Skippers King, who Wiescamp called the king of the Skippers, was his favorite. He was by Skipper W and out of Santa Maria by Plaudit. (This is one of my reject photo taken in the late fifties.) Wiescamp felt he was so good he kept him in the second from the front stallion pen to Skipper W as long as Skipper W lived. He ate only green alfalfa hay and never saw the bottom of the rack. His pen was pine poles with a huge lock on the front gate. He had fresh mountain Alamosa water running 24 hours a day through his pen.
Skippers King and his sister Skipperette both showed at the same time winning Grand Champion at Denver, Albuquerque and Fort Worth. He was considered so valuable Wiescamp did not let him off the place except for those early shows until he had a pasture full of his sons and daughters. At about 12 or 15 years old he hit the road with Leroy Webb and did amazingly well in roping events. To watch this big stallion move across the arena was the ultimate of athletic beauty in real-life motion. It was awesome.
A photographer took photos of Skippers King and Skipperette together at Denver when they won and sent Wiescamp stamped proofs. He was quite frugal and used the proofs for promotion and never ordered a real photo. I knew it would be hard to squeeze bucks out of him for photos after seeing that.
Author: Darol Dickinson
