
Sheik, and Three Bars. Special Cash is
out of Sugar Flit, who carries multiple
crosses to Sugar Bars and Three
Bars but whose tail-female traces to
Blackburn by Yellow Jacket). They also
stood Huff ‘n Puff (1973, by Go Gemini,
a Waggoner-bred out of the mare Annie
Huffman, who traces to Joe Reed, Joe
Blair, Yellow Boy and Yellow Jacket).
In this period they also used Freckles
Tivio Bar (by Moria Mundaza, sireline
Sugar Bars and Peppy San Badger; his
dam was Tivio’s Texas Miss, a Poco
Bueno–Midnight product tracing in
tail-female to King P-234, Blackburn,
Ace of Hearts and Traveler). Red
Jolly Rancher was siring foals for
them into the early 2000s (by Figure
Four, sireline to Joe Hancock and the
Thoroughbred Himyar; dam Jo Linda
Hancock, tracing to Joe Hancock
through Red Man and carrying crosses
to Little Joe and Himyar).
By 1990 the JA had leased much
of its land for grazing and farming,
and some commercial hunting of
buffalo and deer was allowed. Courtesy
of the J-A, a herd of longhorns today
roams in Palo Duro Canyon State Park,
and in 1998 the J-A gave the state the
last remaining wild herd of buffalo
within Texas.
Longtime manager and Adair family
heir Montie Ritchie attributed the
continuing success of the JA to its
employees, whom he described as “men
of imagination, men of skill, men of
courage, men who braved the elements
day or night, men who took pride in
their crafts, loved their horses and
understood their cattle, and were eager
to enhance the reputation of the JA and
proud to be a part.”BLACK GOLD,
MEGA-RANCHING AND
HORSE BREEDING
In 1902 while drilling for water, Tom
Waggoner struck oil. Wells had become
necessary as the growth of herds on
mega-ranches increased the need for
water beyond what available surface
flows could supply. In the first decade
of the century, oil and gas strikes wereregarded as a nuisance because there
was little market for either commodity
and the wells often caught on fire.
However, after 1915 that situation
dramatically changed as oil leases
began to bring significant income to
those who held the mineral rights.
In the 1920s Waggoner, now about
70 years old and comfortably well off,
turned his attention to horse breeding,
resolving to produce the best horses
in Texas if not the world. He got
into Thoroughbred racing and built
Arlington Downs on his 3D Stock Farm
near Fort Worth in the hopes that pari-
mutuel betting would become legalized
in the state. He offered $500,000 to
buy Man o’ War, but the deal did not
go through, and regularized racetrackgambling was not legalized in Texas
until after Waggoner’s death. Unable
to succeed with Thoroughbreds, he
stood numerous foundational Quarter
Horse stallions including Yellow
Jacket, Yellow Wolf, Midnight and
Pretty Boy as well as Waggoner’s Rainy
Day. Some of these were raced, but
they were primarily used to produce
working horses for use by Waggoner
cowboys. They were good-minded,
sturdy, sound and had cow sense along
with a turn of speed.
When Tom Waggoner died in
1934, his ranch holdings were divided
among his three children. His son
Guy had married Burk Burnett’s grand-
daughter Anne, while Guy’s brother
E. P. “Paul” Waggoner continued raising
Quarter Horses on the ranch. During
the 1940s Paul Waggoner stood the
famous Quarter Horse Poco Bueno
(1944, by King P-234, by Zantanon, by
Little Joe, by Traveler, and out of Miss
Taylor, a granddaughter of Little Joe
and Peter McCue). Poco Bueno was
Grand Champion at the Fort Worth
and Kansas City stock shows, and
in 1948 as a 4-year-old he began a
spectacular career as a cutting horse.
He was the first horse to be insured
for $100,000.
Upon Guy Waggoner’s death
in 1950, part of his holdings were
acquired by his grandson, Albert
Buckman (“Buster”) Wharton, Jr.,
who raised polo ponies and established
the El Rancho Polo Club on the
Waggoner ranch. As late as 1994,
the ranch was still breeding Quarter
Horses good enough to win the
AQHA’s coveted Best Remuda Award.
Over time, however, other Waggoner
heirs became less interested in either
horses or ranching. Their composite
holdings, including about 30,000 acres
of irrigated farmland, 14,000 head ofIn the 1920s, Tom
Waggoner, now about 70
years old and comfortably
well off, turned his
attention to horse
breeding, resolving to
produce the best horses in
Texas if not the world.