FEEK TOOKE I believe that cowboy’s thinking more about farming. (Reenactment continues. Opening title and credits.) JOHN SCHAFFNER Feek Tooke was born on April 12th in nineteen hundred and nine up South Dakota way...He would grow up to produce a buckin’ horse legacy that lives in the rodeo world still today. The Tooke family moved to a ranch near Ekalaka, Montana, when Feek was only four...When the 1930’s rolled around, rodeo was a sport the Tooke brothers began to explore. The first Tooke buckin’ horses were picked from the wild horses from off the open range. But Feek knew the wild horse supply was limited and something would need to change. He wanted to breed bucking horses that were big and rugged and stout. JOHN SCHAFFNER (CONT’D) Horses that could buck hard and high and fast. That’s what rodeo is all about. In the 1930s, drought and economic depression drove homesteaders to abandon their farms, often turning their saddle horses and work horses loose on the Northern Plains. Soon, the need to protect public grazing land for cattle herds soon led to the organized removal of tens of thousands of wild horses from the range. NARRATOR (CONT’D) At the same time, rodeo was increasing in popularity, and producers had been drawing stock from the seemingly endless supply of wild horses. Seeing the problem posed by diminishing herds, a man named Feek Tooke set an idea in motion, and forever changed the future of rodeo. ERNEST TOOKE Feek Tooke was my dad. There were six Tooke brothers. Frank was the oldest, there was Fay, and Chandler who is known as Feek, Ted and Dick and Bill. ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) When they’d put their first rodeo on in 1931, there were horses all over. ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) But he could foresee in the future when this unlimited supply of bucking horses would be gone. BILL SMITH Everybody farmed with horses up in the northern country. So there was a lot of open range and they just turned them big draft horses and they’d get mixed up with the native mares and stuff and there got to be a lot of horses around. There was all them old horses you’ve heard of, that’s where they came from. They’re all part draft horse, and they ran, they just got wild and one out of forty of them would buck. ERNEST TOOKE At that time, why, there were all kinds of bucking horses. But Dad was sort of a visionary, I guess, and he could see the time when this well would go dry. JOHN MOORE What kind of vision did it take for someone to look way down the road and say the wild horses coming out of the hills, that era is going to end. GAIL WOERNER Well I think he was someone before his time. I think that he saw that there was going to be a need for more broncs and Feek saw this I think long before anybody else did. ERNEST TOOKE He decided that maybe he'd see if he could raise bucking horses, and he got the idea from Pat O'Kane. ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) Pat O’Kane was a ranch foreman in the Powder River Breaks in the 1920s and into the ‘30s, and that’s really a rough country, the Powder River Breaks, it’s hard on saddle horses, so he was going to raise a type of horse that could carry guys and have stamina, and yet be agile enough to get around, so he bred a shire stud to some thoroughbred mares...Well he got the right type of a horse, they had quite a bit of size, and they were fairly agile, but all they wanted to do was buck and fight, and the average ranch cowboy didn’t have a chance. ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) Well, anyway, when Pat finally retired in the 1930s, Feek Tooke bought his horses and he bought a shire stud from a man by the name of Sweeney, east of Ekalaka, about 1938. BRAD BRETTIN Feek Tooke, starting with those Shires...Shire is a good breed to buck horses, first of all, and a lot of those shires had, were broncier and they were durable. They have good bones, good confirmation. And they, a lot of them had made good bucking horses over the years. And so I think he was putting the size and also the heart and the toughness and the athletic ability in those horses, through those, through those shires. NARRATOR Based on what Feek had seen his neighbor, Pat O’Kane, do he knew some agility and spirit would be brought into the mix with hotblooded thoroughbreds crossed with his Shire stud. DEL DAGUE He bought a bunch of thoroughbred mares from a guy by the name of Dahl, arranged delivery and he got quite a bunch of mares or 70 or 80 head of mares from this Dahl, and they were all thoroughbred. BRAD BRETTIN Theoretically, that's a good cross in the bucking horse world. You get your hot bloods and your warm or your cold bloods and kind of make a warm blood cross horse that has the size, the speed, the athletic ability and the temperament to be a good athlete. NARRATOR Feek made an all-out effort to go with the best in a shire bloodline. He reached out to the American Shire Horse Association, and the search began. In 1943, a letter finally came with news of a young Shire that fit the bill. King Larrygo. A blue-ribbon winner, owned by the Fox Chemical Company in Des Moines, Iowa. Dark sorrel in color, with a quiet disposition, bald face and four white legs, weighing in at nearly a ton. Feek bought King for $250, and the future of Tooke Bucking Horses was loaded onto a train, headed for Baker, Montana. ERNEST TOOKE ...he was a magnificent animal; I don't think another horse like him ever came to the country, and the idea was dad was going to use this horse to raise bucking horses, and at this time, in 1943, World War II was going, and people were farming, haying with work horses, so he'd raise work horses along with the bucking horses. JOHN SCHAFFNER Feek had a vision that horses could be bred to buck and need not be randomly picked...He started breedin’ big Shire stallions with ill-tempered mares in a cross that clicked...A champion Shire stallion, King Larrygo by name, was purchased in Iowa and shipped out by rail...Kicked by a cranky mare he was ruined for service and it looked like Feek’s vision was doomed to fail. But one big, stout, dark sorrel colt was produced before that fateful injury took place. That young stallion, rightfully named “Prince”, would be for Feek’s vision a savin’ grace. NARRATOR A bit smaller than King Larrygo, young Prince was otherwise a clone of his father. His mother was a full-blood Shire with a nasty disposition. Prince inherited his mother’s attitude and mentality. In a corral or pasture, he was a terror around other horses. Using Prince as a work horse was out of the question. But this lone offspring of King Larrygo earned his keep, by becoming the foundation for Feek’s entire bred to buck program. NARRATOR (CONT’D) Prince was bucked only 10 times. At 17 hands tall, weighing in at 1700 pounds, this patriarch of the entire Tooke bucking horse lineage is credited for passing plenty of attitude and immense size into his descendants. NARRATOR (CONT’D) But Feek was still looking for the fire and stamina he believed were essential bucking horse traits. ERNEST TOOKE Back in 1945, Mark Barrow had an albino Arabian stud, I don't know, I suppose he weighed 1000 pounds...Snowflake, that was the horse's name, was always jumping out and getting in with the neighbor's mares, and they were getting colts, and they couldn't even get in the corral with him...They were just scared of this horse, and Mark was getting sick and tired of having to go round him up. So I went with dad, this was the winter of '45 and six...to Frank Laird’s to get Snowflake...and the yard was full of people; all the neighbors were there to make sure this horse left, they want to be sure that he left the neighborhood. ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) Mark was telling dad, he said, 'You could lead him anywhere with a piece of string, but don't try to walk up to him, if you're going to halter him, you're going to have to throw him down or put him in a chute. ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) Well, a few days later, dad was going to do something with Snowflake, and he roped him and Snowflake just stood there...Dad thought Mark didn't know what he was talking about. Well, he started up the rope, and when he got within range, he discovered Mark knew what he was talking about, it was about like walking into a buzz saw. KEN TOOKE Well, Dad looked at him and he knew horses enough and he knew the temperament and he knew that wasn’t just a spoiled saddle horse. He knew there was something special. NARRATOR In 1946, young bareback riders Gale Orr, Jack Buschbom and Ted Warhol - three of the RCA’s top riggin’ riders of the time - accepted an invitation from Feek to come out to Ekalaka. Feek was going to take Snowflake to town for the Days of ‘85 and try him out, and these boys wanted to see it. ERNEST TOOKE Well, I was sitting with Warhol Sunday morning and Buschbomb come along and he said, 'Gale drew that white stud', When they opened the gate Gale had his feet over the shoulders like you're supposed to, to mark him out, and Snowflake reached down with his mouth and grabbed Gale's foot, and then he just leaped straight up in the air, right in the gate, and spun about twice. Well, between the terrible bucking and getting chewed on, Gale didn't last very long, and Snowflake kicked him in the back with both hind feet. Well, that was the only time that he ever bucked him. Well, that was enough. NARRATOR In Snowflake, Feek had found the fire he was looking for. He began crossing Prince over select mares sired by