94 EQUUS 498 AUTUMN 2019
President Theodore Roosevelt (center) poses between Tom Waggoner (left) and
Daniel “Burk” Burnett (right). The tepees in the background belong to Comanche
leader Quanah Parker; the wolf hunt actually took place on part of the Big Pasture
that Parker had leased to Waggoner. It was Parker who cooked up the idea of
the hunt as a way of convincing Roosevelt to block legislation then in Congress
to remove the Big Pasture from tribal control. The hunt was unsuccessful on all
levels: No wolves were found, and the legislation was passed into law. One would
love to say that the stout horse provided to the by-then rather corpulent President
was a Joe Hancock, but this photo antedates Joe Hancock’s foaling by almost two
decades. The gelding is, however, probably of part-draft ancestry, as were many
of the wagon horses used on Western ranches.THE “WOLF HUNT”
hosted President Theodore Roosevelt
in his newly built mansion, and Will
Rogers was also Burnett’s frequent
guest. Like his Comanche friends, Burk
Burnett bred and loved Paint horses. He
told his son Tom, “Every spot on a Paint
horse is worth a dollar.” However, when
he died in 1923 all the Paints were sold.
After working as a cowhand on
the Big Pasture, in 1898 during the
Spanish–American War Tom Burnett
served as a captain of the Rough Riders
under Theodore Roosevelt. In 1912 he
established the Triangle Ranch on land
he had inherited from his maternal
grandfather. In the 1920s he purchased
the Pope and McAdams ranches
northwest of the 6666, as well as the
nearby Moon and YL Ranches. His last
major acquisition was the 7L Ranch,
bringing his family’s holdings to not
quite half a million acres of land and
about 5,000 head of cattle.
Like his father who for many years
was president of the Fort Worth Stock
Show, Tom Burnett enjoyed showing
horses. He raised gold-colored horses
using the stallion Beetch’s Yellow
Jacket by Yellow Jacket, and then he
bred Hollywood Gold (1940) from
a Triangle Ranch mare probably of
Yellow Jacket breeding. Hollywood
Gold was sired by Gold Rush, a true
palomino, but the Yellow Jackets
were actually pale red duns, as was
Hollywood Gold himself. The ranch
also used Cee Bars (a fi ve-eighths
Thoroughbred by Three Bars and
out of a Chicaro Bill mare tracing
to Little Joe, Clabber and HarmonBaker). Burnett stood the big brown
Joe Hancock, whom he acquired for
$2,000, a very large sum in the 1930s.
Burnett manager John Burns observed
that there was “a strong demand for
Joe Hancock geldings as rope horses
because of their strength, speed,
and action.”
When Tom Burnett died in 1938
his estate passed to his daughter
Anne whose fi rst husband was Tom
Waggoner’s son Guy but who later
married Charles Tandy, of the Tandy
Leather Corporation. A founding
member of the AQHA, she continued
the family tradition of horse breeding
by purchasing the Midnight grandson
Badger II (1941). This stallion had
been bred and trained by a friend,
Walter Merrick, who became the
AQHA’s chief conformation judge and
livestock inspector. She also purchased
Grey Badger III (1947). The Badgers
were used primarily to produce
broodmares and geldings for on-ranch
use, although Grey Badger II was a
noted match racer and the sire and
grandsire of both halter champions
and arena performers.
The estate has since passed into
the hands of Burnett’s granddaughter
Anne Windfor Marion, who maintains
the 6666, the Triangle and other
properties that today comprise some
275,000 acres. She stood a trio of
very successful quarter-mile racers,
including Streakin’ Six (who traces to
Clabber, Joe Bailey, Della Moore and
Possum and whose sireline ancestry
goes back to the Thoroughbreds Jet
Deck and Chicaro). The second of her
triumvirate was Special Effort (a seven-
eighths Thoroughbred whose sireline
is Native Dancer–Phalaris but who
traces several times in other lines to
the very durable Matchem-bred Man o’
War. His Quarter Horse ancestry goes
back to Ace of Diamonds and Sykes