The American Saddlebred: 7/26/14 Whyworry Who?

7/25/14 Last month, I had the good fortune of receiving some old photo albums from Ottawa Creek Farm. I was thrilled to receive these treasures and started turning the fragile pages, looking at page after page of stallions, show horses and prospects. There were even some broodmares with their foals. Luckily, many pictures were labeled. If they hadn’t been, most of these horses would have been forever anonymous since there is no one left to identify them. My first two horses came from Ottawa Creek Farm and I have studied some of the old bloodlines from the farm and am familiar with many of the names. About halfway through the first album, I spotted two photos of a broodmare and her foal. They were labeled “Whyworry Chieftess and Nola’s Genius, 1943”. Whyworry Chieftess! I instantly recognized the name as one of Dr. Elrod’s old broodmares from the 1940’s. I tried to get my husband excited about my discovery, but apparently he didn’t find it as fascinating as I did. Within an hour, I emailed her picture to someone who was just as excited as I was, and that same day Whyworry Chieftess had her picture on the ASHA website.

Whyworry Chieftess and Nola's Genius, 1943

So who was she? Her name probably didn’t jump off the page for many other people like it did for me, but this mare has some very important descendants in the Saddle horse world. Of course, Whyworry was the farm name of Mrs. Lurline Roth of San Mateo, California. Mrs. Roth owned, among others, CH Sweetheart on Parade and CH Chief of Longview, both World’s 5 gaited Grand Champions in the late 20’s and early 30’s. There are dozens of Saddlebreds with the Whyworry prefix that were bred by Mrs. Roth, and she continued breeding Saddlebreds, including Hall of Fame Broodmares and Champions, until the year before she died at age 95 in 1985. I was reasonably sure that Mrs. Roth bred Whyworry Chieftess, especially since she was sired by Chief of Longview, so I contacted the American Saddlebred Museum. Here is the response:

The mare was bred by Mrs. Lurline Roth of Whyworry Farm and foaled in May 1930. She was sold to Roger Selby of the Selby Shoe Company, Portsmouth, OH in May 1932. He bred her and raised several foals out of her. Whyworry Chieftess was then sold to Hugh White of Zanesville, OH on November 11, 1941. He sold her to Dr. Robert Elrod in July of 1943. Looks like he raised about 6 foals out of her. There is a notation that her 1948 foal died while being registered so he got a refund. Dr. Elrod sold her to Clyde A. Richardson of Columbiana, OH in December 1949.

It all makes perfect sense. Mrs. Roth used the services of Nola Minton, of Minton Hickory Mountain Stables, to handle the breeding career of Chief of Longview. Although Mrs Roth lived in California, Chief of Longview was most likely right in Barbourville, Kentucky much of the time, due to his showing schedule and stud service. Whyworry Chieftess was probably born at Minton Hickory, and her dam, The Mountain Girl, may have even come from there. Roger Selby, her second owner, was also the owner of King’s Genius during the same period he owned Whyworry Chieftess. Her first five foals were sired by CH King’s Genius. Her next two foals were sired by The Genius, who was also owned by Hugh White during the time he owned Whyworry Chieftess. On to Ottawa Creek Farm, where she produced four foals by Dr. Elrod’s stallions Grey Mac and Jean LaFitte. Finally, she was sold to Clyde Richardson and had her last foal by Richardson’s Pot O’Gold at age 21.

CH Chief of Longview, sire of Whyworry Chieftess

driven by Mrs. W.P. Roth

Whyworry Chieftess’ most famous offspring was a King’s Genius son, Blazing Genius of Happy Hollow. Born in 1940, he was a well-advertised stallion who sired a fair amount of colts. One of his best was CH Precious Possession. One of his daughters, Tommy’s Lovely Pride, was a show mare that later produced 13 foals. One of those colts was the stallion, Pride of Ridgefield.

Blazing Genius of Happy Hollow

f. 1940, King's Genius X Whyworry Chieftess

CH Precious Possession

f. 1953, Blazing Genius X Anacacho Denmark's Cloud by Anacacho Denmark

He was shown by Joan Robinson Hill after CH Beloved Belinda's retirement.

See Joan's famous gray in part 1 of the post on Glorious Grays.