Snowflake. For 7 years, the pair were responsible for establishing the solid foundation of mares and studs for a breeding program that was destined to completely dominate rodeo. GENERAL CUSTER NARRATOR Among the most memorable? A big, chestnut stud. A near carbon copy of Prince. General Custer. ERNEST TOOKE Well, in humanistic terms, he was a Shaquille O'Neal with a disposition of a Mike Tyson, that horse weighed about 1800 pounds, and agile as a cat; like most bucking horses, and you run them into the chute, they're looking out through the crack in the gate...Well, he was so tall, he'd just stand in there looking over the top of the gate, and he had a real bad disposition, anything would make him mad. BILL SMITH I was at Miles City and they had a match bronc ride and they had Jim Tescher, Alvin Nelson, Pete Fredericks, Joe Chase. Alvin had General Custer. General Custer wouldn't fit in the chute, a big purebred shire, he tore that whole plank, all them chutes. They had to stop the rodeo for an hour to rebuild the chutes. I mean his hind end stick out the back chute that far. Alvin nodded his head on that big horse. That horse had to weigh Eighteen hundred pounds. His front feet I swear was that high in the air and he was kicking this man he just helicoptered him right out of there. Jim Tescher had a horse called Gray Wolf, and Jim Tescher never bucked off. He made the finals in two events six times. Never got a zero or a no time. Never. And he had Gray Wolf. Gray Wolf went out there and come around to the right and bucked him off. Them’s the two buckingest horses you ever saw. GRAY WOLF NARRATOR Born in 1956, Gray Wolf was another history making offspring of the great General Custer. (MORE) NARRATOR (CONT’D) Call it fate, call it luck, Gray Wolf is a cornerstone of Tooke history...that almost wasn’t. ERNEST TOOKE Some guy’s from South Dakota. Anyway, he got a hold of Dad and he wanted to raise bucking horses, wanted to know if Dad had something that he could buy. Well, Dad said I’ve got a couple of yearlings up here. They’re Shires and you can have your pick between either one of them for $100. $100 bucks. So the guy come up and and we drove out to look at these two yearlings. They were running together and the guy looked and he said, I don't like that black and white horse at all and I kind of liked the gray but I just don't like a gray horse. So he went home and I still have nightmares over that, to think that he could have went home with Gray Wolf for 100 bucks. NARRATOR Gray Wolf was not a champion bronc, himself, but he established himself among the top three of Feek’s most important studs. Well-known broncs Zone Along, Kloud Gray, Guilty Cat and Challenger, of Calgary Stampede fame...Cotton Rosser’s Eruption, Sutton’s big time studs, Mr T and Chuckulator, and Burch’s Lunatic Fringe are all descendants of Gray Wolf. In 2016, Gray Wolf was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, based solely on genetics. TESCHERS/SIX PACK ON TOOKE HORSES NARRATOR Tom and Jim Tescher, Alvin Nelson, Dean Armstrong, Joe Chase, Duane Howard, and 1957 World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider Alvin Nelson...the Famed North Dakota Six Pack...dubbed by many as the best rodeo competitors on the Northern Plains. (MORE) NARRATOR (CONT’D) All six, along with bareback and saddle bronc champion Pete Fredericks, honed their skills on Tooke horses...the roughest stock around. DEL DAGUE Jim and Tom...they used to come to the rodeos at Ekalaka and Baker around when they were just young kids in the teens and stuff and they rode a few horses and stuff from practice and they were tough kids and they'd come over and Feek would buck them off. He said for three or four years, he said, he'd tell ‘em, “Tom, Jim, why don't you guys go on home, put your bib coveralls on, go to farming again you will never be cowboys.” And he had them so mad and he said one day they come to the rodeo, I think it was in Baker and he said they rode everything they got on. And Jim come up to Feek. Feek was picking up some flanks and he come walking back and he says, “That horse I got really wasn't too much did your wife gets the milk cows in on him?” Feek got red in the face but he couldn't think of a word to say. He had ribbed them for two or three years.... And he said when they started riding, he said, “Man, it was hard to buck them off.” BILL CARLISLE He was one of them guys who that liked to buck you off if he could. And it made him feel better if he could buck you off. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t help you. But when you hit the ground, he just felt so much better. DEL DAGUE Feek’s horses, a lot of people come and a lot of cowboys come, it was quite and honor to just be able to ride one; getting on them was quite an honor, but to ride, one of them was quite a feather in their hat. (MORE) DEL DAGUE (CONT’D) And a lot of young cowboys come here to try them horses. BILL SMITH Well, I watched ‘em and I was on a few of ‘em and I set a record in Red Lodge, 4th of July in Red Lodge, in the bareback riding. It was a two header and I won the second go on a horse that hadn’t been ridden in eleven years, and I marked 39. I was the only guy that made the whistle. NARRATOR In the 1940s and ‘50s, Feek took stock across Montana and North Dakota...even Chicago, Illinois. About this time, Feek’s son, Ernest, started working alongside his father as a rodeo stock contractor, breeding and raising horses. What had been just an idea was showing visible signs of success as Tooke’s Bred to Buck broncs continued to arrive on the scene. TIMBERLINE NARRATOR Timberline, half-brother to General Custer, and another lead stud in Tooke’s bred to buck stock. Sired by Prince through a daughter of Snowflake, Timberline was typical Tooke. He was heavy-boned, wellmuscled, with a long Roman-nosed head. Although he seldom bucked in the arena, Timberline grounded two rodeo greats. ERNEST TOOKE We took him to Deadwood in 1962, and they had four different rodeo strings there, and they'd have a champion bareback horse, and a champion saddle bronc. Well, anyway, Timberline threw Guy Weeks and Spike Bronson off. He was the champion bareback horse. (MORE) ERNEST TOOKE (CONT’D) Well, he jumped about as high as any horse I've ever seen, and he didn't cover much ground, he'd drop his front end and he'd kick straight out from behind, and with the power he had, he just sucked the bareback riders right over the front end. NARRATOR In 1972, Stock Contractor George Anderson bought Timberline and took him to his ranch near Wolf Point, Montana. Timberline’s breeding potential was cut short when just a year later, Timberline died at the age of 22. Yet, as we learn later in the story, Timberline remains one of the most highly-regarded champion bronc producing studs in history. EARLY STOCK CONTRACTORS NARRATOR From King to Prince to General Custer, Timberline and Gray Wolf, Feek’s foundation of sires was established. In short order, his string of roughstock was well-known in the rodeo world. Feek Tooke had the horses that all the cowboys wanted to ride. But it took some time for stock contractors to warm up to Feek’s “bred to buck” vision. ERNEST TOOKE We had horses ten years old throwing world champions off, and all these experts said you just can't breed a horse to be a bucking horse that’ll keep it up, you just can't do it. BILL SMITH I remember sitting on the board with Harry Knight. Harry Knight was one of the most respected stock contractors ever. I said Harry if we don't find somebody to start raising these horses to buck, rodeo’s done. He said it can't be done. BILL SMITH (CONT’D) He didn’t believe in it. But I said if it don't happen you can't have rodeo; if you don't have bucking horses there won't be rodeo. ERNEST TOOKE The Calgary Stampede bought a semi load of mares, Irv Korkow bought like five or six mares and they had stud colts and they were the first other than Casey Tibbs. Back in sixty three, Casey got a hold of Dad and he was thinking about raising bucking horses. He wanted to buy a stud. Well, dad picked out a big old roan that was a full brother to Major Reno's mother and boy I hated to see dad sell that horse. But he said, “now Casey wants that horse,” and he says, “this is what I'm going to sell him.” And he took him down to Faith and then somebody picked him up and they turned him out on the Indian reservation with a whole bunch of horses and they, they really multiplied in a hurry and then oh, I don’t know, about ‘68 I think it was, Casey had a roundup and that’s when they filmed that Born To Buck movie. Rounding up all these horses and then they trailed ‘em into Ft. Pierre and had a bucking horse sale. COTTON ROSSER Casey raised bucking horses in South Dakota and when he went to go in the movie business he had about 60 horses, had a stud, mare, colts and I bought him out. Brought ‘em down and that was the backbone of our herd. VOLD RODEO HARRY VOLD I knew that they had some horses they raised that were big and tough, and I wanted to get some of that blood in my horses. NARRATOR In the late 1960s, Canadian rodeo producer Harry Vold came to the U.S. to set up his headquarters in Colorado. He hauled mares to the Tooke ranch to be bred to General Custer and Gray Wolf. The mission successful, Harry got what he wanted as Tooke blood colts joined his herd. BILL LARSON One was the one he called Custer and another filly called Sweet Sue. And I remember seeing them across the river from the ranch on a hay meadow - what was called Vertri’s - they had a little feedlot. And the next