Go Man Go

Go Man Go - During the sixties and early seventies I spent a month or so in California every year. Linda and I loved California. Back in those days there were no nice motel chains and McDonalds was just starting. You hunted a little hole-in-the-wall motel and asked for a clock for wake up. Sometimes I slep in the car if the family wasn't with me.

I started photographing horses at Shamel Ranch in Marietta in April, and as hair slicked off further on to the north. I would zig zag across the state completing my appointments in Lake County at Diamond D, Napa, Redding, or Jack Clifford's who owned War Chant.

I met Frank Vessels and Chief Johnson at the AQHA convention. The Vessels were very successful business people and almost single handedly responsible for bringing the Quarter Running Horse popularity from the whole nation to California. The Vessels' Los Alamitos Race Track bought in the gamblers and the big money futurities. At one time half the great running stallions stood in California. Thousands of mares were hauled across the nation to the famous West Coast stallions. The Pacific Coast QH Magazine was almost as big as the QH Journal at one time. For many years the QH business was centered in California. 

When Linda and I were first married she went with me, except when she was pregnant, which was an every other year event. A few times we took Kirk, our first son, with us. I remember carrying him through Disney Land for 40 miles. He only woke up during the bumper cars and when Mickey Mouse said hello. Never do that again.

Frank Vessels raised great runners. He was cramped-in by high dollar surroundings, but had a small group of well proven brood mares on his highly developed acres. His facilities were the same condition as Disney Land, a few miles down the road. Everything was pristine. I dealt with Chief Johnson, a crusty old retired Naval officer. He was a clever/funny guy. Chief booked the mares and knew every breeder in the nation who had a great mare. He worked at getting them booked to Vessels' stallions. I don't recall Frank or Chief ever being part of the photo process when I was taking their different stallion's photos. They stayed up high in the Los Alamitos grandstand race track offices and watched out the windows as we worked with the stallions.

When I was employed to do a photo shoot of Go Man Go---every horse is a serious strategy. I walked around him hunting flaws to avoid and  virtues to exploit. He was a runner, but there was not an angle that made him look like a show horse. It wasn't there. He was a beautiful roan chestnut with flecks of white in his tail head and white roan patches all over. He also had darker chestnut specks mixed in. He had a great disposition and would pose or obey any request. He was likeable. 

Right or wrong, I decided he was not a show horse, so just forget it. I was not going to convince anyone he could win a show. My decision was  simple. We led him out to the Los Alamitos race track parking lot and did the famous thoroughbred side view pose. In fact we didn't even wash off his hooves. I decided he was what he was. He was a World Champion  racer and that was what we had to photograph. Whatever one of the  fastest horses to ever breath looked like, that was Go Man Go. This is  him without apologies.

Foaled in 1953, Go Man Go dominated the American Quarter Horse racing scene like no other in history. Although neither his mother nor father raced, Go Man Go quickly proved he had tremendous ability, eventually being named World Champion Racing American Quarter Horse in 1955, 1956 and 1957.

Go Man Go became the first 2-year-old to ever claim the World Champion honor. In addition, he earned multiple divisional titles, set three track records and a world record, and equaled a world record.

Go Man Go was likewise exceptional as a stallion, becoming one of the greatest sires in American Quarter Horse racing. He sired 942 foals, 775 starters, 552 winners, 6 stakes placers, 83 stakes winners, 552 Registers of Merit earners, and 7 World Champions. Go Man Go’s offspring earned over $7.5 million on the track. Vessels sold Go Man Go. He went to Oklahoma and this was the last posed photo every taken or published of him that was not extensively retouched. My photos were unretouched. True horsemen are appalled at retouched, AI or photo shopped anatomy.