In collaboration with Belinda Camarda, Baru Spiller has kindly granted permission to reprint this condensation of her original article on Blue Valentine. Baru and her husband, Joe, own a ranch near Wingate, Texas, where they raise and train horses centered on Blue Valentine bloodlines. To access the complete article and learn more about Blue Valentine and his lineage please visit the website www.hancockhorses.com

Grandsons of Blue Valentine as weanling. Photo Baru Spiller

In the history of the American Quarter Horse breed, few horses have made such an impact that their reputation outlives them by more than a few generations. Even fewer have achieved such a status that their very name represents a class of horse all their own, especially in the absence of official AQHA show or race records. Their legacy must depend solely on reputation and the ability to sire great offspring. 

Breeding horses was not a fickle pastime for working landowners. It was an annual necessity for multiplying the ‘tools’ needed to stay in business and a rancher knew he needed a certain type of horse when it came to a hard day’s work under the hot sun, over rocky uneven ground, or the same work in the bitter cold in a foot of fresh snow. 

He needed the equine equivalent of a 4 X 4 Jeep or Land Rover, not a sleek racy town car. He wanted strength, he needed agility, and he demanded soundness. While good looks were a bonus, as was an unusual colour, none of these “usin’ horse” attributes were compromised in the quest for aesthetics alone.

Blue Valentine granddaughter. Photo Debbie Jones

These horses were not show ponies; they were valued ranch assets. These hardy, sound and athletic qualities made them sought-after, both at home and in the competition arena. Most importantly, these horses possessed a quiet mind. Such are the descendants of Blue Valentine.

Blue Valentine was foaled in Cochise County, Arizona in 1956. He was a grandson of the immortal Joe Hancock, who was rarely, if ever, beaten at the quarter mile. Few other Quarter Horse bloodlines have been so steadfastly preserved. One of the most prepotent sires in history, even after eight decades, the disposition, bone, athleticism, cow and speed of Joe Hancock are easily recognised in his progeny. 

One of Joe Hancock’s most prolific sons was Blue Valentine’s sire, Red Man, a red roan foaled in 1935 in a West Texas blizzard. He was sold as a yearling and around 1941, landed at Kenny Gunter’s ranch near Benson, Arizona. While carrying prominent ropers to the pay window in rodeos, Red Man also earned the coveted AmQHA Register of Merit (ROM). His offspring accumulated 20 race or performance ROM’s, over $34,076 in official earnings plus an enormous untold amount in rodeo earnings.

Blue Valentine’s dam was a black Texas-bred mare named Beauty’s Dream, by the well-known rope horse, Valentine. She was brought to Arizona by Les Amour and was a successful race mare before becoming a broodmare on Kenny Gunter’s ranch.

As a yearling, Blue Valentine was sold to Dell Haverty. Descended from an Arizona pioneer family, Haverty was a champion rodeo competitor throughout the 1940’s and 50’s. Prior to the formation of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association (PRCA) in 1951, he was the youngest man ever crowned the International Rodeo Association All Around Champion and was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1996.

While still a yearling, Dell sold half ownership of the roan horse to the Hayes Brothers Ranch in Wyoming, owned by his wife Connee’s family, who already had an established breeding program with Hancock bloodlines. Dell trained him for calf roping, team roping, team tying and steer tripping, but it was tripping for which he became most well-known. Connee’s brother-in-law, Hyde Merritt, eventually bought out Dell Haverty’s interest in Blue Valentine. Over the years, several members of the Haverty, Merritt, and Hayes families would all take their turn at competing on Blue Valentine in some of the most prestigious pro rodeos in the country, high school rodeos, barrel racing and queen contests. People realised Blue Valentine was becoming a legend in his own time when the announcer at Cheyenne Frontier Days one year said, “Here comes Dell Haverty on the great Blue Valentine”.

Blue Valentine granddaughter. Photo Baru Spiller

In 1970, Cowboy Hall of Fame Honouree and six-time World Champion Steer Roper, Everett Shaw, was flagging the steer tripping at Cheyenne Frontier Days. He told Hyde that Blue Valentine “was the best steer horse in the arena this year”.