time I seen Sweet Sue I drew her at Colorado Springs. Probably the first time she's ever bucked and she took a lot of bronc riding out of me that day. Damn she bucked and throwed me off hard...and then later he went back and bought twenty mares I think from Tookes. Maybe in the mid 70s. NARRATOR In a few years, Harry Vold became one of the most iconic rodeo producers in the RCA. CALGARY STAMPEDE NARRATOR From time to time, Tooke stallions were sent to service the mares at Calgary. Gray Wolf, himself, made a trip across the northern border. In just one season, the great stallion sired 30 foals. DEL DAGUE Winston Bruce was running Calgary ...Calgary Stampede up there. He was managing that and he went to buyin’ all the horses that Ernest would sell every year. For years, they sold almost all the horses that they had...the bucking horses, but they kept the studs. NARRATOR All told, one hundred and twentyfive Tooke horses crossed the Canadian border to their new home on the Stampede Ranch. Soon, more and more stock contractors were infusing Tooke blood into their herds. OTHER CONTRACTORS NEAL GAY As we were trying to build our outfit and get better rodeos, and get all the good cowboys to come to our rodeos, I was trying at that time to increase the quality of my broncs. Felt like that we needed to get our size a little, up a little bit. I didn't want a really mammoth horse but I wanted them to have a lot of action and that's the breeding that we were trying to get. Went that way and got Tooke in my foundation. KELLY WARDELL Big Bend and Flying Five and Benny Butler and Calgary and without the Tooke bloodlines, I don't, I don't even know where ProRodeo would be right now. Because, really, it's, if you look back, that's the foundation for all the great horses of...in ProRodeo. DEB COPENHAVER You’ve got to recognize the value that he put into so many different breeding programs. Everybody had a Feek stud when they started breeding them old sour mares and they used them Feek studs, why, they came up with a lot of bucking horses. TRANSITION CHARACTERISTICS JOHN SCHAFFNER It was through Feek’s ability to pick the right mares to breed...and not just by pure luck...Here was the foundation that would produce many thousand horses born to buck... RUSSELL PINKY WALTER The Tooke horses are the mainstay of the bucking horse business. If you got Tooke horses you're going to have some big, feathered-legged, long mane, long-headed, great bucking horses. And they stand up to hauling. They're good horses. KEN TOOKE They had long rangey tails on them, lot of mane down over the eyes and they'd look at you and I mean they had a personality to ‘em. Um, there were some that, you know, if you got in the corral with ‘em, they'd start coming towards ya. Ya know, they were, they were all business. ROB ERIKSON They're not going to be someone's pet they're not going to go to a horse show. They're not fun to ride because they're rough, rumbly, big, ugly looking heads and lots of hair on them and they're...draft horse descent. Those horses aren't made for anything else, but they love to buck. BUD PAULEY ...they may not be the prettiest stylish buckin’ horses but you kinda had to hump up to ride any one of them...they were out of line and duckin’ but they were big and strong...and they were treacherous in the chutes. BILL CARLISLE ...and them horses bucked now I'll tell you...and the cowboys had to be tough because if you wasn't, that horse was gonna buck you off and buck you off hard.He had some really, really rank bucking horses and they was big and powerful and they throwed every trick in the game at you. They wanted you off and they didn't care how they got ya off, really. PETE FREDERICKS I know if you had a saddle on a horse and you wouldn’t have a long 16, 17”, 18” saddle, you couldn’t stay on that horse. Them big ol’ horses were that rank. You had to have that room in the saddle to stay on, to grab the front end with your spurs. And every time he’d jump, your feet would slip, fell so far back and then if you had your rein right you could pull back over the front end again, and you needed all you had to stay on. TY MURRAY Those ones that you feel like they’re gonna buck you off every single jump, and you keep doing everything you’re supposed to do, as hard as you can do it, and you somehow keep landing in the middle of their back over and over for eight seconds, that’s where your greatest rides come from. SHAWN DAVIS I love them for the public ‘cuz they look like they're big, strong. You know it's like it's really a challenge. Possibly some of them are a little bit slower but they still got that power and aggressiveness and they’re, and they're you know the way they bred them they're athletes. And that old mane a flying and you know, it’s western. JOHN MCBETH They were strong. There's no doubt about that. But they offered a greater opportunity in my opinion. I think Deacon Brown, of course he was a big horse, but he had a lot of hang time. You can, you can do, if you've got started right, got tapped, you could do about anything you wanted to do. SHAWN DAVIS I can attest that we could dress up a horse that wasn’t quite as good, and override him. Feek Tooke horses, you just put your saddle on and just, hope you can ride him. You didn’t have to dress him up. You just had to be there when the whistle blows. MONTY HENSON You haven’t got on them big Teschie horses, you’re pretty worried about it. Once you learn how to sink your feet into one of those, you know, and get started right...cuz if you let one get ahead of you, you don’t spur him out and take a hold of him, you let him get away from you, you ain’t never gonna catch him. I'm in Indianapolis in 1973. It was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday rodeo at State Fair, two performances a day. There was only ten of us in the bronc ride and so we got seven head in eight perfs. All of them were Feek Tooke's. I got on Ekalaka, Desolation, which could tear down any chute anywhere, metal or wooden, and about the fourth perf I come up with Major Reno. I'd never been eighty points yet. And he must have jumped under me three or four times. And I got off and I was eighty two points and win the go round. I won $47 winning that go-round on the rankest horse in the world. BILL CARLISLE The best horse that I ever saw that I liked of Feek's was 77 Sunset Strip. (MORE) BILL CARLISLE (CONT’D) That horse was tremendous, I thought, if you could ride him you'd go right straight to the pay window but not many guys rode him. He weighed I suppose sixteen hundred fifteen and a half and he had all the action there ever was and, but he bucked right in front of the chute. You never got away from the chutes. He stayed right on the hard ground all the time. If he'd come to the end of the chutes where they start getting soft he’d come right back up in front of them again. ERNEST TOOKE Sunset Strip was half-brother to General Custer, and at one time, he'd buck 24 bronc riders off in a row, big and powerful, and they knew what he was going to do, they just couldn't do anything about it. DONNY TOMLIN ...I was at the Miles City Bucking Horse Sale. I don't remember whether it was Jim Tescher or Tom Tescher that drew Sunset Strip and he just sat up there and rode him just like he was in a rocking chair rocking a baby. It was something that is still in my mind I'll never forget it. I think it was one of the prettiest rides I've ever seen. JOHN MCBETH The better ones that the ones you want wanted. Was probably Deacon Brown, #20 Panic, Bossa Nova, Mother in Law, Rock and Ride. DEL DAGUE You take McNeil Island, Timberline, Indian Sign there was about twelve or fifteen horses all the same age within a year or so. Right in that area and I don't believe there's anybody in the world had a bucking string that can compare to that bunch of horses at that time, bareback or saddle bronc. SHAWN DAVIS ...the first time I ever went to Feek Tooke rodeo. I wasn't very old. I was in my teens and we went to Mandan to the rodeo. And of course I looked on that deal and I knew some of Feek's horses because, because they had their matches and everything but, but I had General Custer and Gray Wolf in the bronc riding and I had a horse called Indian Sign in the bareback riding. Now in my time that, that was probably the, the buckingist bareback horse that was in existence or the one they disliked getting on the most. And as things would have it, I should have known better. But I won the first... won both rounds of the bronc riding and I rode both those horses and Indian Sign threw me off, walked all over me and left footprints on my back. INDIAN SIGN NARRATOR Born in 1953, this spotted roan called Indian Sign held quite the bag of tricks. Sired by Prince and foaled by an unridable paint named Butterfly, Indian Sign was unpredictable, challenging riders in both saddle bronc and bareback. DEL DAGUE We were in Mandan one time, years ago, and put on a rodeo and we got six inches of rain here and we had the high school rodeo at Roundup, Montana, the next weekend. And come Monday, it was a pouring down rain and still Wednesday it was pouring down rain and so we loaded all of them top horses we had at Mandan and took ‘em to the high school rodeo. We couldn't get back here to get to the ranch to get fresh horses. And I believe in the saddle bronc riding there was only one kid, and darned if he didn't ride Indian Sign. DONNY TOMLIN I'll tell you he was a horse that you'll never forget. And I think probably some of the reason I got him rode is I rode him mostly blind. It's