Tommy's Lovely Pride

f. 1960, Blazing Genius X Tommy Lee by Pride of Lovely Point

Pride of Ridgefield

f. 1969, Ridgefields' Genius X Tommy's Lovely Pride

Pride of Ridgefield was bred by Charles Bartush of Texas, who owned his sire, Ridgefields’ Genius, for the last decade of the old sire’s life. Mr. Bartush continued to own Pride of Ridgefield for the first twenty years of his life. In the years from 1974 thru 1990, Pride of Ridgefield sired about two dozen colts. Luckily for him, he was purchased in 1990 by Louise Gilliland of Winsdown Farm in Oklahoma. Already 21 years old, he lived until he was 27 and sired another four dozen colts from 1992 until 1997. Lucky for us, he sired some very good colts while at Winsdown. They included Winsdown Hi Octane, the striking gray stallion who lead the futurity colts sire rating for a number of years, and Winsdown Black Gold, another handsome stallion who sired some nice colts. Others he sired included CH Winsdown Sweet Oil, Winsdown the Prize, Winsdown Oil Town, Genius in Motion and Preaux. Those were sired while at Winsdown.

Winsdown Hi Octane

f. 1992, Pride of Ridgefield X Jammin' the Blues by Admiral's Windjammer

Winsdown Black Gold

f. 1994, Pride of Ridgefield X Make Believe SLS by The Silver Lining

Although Pride of Ridgefield didn’t sire many colts in his first twenty years, one was a gem. CH The Karankawa Chief was foaled in 1981. He was gelded at age two and turned out with a bunch of mares. One of those mares, a 2 year old named Wild and Lovely PH turned up pregnant. When she produced her colt in 1984, credit went to a stallion named Admiral’s Windjammer by CH Courageous Admiral. As late as 1990, the pedigree still showed Admiral’s Windjammer, but DNA proved his sire to be The Karankawa Chief. The name of this colt was none other than Phi Slama Jama.

So all those cute Phi horses like CH It’s Phi Day, Clari Phi, Beautiphi, CH Ampli-Phi, Slamtastic, CH Inphallible and CH Phi’s Phortune Teller trace back to Whyworry Chieftess. Hopefully now you understand why I was so excited to spot her photo.

CH The Karankawa Chief

f. 1981, Pride of Ridgefield X Dear Miss Allison X Denmark's Bourbon Genius

He only sired one colt.

Admiral's Windjammer

f. 1982, CH Courageous Admiral X Lady Bird Empire by Anacacho Empire

He didn't sire Phi Slama Jama, but he did sire the dam of Winsdown Hi Octane.

Phi Slama Jama

f. 1984, CH The Karankawa Chief X Wild and Lovely PH by Hide-a-way's Wild Country

One other interesting thing to note. Phi Slama Jama and Winsdown Hi Octane not only have the same sire line, their dams were from the same tail female line. Phi’s dam, Wild and Lovely PH was out of Snow Spangle, 2^nd dam Sunshine Society Sue. Hi Octane’s dam, Jammin’ the Blues (by the way, she really was sired by Admiral’s Windjammer) was out of a Flashdance P/H, 2^nd dam Snow Spangle.

Whyworry Chieftess	CH Chief of Longview	Independence Chief	McDonald Chief	Rex McDonald
				Lady McClelland
			Flora H	Harrison Chief
				Kate
		Myrtle Dickey (BHF)	Bracken Chief	Harrison Chief
				Kit
			Bess V	Waits’ Indian Chief
				Dau of Harrison Chief
	The Mountain Girl	Mountain Dare	Chester Dare	Black Squirrel
				Nannie Garrett
			Dinah Rose	Sharon Rose
				Rover
		Lula Chief	Montgomery Chief	Bourbon Chief
				Annie C.
			Elsie Owsley	Red Squirrel
				Lula Carden

Another picture of Whyworry Chieftess and Nola's Genius

Time for some big thank you’s, first to Kim Skipton for helping to clarify the owners of Whyworry Chieftess , Louise Gilliland for having so many pictures of Winsdown ancestors available, Brad Elrod for sharing the old albums and most importantly, to Mrs. Robert Elrod Sr. for carefully labelling so many photos so many years ago.

The old photo album was labeled with white ink.

Mrs. Elrod is pictured on the right.

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For more photos of Grey Mac and Winsdown Hi Octane, look at the posts on glorious grays posted earlier this month and the first week in August.

There is also a post on Minton Hickory Farm and Miss Nola posted June 15, 2014.

Editor's note, 8/17/14:

Last weekend, there was an estate sale at Ottawa Creek Farm. Since my daughter got married on Saturday, I couldn't attend until Sunday. One item drew my attention, and that was an oil painting of a

3-gaited Saddlebred that hung in the living room. It was Ottawa's Supreme Command.

He wasn't one of the horses I was familiar with, but my daughter bought the picture for me anyway.

When I looked him up on ASHA, I couldn't find him at first because

he's registered as Ottawas Supreme Command.

His dam? None other than Whyworry Chieftess!