Blue Valentine died in August 1980, age 24 years, from a ruptured intestine due to colic, but his story did not end with his death. Buster Hayes died that same year in a ranch accident and three years later Hyde Merritt was killed at a train crossing. However, descendants of both families are still breeding and riding Blue Valentine’s descendants.

At the 2002 AQHA convention, Laurie’s son Vince received the AmQHA Award for 50 consecutive years of breeding Quarter Horses on behalf of the Hayes family.  Most of those years had been spent breeding Blue Valentines. Hyde and Dede’s son, Chip, is gearing up for the 10^th annual ‘Come to the Source’ horse sale in Laramie, Wyoming in August. The sale was founded by four partners with one thing in common – high percentage Blue Valentine horses. During his lifetime most of Blue Valentine’s offspring were concentrated in Wyoming and the surrounding states.

Leo Hancock Hayes, last breeding son of Blue Valentine in 2004 at age 24.  Photo Baru Spiller

However two sons in particular brought Joe Hancock bloodlines through Blue Valentine, full circle back to Texas.

Rowdy Blue Man, the highest percentage Blue Valentine offspring, was a blue roan born in 1977 into the Hayes/Merritt partnership. Fred Gist of the Wagon Wheel Ranch, Lometa, Texas eventually acquired him. In 2001, Rowdy was kicked during spring pasture breeding. He had to be humanely destroyed at the age of 24 years.

Leo Hancock Hayes, a blue roan, was foaled in 1980, out of Doll 01 by Rip Rip by Leo. In 2000, Vince Hayes sold Leo Hancock Hayes to Randy and Susan Brookings, Lohn, Texas. At 27, he is the youngest and last breeding son of Blue Valentine.

Blue Valentine’s official AmQHA sire record lists 210 registered foals, including race money earners and performance point earners. His grandsire record includes a race Register of Merit qualifier, race money earners and performance and halter point earners. Reportedly, three sons including Ruano Rojo have earned in excess of $100,000 each in rodeo arena earnings. Blue Valentine passed on his speed, good bone, gentle disposition, longevity and cow savvy. His performance and that of his get, having been concentrated on ranches or in the rodeo arena, acquired almost no official AmQHA show record. But, as with many horses that spend their entire lives in their ‘work clothes’, Blue Valentine’s legacy flourishes through his descendants.

It is sad that these magnificent bloodlines never made their way to Australia along with the sons and daughters of other famous Quarter Horse legends. Perhaps, because Blue Valentine never stood to the public, he was almost like a treasure-chest that was only accessible to a select few. Like everything that glitters with special qualities, astute breeders held these prized genetics with steely pride. Export ‘Down Under’ for any direct Blue Valentine progeny was the furthest thing from the mind of his devoted breeders! But moreover, even in the USA, the value of his bloodlines was not fully realised by the public until after his death.

As an addition for the existing Australian lines, the infusion of Blue Valentine blood might make sound breeding sense. His genetics have been ‘working’ in the USA for decades, producing hardy versatile athletes, and many known champions. Considering this propensity to reproduce a multitude of desirable characteristics, his blood could produce foals here that have the higher genetic potential to remain physically and breeding sound well into their later years. This would preserve the interests of breeders and provide greater soundness and longevity for competition horses, which would be attractive to owners and trainers. It would also flow through to the recreational riding arena, where horses that are hauled from the paddock once a week for a trail ride, remain tractable and easy to maintain. 

Horses that can traverse the boundaries of competitive working cowhorse, to family riding mount and accomplish everything in between with ease is as mentioned, a much regarded attribute of the Blue Valentine bred horses. If these benefits are not enough, the added possibility of producing beautiful blue roan foals should be!

Son of Mr Clyde Hancock, a grandson of Blue Valentine. Son of Leo Hancock Hayes, the last breeding son of Blue Valentine Photos Baru Spiller