hard to explain, but at that time we rode 10 seconds and it's a kind of a blur ‘til you been on a few head. When the whistle finally blowed and they went to pick me off of him they couldn't get in because he went into a spin and he spun 13 times in a circle and the buck rein stuck right straight out from his nose. That's how hard he bucked. LARRY MAHAN I had Indian Sign a few times, I can't remember how many. Got by him a couple of times, I think he bucked me off one time but he was a little tough to get out on. When they cracked that gate he was there ready to make his big move and he would rare out and he might mash you up against the back side of the chute when he comes out. So he was a great bronc, but in my mind, he was a little treacherous. You'd better have your pay attention switch running full bore when you got down on him and nodded your head. TOBY TOOKE Ernest always said that probably the most physically gifted bucking horse that we ever owned was Indian Sign and he was only ridden, when we owned him, I think we figured out of fifty one trips he was rode four times. NARRATOR Indian Sign was named Deadwood Days of ‘76 Champion in 1961. He made headlines again in 1964, after a formal complaint was made by Winston Bruce, then a director of the RCA. (MORE) NARRATOR (CONT’D) Officials at the Days of ‘76 Rodeo in Deadwood, South Dakota, said the horse had a dangerous habit, and they’d barred Indian Sign from the saddle bronc competition. BILL LARSON The Rodeo Cowboys Association banned him from putting him in the draw. Cuz they said he would flip over backward. KEN TOOKE ...he would get cranked up and he'd just about get vertical and there was one of the fellows in the association that thought that that was just downright dangerous and so they had him blackballed. BILL LARSON I remember reading the article in the Ekalaka Eagle that Feek Tooke was mad and he said he was gonna start furnishing Holstein steers for 'em to ride. NARRATOR Irritated, but not interested in putting an end to the bronc’s career, Feek moved Indian Sign to the bareback riding, where the champion bucked his way to two appearances at the National Finals. VIGNETTE FEEK CALLS RODEOS INC JACK BRAINARD ...the NFR took horses that were they’re voted on by the bronc riders. They are the best horses you know and so...Feek had eight horses going and one of the other big rodeo producers only had four or five. (MORE) JACK BRAINARD (CONT’D) And boy they complained and complained and complained that since Feek got his horses could be best maybe because he only bucked them four or five times a year and their horses had to buck so much and blah blah blah...so the PRCA called Feek. And said, “You’re just gonna have to cut your string back.” He said, “I'm not going to cut my string back. The cowboys voted for eight horses and there's eight going or none of them are gonna go.” And that's the way it turned out. He didn't take any of them. Feek kept them all at home. That's when he decided he'd sell 'em...that's how we got in. NARRATOR In 1964, RCA Champion Roper Mel Potter went into the stock contracting business. He joined forces with fellow champion Jack Brainard, and rodeo announcer John Snow to form Rodeos, Incorporated. MEL POTTER ...this old guy calls me on the telephone and he talked real slow, he says "this is Feek Tooke." He says, "I think I got some horses you boys could use." I said, "well, we're always looking for good bucking horses." At that time I'd never heard of him. So I called old Linderman, he was running the PRCA then, or the RCA, and said, "Bill, you ever heard of an old guy by the name of Feek Tooke? And he says, "yeah, what about him?" And I says "well, he called me and said he thinks he's got some bucking horses we can use." Bill says, "well, if you can get his best horses you'll have the best horses in the world." But he says, "I think he'd come closer to selling his wife than he would them horses." JACK BRAINARD We got to Mel's plane...we landed them in the pasture side of Tooke's pens...and here in this pen was twenty five of the biggest broncs you ever saw. There wasn't a one of ‘em in there that didn't weigh sixteen hundred and they did look like bucking horses you know. MEL POTTER And then old Feek came walking up and visited a little bit with him, he said, "I want to show you our horses." He takes us out in this damned ol’ Jeep...big country. And about half of it's like the Badlands, rougher than heck. We drove out through that thing and you see these horses and he'd tell us the pedigree on them, who all they'd bucked off, or what all they'd been won on. JACK BRAINARD We looked those horses over and we thought “Boy, they’re just exactly what we wanted.” MEL POTTER He brings this bunch of horses in and sorts just 20 off and he says, "this is my best old solid horses. But I think you guys really need them." JACK BRAINARD We asked Tooke what he wanted for ‘em, Feek, and he said he wanted five hundred a head for them. MEL POTTER And at that time, that wasn't really much for that kind of horses but it was a lot for somebody that had four or five rodeos. $10,000 we were gonna spend. And I was kinda saying this out loud, talking ... he says, "Son, I'll tell you what. (MORE) MEL POTTER (CONT’D) These horses will get you the kind of rodeos you can pay for them with." And he says, "you just give me what you can now and pay me the rest when you get it." And on a handshake gave him $2000 and we loaded them 20 horses on a semi. KEN TOOKE ...I can remember him saying that out of the first truck load of horses, however many was in there, he had sold, there were two in there, like Indian Sign and one other one. And he figured that they paid for those two horses and he threw in the other ones. JOHN MCBETH Mel Potter had invited me to get in his 210 Cessna because he had another fellow and himself and me and we all three had a chance of going to the National Finals, earning our way, in 1965. I can't remember where we were the night before. But in mid August, some, I can't even recall the date actually. We landed a little after daylight in Shakopee, Minnesota. And Mel owned a big part of Rodeos, Inc. And he said there's a little surprise for bareback riders and bronc riders tonight. And it kind of went in one ear and out the other. And what he had done was bring the first load of Tooke horses pretty much straight from the ranch in Ekalaka to Shakopee, Minnesota. And I had a horse called Boy Blue. And he wasn't very well chute broke. So just as about I'm about to nod, he just sits down. ‘course my saddle slides back. I looked and Gene Campbell who's the flank man, doesn't have a foot on the flank board he's just hanging on the top of the board by the bend in his in his hips. And he's reaching down in there pretty much with me to hang on to the flank so he can pull it. Thinking that I'm gonna get the horse up. (MORE) JOHN MCBETH (CONT’D) Larry Lyons my friend was the arena director and he's laying on the ground laughing at the contortions of what's going on in that chute and I think you know if I nod right now I might be able to get both of them. I think Campbell recovered. And Lyons got run over. And they got me at the gate. But I did make the whistle on the horse and that was the beginning of learning to ride rank horses. Because he was no pushover. JOHN MCBETH (CONT’D) 77 Sunset Strip was in that load. I can't remember what they all were. But I know if you had one. You'd better bring your riding britches because you're gonna need them. MEL POTTER 77 Sunset Strip, Indian Sign, Bald Hornet, Boy Blue, War Paint, Little Mack...Paleface I think came in the second load...Deacon Brown, damn, I can’t remember all of them. But there was I mean a bunch of bucking son-of-a-guns. LARRY MAHAN All of a sudden there was the old bucking horses again. I mean, like you saw in the old pictures. The big, feather legged, big broncs. I mean they were broncs. They weren't horses that just started bucking, these were the serious, these were the linemen of the rodeo game. But they had the agility of a running back. JACK BRAINARD Our reputation grew pretty rapidly a pretty quick every cowboy in the country knew that that Rodeos, Incorporated had the best string of bucking horses around. COTTON ROSSER The first year. I think he took eight or 10 or 8 or 10, 15 of them to the Finals... (MORE) COTTON ROSSER (CONT’D) which was almost unheard of. But they were that good of horses. LARRY MAHAN One thing about Rodeos, Incorporated, Mel, when they came up with all these Tooke Horses, that really took a lot of the luck of the draw out of the game because these horses were even. They bucked and if you didn't make a mistake on a good one - I mean they were all good - most of them were the kind you could win on and some of them, they were the kind you couldn't win on if you rode him but that's because they were really bad timing, hard to ride, just big ol' tough broncs. But a lot of the rodeos back then, it was a drawing contest. There'd be a few horses that you could win on those horses just about every time you drew one. You stepped into a herd like the old Tooke horses that Rodeos, Incorporated had, if you could ride, there's a good chance you’re gonna win something. JOHN MCBETH As in most contractors herds there are better horses mediocre horses and of course you want one of the better ones because you have a better chance of winning. And if there's a bunch of bronc riders tough bronc riders entered you'd better have one or probably aren't going to win something. But, and that was a way Rodeos, Incorporated