Buck A Luck and Lee Roy Spires. New Mexico State Fair Grand Champion Stallion. Mr. Spires lived in Midland, El Paso and Buckhorn, NM. The Moon Ranch (110,000 acres) was his ranching interests. In the early QH Shows the ranch owner, the guy who bred a great horse, he showed the ranch progeny himself. This was prior to professional handlers.
Once the Moon Ranch commissioned me to do a painting of Quatro Bar AAA and I spent some time there. One morning hundreds of black angus cattle were rounded up and corraled. Mr. Spires drove up in a large Lincoln or Caddy and watched the gather. A hand named Hightower brought up his favorite old mossy faced horse and Mr Sprires rode into the herd. To me it was like looking at a national crow convention. He slowly rode around the cows, made some comments to the men, then ask about the "old such and such cow." He was missing one cow???? One of the hands told him last spring there was a water gap washed out and one cow was at a neighbor's ranch and they would gather her in the fall. I always wanted to be that kind of cowman. One black cow was missing and he demanded an answer -- that is management!! I love that breed of men.
Photo by James Cathey
Author: Darol Dickinson