was until they bought the Tooke horses. And from that moment on it was a whistle getting contest. You could place on about anything that you got covered. MEL POTTER Next year, about in July he calls me and ... we'd been paying him along and I think I still owed him a thousand or two on that first bunch. (MORE) MEL POTTER (CONT’D) And he calls me up and he says, " Mel, you got another load on the way to you." And he says, "I think you're gonna think I was holding back on you last year." I said, "well, we haven't even paid for these yet," and "that's alright," he says, "I know you will. And I'm only gonna charge you $300 for these." And so here they come, and I mean they were a bunch of rank sons-of-a-gun. Sheep Mountain was on 'em, horse called Double Cross ... I remember the first time we bucked him at the Iowa State Fair old Val Morris had him. And he ... bucked him off, just flew right back into the chute and hit the back of the chute and I thought it killed him, he just went down. I mean, I can’t...Leo was on that bunch... oh, damn ... they were rank, young bucking son-of-a-guns. MAJOR RENO MEL POTTER Feek calls me again the middle of Summer. Says, “I got another load for you.” I think we maybe finished paying for the first bunch and probably three quarters of the way through the second bunch. And he says, “But I'm going to make you come out here and watch these buck.” So, Jack and I flew out there to Ekalaka and they had an amateur rodeo there. JACK BRAINARD So the cowboys come in and they're just local boys that wanted to ride bucking horses you know and some of them had rode, made it amateur rodeos. MEL POTTER And they had 58 bronc riders in. None of the toughs, but a bunch of old brush hands were pretty hard to get on the ground...bucked all but four of them off. And those lucky four got to get another one. MEL POTTER (CONT’D) Grey Wolf. Who, put him in the chute they couldn't close the tailgate on him and they had to put a log back, leave the tailgate open put a log back behind him. He must weighed 1600 pounds at least. And then Major Reno, then a horse we called Black Hills and a mare we called Sheep, Skid Row Sue. WALLY BADGETT And the first guy came out and he was gonna make a wild ride and he hit that horse with his hat. WALLY BADGETT (CONT’D) He was gonna fan him That was a huge mistake that horse bucked him off and knocked him out and he came to...He didn't know who his own wife was when he came out of there. So the next three guys got a little more serious about it. JACK BRAINARD Now here comes Major Reno and Feek said, “This is one of the best horses. You want to make a sure you watch him.” WALLY BADGETT I've never seen a horse buck like that in my life. You know, he was a big horse had a little draught in him and you wouldn't believe a horse that size could jump that high and I mean you literally could have drove a pickup under him about second or third jump buck this guy off bucked all the way down the arena. JACK BRAINARD And bucked right straight over top that arena fence and I'm telling you it was five and a half feet tall at the minimum and never even touched the top and just kept on a bucking. WALLY BADGETT And bucked all the way around the track and you know a bronc ride supposed to last eight seconds. This horse bucked for five minutes before he gave it up. JACK BRAINARD Just saw him going off down through the pasture a half mile away. Still bucking. WALLY BADGETT That'll stand out in my mind forever, that horse. God might have created that horse and I don't think he could have rode him that day. RODEOS INC SELLS OUT/HORSES GO EVERYWHERE MEL POTTER I’ll tell you, after 10 years in the rodeo business, I was ready to get out. Didn’t have a stock contractor mentality. I liked being the contestant. NARRATOR In 1973, Rodeos, Inc auctioned off all of their stock. But the end of one era gave way to a whole new world of opportunity. The Tooke blood that ran through the Rodeos, Inc string would now be spread far and wide as discerning contractors added the proven bloodlines to their own herds. AUDIO: AUCTIONEER - “SOLD FOR $XXX TO...” “SOLD TO...” LARRY MAHAN They did a great job keeping the legacy alive while they were in the rodeo business, and then when they sold out, those horses went around the country and they ended up in a lot of different places. MORE CONTRACTORS - BURCH NARRATOR The rapid spread of the bloodline continued as more stock contractors got involved with breeding. Irv Korkow bought five bronc mares in 1971: two mares had stud colts the next spring, one sired by Gray Wolf, and the other by Timberline. Tooke blood is infused into the herds of Jim Sutton, Mike Cervi, Beutler and Gaylord and a guy named Max Burch. KELLY WARDELL Max Burch started raising bucking horses just for the heck of it. And he had a lot of Tooke bloodlines in his bucking horse program and he used to, he would trail those horses from the ranch through the town of Moorcroft you know in a big parade. People would line up and he'd trail them out to the rodeo grounds and he'd give a hundred dollars to the high score in the bareback ride and the bronc riding. And then you could get on as many of those horses as you wanted to; as you could handle. So we'd go out there and ride his colts every year. You know. I saw some unbelievably rank horses come from that program that nobody ever saw. BURCH/MILES CITY SEGMENT MATT BURCH In nineteen eighty three, I believe, when dad went up there to look at a colt Ernie had called him about, they went up there and Ernie took him out there and they was driving around found this bunch of mares with these colts and Ernie kind of really wanted...he was trying to selling the grey one; supposed to be one of the last sons of Gray Wolf. (MORE) MATT BURCH (CONT’D) And Dad said the whole time they was driving around there the mares and colts kind of circled there, and there was a little bay stud colt in there and every time he laid eyes on him he'd hide. He’d just go in the bunch mares. Said pretty soon you'd realize look around there and he'd kinda peek his head out and soon as you’d lay eyes on him, boy, he'd jerked his head back in there. So Dad asked Ernie which that was and he said, “Well, that's a pretty good bred horse. He said that the grey is a bigger horse. Dad said, “Well, I think you know I kind of like that bay right there.” So he bought the bay and we brought him home. We called him Tooke, it’s the only name, well, we branded him Vio, his rodeo name was Whiskey Talks when Dad bucked him. We only bucked him 13 times and that Jose could buck. I mean one rank son of a gun. I think they rode him but two times in the bareback riding and the rest he bucked everybody off. We retired him after 13 trips because we didn't want to kill him. He bucked that hard, and we was breeding to him at the same time, but we called him Whiskey Talks at the rodeos but we always knew he was we knew him as Tooke. Everybody around the ranch, that was Tooke, and it was a phenomenal stud went on top of them mares Dad first started with and that cross was unbelievable. There was probably more ranker horses out of that the Pat Byrne filly colts bred back to Tooke than we ever have raised, really. I mean the big eliminator type horse big strong have some moves to them, kick, buck your ass off type kind of horses. PAUL PAULEY These great bucking horses are from the heart of their born to buck program in Rosette, Wyoming, and represent decades of hard work and dedication from the Burch family. (MORE) PAUL PAULEY (CONT’D) Ladies and gentlemen how about a warm welcome for Mr. Matt Burch. MATT BURCH Sorrell blazed faced horse in the middle is 118 Loose Cinches. This mare bucks hard got a lot of moves she bucks a lot of guys down. PAUL PAULEY Sorrell blaze from the Burch rodeo program you heard Matt Burch say he's got some moves lookit here. MATT BURCH Sorrell white paint mare on the outside, 927 Maria Bartiromo. We took her to the Cinch Finale last year and Vegas Wade Sundell was eighty nine points on her. PAUL PAULEY Ladies and gentlemen help him out. Here is Maria Bartiromo! MATT BURCH Light colored bay horse in the back eight seventy three Lunatic from Hell. Been over 90 points on this horse three different times they've won this match twice on him already. PAUL PAULEY Miles City bucking horse sale match bronc ride here is Lunatic from Hell and ladies and gentlemen, if you want to see what perfection in saddle bronc riding looks like get your cell phones and start a video. MATT BURCH Little chestnut mare middle right there is 902 Strawberry Rocket and won Logandale, Nevada on her last year, they won Clovis, California on her last year and they won a round at Caldwell, Idaho on her last year. PAUL PAULEY Horse they call Strawberry Rocket. They've won just about every big rodeo that feature Burch bucking horses on this one throughout the last year. Ladies and gentlemen help him out if you would please. MATT BURCH Little brown horse on the outside 014 Rip Cord. Bailey Pro Rodeo just 86 points on her in Denver this winter. She's rock solid, jumps and kicks hard. The guys should really get along with her here. PAUL PAULEY ...make a little noise. Help him out. Ladies and gentlemen, a big stout bucking dude and Cort Scheer... MATT BURCH All these horses out here today, ladies and gentlemen, go back to the Tooke bloodlines. Years ago my dad bought a stud from Ernest Tooke to start this bucking horse program. They crossed really, really well on the mares he had to begin with. All them horses you're looking at right now will all go back to the Tooke bloodline. Really influential in all, all of the bucking horse world and one hell of a program. That's all I got to say. HORSES UNDERSTAND THE GAME...AND THEY LOVE IT STAN HEADINGS Today we're in Vegas, bucking under the bright lights, and these horses love it. You know...it's like you flip a switch or like, they know that this is showtime. Um, you know, they, they enjoy it, I think, as much as we do. SPARKY DREESEN It is so crazy when it comes to these good bucking horses. How, like when our truck backs up to the chute... man, them ones that... (MORE) SPARKY DREESEN (CONT’D) them good ones, they want to go, they're just like a, they got their adrenaline going. Just like, uh, a good ball player that wants to go play a ball game. It's, it's the same thing. It's like they are so gentle when we're around home. You can go out and pet them and stuff and you run them in the bucking chute and it's game on. CLINT JOHNSON They know their job and they come in the chute. And some of ‘em are a little nervous some of them aren't. But they're just like an athlete that anticipates that gate opening and they get antsy. They get, they get ready to go, and the cowboy’s job’s to get in that rhythm with that animal and help that horse to relax in there and leave there and buck...do the best he can. TY MURRAY ...a bucking horse learns pretty quick that when, when he jumps three foot in the air and cracks him straight over his head and the guy goes flying off that he gets to go back and stand in his pen with his buddies and eat hay that much sooner so they figure out the game. KELLY WARDELL One of the greatest Tooke bred horses, I think, one of the ones that I got to get on was Spring Fling of Big Bend’s and she was phenomenal. She just bucked so hard, every time, and they would buck her 20, 30 times a year. Far as I was concerned she should have been bucking horse of the year 6 or 7 times in her career. She tried so hard, and you could win first, if you rode her right you could win first every time you got on her. If you stubbed your toe she was probably gonna buck you off. TY MURRAY One that really stands out for me is Bobby Jo Skoal. (MORE) TY MURRAY (CONT’D) And the reason he stands out is because I had him four times in one season at the four biggest rodeos that Harry Vold had and I win four first place on that horse and it got to the point where it was like people thought we were cheating because every time we'd show up at a big rodeo I had Bobby Jo again you know and, and he was such a good horse and he was one of those that you knew you were gonna win it unless you made a mistake. KELLY WARDELL Cotton Rosser had a horse that was, and I’d have to look again to make sure, but the last time he bucked at the NFR he was thirty five years old. So he went to the NFR, what’d they say, twenty five times? They’re well taken care of. They’re athletes, just like the cowboys are. You know, the stock contractors spend a pile of money taking care of ‘em and, what, they get bucked 15 times a year for 8 seconds and they've got all the best food and water they can have. Few road trips get to see a little different country. TY MURRAY You know, every time you see some of those great horses that have had a really long career, and they just keep bucking as hard as they can, over and over and over again, those horses like that are the reason you do it. Some of those great horses they’ve been around so much they can hum the national anthem. THE BUCKING GENE NARRATOR The success of any rough stock string hinges on horses that buck consistently and buck hard. But why do they buck in the first place? DR. GREG VENEKLASEN They really wanna buck. We're not poking them to buck. They wanna do this. And they wanna do it with or without that flank. You gotta make it consistent. You gotta put that thing on there. But we've seen things at the clinic, where they're just bucking away. So life is good. They like what they do. CLINT JOHNSON We can see through that through it all there's horses that are wild temperament that buck and there's horses that are mild temperament, gentle temperament that buck. But they both buck. So you can't isolate that...There's a gene in there for bucking. A great bucking horse probably enjoys his job just as much as the bronc rider and horses probably buck for different reasons, some of them...But genetically, horses, they need this gene to buck. Not that there aren't some other ones that will. But, day in, day out, you're trying to raise them, you better find the right genetics. GENETICS BRAD BRETTIN There's been a big effort to, to, uh, DNA the horses from the BHBA. That's the Bucking Horse Breeders Association. Steve, Steve, and Jamie Stone and Kenny Andrews from Utah. They are, uh, keeping track of, people are DNAing the horses, and that way they can, uh, actually prove the pedigrees and the prove the genetics that they have. KENNY ANDREWS The only thing we had to go off of was everybody's word... This is out of a Tooke mare. This is out of a Tooke this, Tooke that. Um, now, now we have the means to prove it. (MORE) KENNY ANDREWS (CONT’D) There's a lotta hearsay this, this horse is out of this. This horse is out of that. Outstanding. Prove it. And I might just buy that horse...from ya. Um, I'm not saying that the, that they were horse traders and coyotes, but looking back now, I realized that they didn't know. They just didn't know really what they had. In their defense it was pretty tough with everybody doing the, uh, pasture breeding, you know, mishaps happen and there was no way to verify exactly what these bloodlines were. STEVE STONE When we started this registry, we knew that we couldn’t start this bucking horse registry without the Tookes, because they’re literally the foundation of the industry. They started breeding bucking horses before anyone else did. Feek Tooke started this whole thing. We knew we had to get them on board. When I told the Tooke's what we were doing, they were more than willing to come on board with the BHBA. In fact, dug up bones, from General Custer, and from Grey Wolf. So, in our registry, the number one sire ... the number one horse that's registered with the number one, is General Custer of the Tooke's. The number two horse in the registry is Gray Wolf. Which is an offspring of General Custer. DR. GREG VENEKLASEN We do know through DNA that General Custer is the sire of Gray Wolf. And Gray Wolf, we haven't put the tree together. We've got Mister T DNAed. We believe it's a son of a son of Gray Wolf. General Custer was a story until he came in a shoebox. He is the father of what they called Gray Wolf. That's fact. (MORE) DR. GREG VENEKLASEN (CONT’D) So that was kind of neat and like I said, there are probably a lot of these horses buried because those people love those horses so much, which is very rare, that they would bury their horses, and they do. Buetlers have their famous ones, Powder River has theirs, they know exactly where they're buried. Which is a good thing if you wanna continue the tree because, gosh, General Custer would be really, really old and if we didn't have him in a shoebox, we'd have never known. And the other really famous stallion is Custer. Custer is in the bottom and the top of many of the really great pedigrees. Dusty Gal, who's a Custer mare, is the mother of Bobby Joe And Dusty Dan, many horses that are here. But also the mother of a horse called Big Medicine. Big Medicine is the mother of or Big Medicine's the sire of Medicine Woman. Maple Leaf, Time's Up, Miss Elly, Short Stop, Lizard Medicine is here, lots and lots and lots of and Custer obviously came from, that's direct breeding from Tooke. STEVE STONE On another note, cut. Custer, this whole time was supposed to been an offspring of General Custer, that's produced all these great horses. This Custer stallion is arguably the most influential stallion in the bucking horse industry. Wade and Ike Sankey, dug this, Custer up, so we DNA'd him. So now we have live horses, that are bucking now at the Finals, that we can trace back to Custer. Now, Custer was supposed to be an offspring of General Custer and, because of what the BHBA is doing, through DNA verification, we've verified, that it is not an offspring of General Custer. STEVE STONE (CONT’D) We checked it actually checked it a couple of times to make sure we had the right numbers written down. But we did. Because all of Custer's offspring, all of that matched, but it did not match against General Custer. So, when I called the Tookes and told them this, they said well it makes sense because, Harry Vold, whenever he brought a handful of mares over there to the Tooke’s to have bred to General Custer. He traded them a mare for the breedings. But there was one mare that he wouldn't take, that they had another stallion, named Timberline, that took that mare. Well, now, through the process of elimination, I betcha I can tell you which mare that Timberline took. Which was the dam to Custer. Custer is so influential from his generation down, he's arguably the most influential stud in the bucking horse industry, the more we do the DNA. Science, we have to go with the Science. Then, but if it does check out, then Timberline is a brother to General Custer. Which are both offspring of Prince. KENNY ANDREWS They did their best to know, um, what this horse went back to, what that horse went back to. Now with the DNA verification, we are, we are getting to find out and we're changing history. STEVE STONE Well if you look at Custer's offspring, they’re just phenomenal. And this goes back to Tooke’s bloodline. But they’re phenomenal. But I'll tell you what's rally phenomenal, about him, is the females that he's produced. Follow their offspring and you’ll really see it. You really see where it came from. MARES DEB COPENHAVER I don't think there is anything that will pass on their likeness any more than an old, rotten disposition, sour mare, and so it's not that big a gamble when you take some studs that were bred like Feek's and breed them to those Spring Flings and the likes of that. It was no gamble. Every one of them would have a bucking horse. STEVE STONE So we’re seeing that there’s been mares produce multiple offspring, that have been in the National Finals, by multiple different sires. So we understand that the traits are coming from her, more than the sire. The females that are by Custer, seemed to have produced some of the greatest horses ever. Not only have they produced some of the greatest horses, they were some of the greatest horses. They’ve got...so Wild Card’s been at the NFR, is a female by Custer, probably 12 or 13 years. Domino’s another one that’s been a whole bunch of times to the NFR, and had 16 or 18 combined offspring that are all NFR horses. That all goes back to that breeding, that Tooke breeding. INBREEDING SPARKY DREESEN Mr. T is a horse that, Jim Sutton bought that horse and took him back to South Dakota, and I believe he was an own son of Gray Wolf. DR. GREG VENEKLASEN So, Gray Wolf lineage, for sure. This is definitely Tooke breeding and he's in the bottom of most of these great mares that, that are Zinser bred horses. Dirty Jacket who's here. All the Scarlett horses. All the Delta horses. (MORE) DR. GREG VENEKLASEN (CONT’D) All the Faded horses. Those are all Mister T mares. And some are double bred Mister T mares. They're by Mister T and out of Mister T. Full Baggage is by Mister T. Tip Off is by Mister T. Many of the sires of these horses that are out of Scarlett, which are Zinser bred are sons of Mister T. SPARKY DREESEN Jim Sutton traded that horse to Bud Dancy, from South Dakota. Bud Dancy bred a bunch of mares with him and Jim Zinser, who owned J Bar J at that time, was buying horses from Bud Dancy and he bought a lot of offspring from Mr. T, and then he ended up and bought Mr. T, himself, from Bud Dancy. When I bought Jim Zinser out, there was a lot of Mr. T daughters in that. I still have, I believe we have like 16 direct daughters of Mr. T. There’s a lot of influence of Mr. T in these horses. BRAD BRETTIN What I've noticed over the years is that the, the Tooke bucking horse has crossed very well with, with some of the other stallions and the other mares that are out there. And I think that really concentrated the genes in those bucking horses down to where they're pretty sure they're going to get a bucking horse when they raise a colt. Feek Tooke did an excellent job of, uh, raising a foundation bucking horse herd that people could, could take and cross and end up very successful with. HANK FRANZEN Success in rodeo has been our livestock, our bucking horses. We made the right choices at the right time and got into the Tooke breeding and, we said a lot of guys start with a little more money than we did and maybe have some big rodeos that kinda put ‘em on the map. (MORE) HANK FRANZEN (CONT’D) Lori and I had to start with our bucking horses, and the purchase of Khadafy Skoal back in the day, and then Miss Congeniality, Tooke-bred, Craig at Midnight, double-bred Tooke. LORI FRANZEN They are the best that they’ve ever been in the world. I mean, you go to rodeos and you see these horses being marked 22, 23 and 24 points, I just can’t believe that a horse can be marked 24 points once in their lifetime, and Craig at Midnight this last year was marked 24 points by five different judges, and once a 24.5. That’s nearly perfect. He’s the highest marked horse in the PRCA. He has a 46.69 average on eight trips. There’s nothing that can even come close, so he is the rankest horse in the bucking horse world in the PRCA, hands down. STEVE STONE Whenever you have a good traits like that, it's gonna keep reproducing 'em. And so you keep breeding them ... within your herd. CLONING BRAD BRETTIN Dr. Greg Veneklasen from Canyon, Texas, is the premier go-to man when it comes to embryo transplants, uh, clone, cloning, bucking horses. Dr. Greg has been very instrumental in preserving those bloodlines and making them available to more people. He's cloned several geldings that had very good pedigrees like Bobby Joe Skoal had been a three-time bucking horse of the year. But of course he was a gelding, so he couldn't reproduce, uh, the Go Wild horse that, uh, Clint had from Canada. (MORE) BRAD BRETTIN (CONT’D) Full Baggage that's by Mr. T, and so they're, they're really concentrating those top bloodlines with the idea that, of course improving the percentages of outstanding horses that people can raise. STEVE STONE And they’re in the process of refining it. But that’s where it started. He’s the one that started it. He was the visionary that said, “We’ve gotta have big, stout, strong bucking horses that can, number one, take a hauling when you pack ‘em in a trailer and haul them across the country. And that can be big, strong, athletes, you know? And so now, with what we know now, we keep refining that, making it even better. DAN MORTENSON I’ve had people ask me all the time, what do you think, comparing the bucking horses of today to the bucking horses of the beginning, or of a long time ago, I think them horses probably aren’t any ranker than the horses from a long time ago, it’s just there’s so many more of ‘em. So if it wasn’t for the breeding programs that is associated with the sport of rodeo today, we wouldn’t have great bucking horses. BRENT JORDAN When I go out and announce rodeos around the country I try to tie in a little bit of that in all my rodeos. Because it goes back to teaching the history of our sport. SHAWN DAVIS Look at the impact he's had now because I think right now is probably the best set of stock throughout the National Finals Rodeo that I've ever seen in my lifetime of 55 years being involved. BRENT JORDAN Yeah it's a tip of the hat from our industry to what they did in the past. This is a very important tip of the hat. SHEEP MOUNTAIN JOHN SCHAFFNER When Sheep Mountain was named Best Saddle Bronc in the year of ‘67, Feek’s Vision became a reality of sorts...Because his life’s ambition was payin’ off so well, Feek Tooke was tickled pink, from all reports. NARRATOR In 1967, Rodeos, Inc., sent Sheep Mountain to his first appearance at the National Finals. Disposing of John Ivory in round four, and 1962 World Champion Ken McLean in round eight, this son of General Custer became the first “bred to buck” horse to win a major award. The following year, when Sheep Mountain would be recognized as the 1967 NFR’s Best Saddle Bronc, the team at Rodeos, Inc., were committed to an event in Chicago. In a gesture of friendship and respect, they sent Feek Tooke to accept the award in their absence. MEL POTTER So, old Feek he'd never been to the Finals, his horse had won the best one, the bronc riding the year before and we thought, "Damn, we need to just pay his way down there, let him flank our stock for us and hang out there at the Finals for the whole time, and just be a great thing for him. (MORE) MEL POTTER (CONT’D) He calls me there in Chicago and he says, “Mel,” he says “old Major Reno just stood in there like an old milk cow,” he says, “and when that gate opened that old boy didn’t know whether he was in Oklahoma City or New York City,” He says, “took him five seconds to land. And they already got his first name on this year’s plaque.” About four days later he calls me and he’s almost crying over the telephone and I said, “What’s the matter?” And he says, “Well, Major drawed up in the re-rides...the last perf for the rank horses,” and he says, “They gotta buck twice to be able to win the deal.” And I says, “Well, nothing we can do about it, Feek. If he don’t get to buck, we’ll get them next year.” FEEK DIES NARRATOR To make the NFR experience everything it could be for Feek, Rodeos, Inc had arranged for a second award plaque to be made. On it, the inscription “Sheep Mountain - Best Saddle Bronc - Bred and Raised by Feek and Ernest Tooke”. HARRY VOLD Mr. Tooke was gonna receive the award. And I was getting an award. And several people got awards and we were all on horseback, and we all went out and got the awards. JOHN MCBETH I don't even remember why I was on the right hand delivery side because my horse was on the left and I started across the alley and the gate opened and these people that were accepting the awards came out and Feek was one of them. HARRY VOLD And we rode out the back door when it was all over and he fell off that horse and he was dead. JOHN MCBETH And he barely cleared the end of the gate which actually swung to the inside of the alley. And he fell off, right at my feet. GAIL WOERNER I talked to Bobby Steiner and Bobby's father Tommy also got a plaque that day and he was on horseback and he and Feek rode out and he saw Feek fall off his horse and he jumped down and gave him artificial respiration but he was already gone. JACK BRAINARD ...and this was definitely a shock to us. We couldn't believe it. LARRY MAHAN It was devastating to everybody in the rodeo game because he played such an important part in the history of the world of bucking horses and rodeo in general. MEL POTTER And I mean, I'll tell you, we thought, "Man, we're probably the cause of that." I just felt like hell. I think Ernie called me and he says, "You know, he was never happier in his life, if he ever wanted to go out that'd be the way to go out," he says, "don't even think about it." And he told us when he was gonna have the services and he said, "We want you and Jack to be there for pallbearers." And so we said, "Well, we'll be there." FEEK’S FUNERAL JACK BRAINARD I think it was the coldest day I've ever been outside my life. I have spent two years in Alaska but any rate the funeral was in the high school gymnasium. (MORE) JACK BRAINARD (CONT’D) Ranchers came in they're wearing a sheepskin coat scarf around their necks. Chaps on, yet. And I sat down at that funeral and we went to the cemetery out on a hill out there and I'm talking thirty below zero with a forty mile wind you can not believe it. MEL POTTER I've never been colder in my whole life. We went out there to the cemetery with old Feek and we buried him. It was a great part of my life getting to know those people. Why he ever called me I have no idea. But grateful he did. REMEMBERING FEEK JOHN SCHAFFNER On that day, December 7th of nineteen hundred and sixty-eight, the rodeo world lost a legend and friend...Feek’s family and friends were heartbroken, but determined his legacy would not come to an end. TOBY TOOKE I think he would probably smile and be in awe as to what impact he had with one stud he bought outta the Midwest, was a blue ribbon winner, and some ornery Arabian albino out of the Chalk Buttes, crossed him and now these genetics are all the way to Australia. PEGGY TOOKE But if he could see what has happened today, I mean he just probably wouldn’t believe it, really. To think that he was part of it, you know. When he first started they always said, you know, you can’t raise a bucking horse. You’re crazy. You’re just wasting your time and look what happened. AFTER FEEK NARRATOR (On camera) Ekalaka, Montana. The county seat of Carter County, with a population of roughly 400 people. With no major waterway, and no railroad, the tiny town has somehow managed to thrive since the late 1800s. Today, Ekalaka is known as the Bucking Horse Capital of the World, thanks to Feek Tooke. To this day, the Tooke ranch is home to dozens of horses, all direct descendants of Prince. They’ve been moved out of the breaks to pastures closer to the ranch, and away from mountain lions. With very little human interaction, they roam freely. NARRATOR (CONT’D) (Off camera) Today, 20 miles west of town, in a pasture near the barn on the Tooke ranch lives a lone sorrel stallion. Born in 2011, Feek’s Vision is the epitome of the wary, untrusting, Tooke horse bloodline. Alert and powerful, with stout bones, those signature feathered legs, the shire head and General Custer’s mentality. Feek’s Vision won’t be tried in the arena. Raised by Ernest, now in the care of his son, Tim, Feek’s Vision’s job is to sire. Transition LORI FRANZEN You know there’s a lot of people that don’t want to give out and do what they have done in their breeding programs? And we are so proud of the fact that we’ve been in it 30 years and, yes, we’ve worked very hard, but we’re proud of the fact that there was people like Feek that started these programs to help us. (MORE) LORI FRANZEN (CONT’D) I want people to know that we’re in the Tooke bloodlines, and the Custer that came in through Harry and where we’re at. That’s...we’re so proud of that fact because we feel that’s the top of the charts. You know, that’s something to be proud of. THE FINAL FRAME (Craig at Midnight blended with Feek at the 1968 NFR.) BUTCH KNOWLES (Pre-recorded 2018 NFR audio) Craig at Midnight. I'm talking about this rocker a little bit dangerous in the chute, squash saving people a few years ago similar to that right there. Sheer power. And he's got a chance on Craig at Midnight. This is a big strong horse. He's in trouble and he's taken it all that whip. Oh that's a long eight seconds. Look at that. He didn't look very big in the pen. He looks. Like big guy that. Craig at midnight. So rank. All right. Final. Here he comes. Big right out of the chute. He's got a pretty great start. Craig At midnight he is firing. Tim O'Connell answers it jump for jump. That was big. CREDIT ROLL DEB COPENHAVER Well a story that I remember and I was there when this happened and they were loading the horses there at Dickinson. And this big grey stud come through. Casey had drawed him and Casey had three brothers. There was Doc, Ansel and Short Log. And this grey stud come in and he had long mane you know long tail probably the first time he'd been to town. And he was there climbing out of there. (MORE) DEB COPENHAVER (CONT’D) Ansel and Doc and Short Log and trying to get a neck rope on him and hold him down and they wasn't having very good luck and Feek come walking down along the chutes there he looked the program over and he walked over. Casey was standing there along side of me. He said, “Casey would you mind getting the well-wishers back? This gray stud just can't stand the public.” ...He could see some humor and get a point across as good as anybody you know. PETE FREDERICKS He had a real low voice and he's kinda the kind of guy that well actually I was kind of scared of him. He looked like a big tough guy and that...He must have been full blooded Irishman or something because he looked Irish in there...and kind of blondish hair and wore his hat tilted like that way. And then it's like he wouldn't take no crap off anybody. DEL DAGUE Feek had a lotta things, short stories and little things that he'd tell and he was quite colorful about the way he told things and people really paid attention to what he had to say. MILTON MARKUSON Oh, he was a, just a big hardworking type guy. I mean he knew his horses. He, uh, I mean just a hard worker, you know, nice guy to be around. He could tell stories. He could recite chapters in the Bible as good as most ministers. I mean, he was intelligent, smart guy. I mean, he was just a good neighbor. SHARON SCHWARTZ I don't ever remember him raising his voice or yelling or reading us the riot act or giving us any lectures. And I really kind of think it's because he remembered the shenanigans he and his brothers did when they were growing up, but always knew there was limits and I couldn't push them. LOUISE DAGUE Well I think I pushed his limit the second time when I held my breath, you know, the first time I come out of the living room door and he and Ernest were going to go riding and I was I guess too young and he didn't want me to go. And that's when I started bawling and held my breath. Then I think he got off the horse and come through the gate and give me a hard swat on the back to make me catch my breath...and the next time is when we were out to the barn and they were going to go gather either horses or cattle. And I did the same thing. I started bawling because I wanted to go and he come around there, never said a word, just lifted me up and threw me right down into the horse tank full of water. And boy when I come out I had caught my breath and I never held it again after that. So I guess that was a good lesson. PEGGY TOOKE Well we didn't have telephones in those days and he'd come down to do something. But if he was coming back the next morning he'd say, “Well I'll be down a good season.” He always said that. Well sometimes it would be four in the morning sometimes it might be ten in the morning or noon but he always made it in good season. But that's always what he said I'll be down in good season. So he was quite a grampa. TIM TOOKE I just remember him being a really kind, nice guy. Of course, most grandfathers are with their grandkids, but yeah, he just seemed like he was such a soft spoken nice guy and mom said she'd only seen him mad once in all the years she was around him, which I'm sure he was mad more than that, but I mean he was just pretty easy. I think it took a lot to get him mad and when he let Feek he was... he just seemed like a really nice guy. PEGGY TOOKE When Grandpa Feek was born he had probably I think a couple of older brothers but anyway one of them couldn't say his name was. Chandler Earl because his dad's his dad's name was Earl. But anyway one of the kids couldn't say it. So they called him something and he couldn't say that either. So then he they just call him Feek So then it just stuck with him all his life. SHARON SCHWARTZ He was very affectionate. You know, he'd just, he'd give you a hug and he wasn't one to say I love you, but you knew it just in his actions because he always kind of thought his kids. And then the grandkids were the salt of the earth. LOUISE DAGUE All I can remember is when we were young and go to the rodeos, you know, everybody always say, stay on, stay on or ride him. We were always under our breath. Throw them off. BILL CARLISLE Well, when I was rodeoing Feek was always you know he was one of them guys that liked to buck you off if he could and it was made him feel better if he could buck you off. You know and he was looking to do it. You know it wasn't that he wouldn't help you but when you hit the ground you he just felt so much better...He never would say too much but his expressions and conversations kinda afterwords with some cowboys and different things. He'd say, “Well boy, it was, you sure made a hell of a ride for a little ways there boy.” DEL DAGUE He said to me one day, he said, Del, he said, giving my horses their given day, they'll buck any cowboy in the world off. Give that cowboy his given day, he'll ride any son of a gun I got. And he was right. I mean, that’s the way it goes.