Dear Reader,

     I am writing this as a personal letter to each of you because I  have come to love Curly also and mourn his passing.  When I contacted Pat Wilson so that I could write this article for  “Curly Cues” I was not planning on coming to love Curly Tom.  I simply wanted to learn more about the Standing Rock Reservation mares of Hammrich breeding that Pat has.  That only shows how ignorant I was.  I did not understand the great contribution that Curly Tom made to this curly horse breed that we in the ABCR are developing now. 

      At the close of this letter I will tell you how great Curly Tom’s contribution was.  But now I want to tell you about the foundation on which that greatness was built.  You see, the story of Pat Wilson and Curly Tom was a true human and horse love story in the noblest and truest sense.  I asked Pat if she made a decision to love Curly Tom.  She told me, I did not make a decision.  I took one look at his picture, before we bought him, and knew we had to have him.  After we got him home and after he was off the trailer, it was love at first sight for every one of us first family, and friends and then every one that met him.  Pat told me how she has one friend who was absolutely petrified of horse.  Even this friend loved Curly Tom and would go to him and pet him.

     I want to add here that not only did Pat have a love for Curly Tom, but more importantly she had the horsemanship and skill to put that love into practice.  Curly Tom, in response, made a decision to love and serve Pat and her family.  What resulted from this mutual service and love will benefit the curly horse breed for generations to come.

     Like many love stories, this one had a small and humorous beginning.  Pat and her late husband read about the curly horse in an “Horse Illustrated” article.  But it was a poker game that brought the foundation Standing Rock mares to their farm, even before they knew of Curly Tom.  While playing cards Mr. Wilson learned of a horse auction in South Dakota   at which some curly mares were being sold.  So he phoned the auction and over the phone, while playing poker and sight unseen, he bought four curly mares for Pat.  These mare were range mares, they were from the Standing Rock Reservation and they had been used as brood mares by Ernie Hammrich.  Indeed one of them was the core of Ernie Hammrich’s breeding operation. 

      They were:

1.     NTS Pipestone Woman, ABCR 706

2.     Miss Fort Berthold, ABCR 1022,, Ernie’s foundation mare and a favorite of his.

3.     NTS Dancing Wolf, ABCR 1628, a pinto.

4.     Lastly, Lakota Woman, ABCR 1286, an extreme, a very smart horse and a favorite of Pat’s .

Mr. Wilson had been assured that these mares were all very gentle just because they were curly.  Well, Pat and her husband found that the auctioneer has not told them the facts.  When the mares stepped off of the trailer at their new home, they were anything but calm and gentle.  They were as wild as any range stock.  Pat said that, “They acted as if they had never been touched by human hands.” 

Because it was raining, these mares were put into a large 300 foot barn.  Pat and her husband then began the task of halter breaking, teaching to lead and gentling mature range mares.  And they were successful at doing this because they had the skill, patience and understanding needed.

The next step was to find a curly stallion that would work well with the large and big boned Standing Rock mares.

    .  They bought Curly Tom, ABCR 1539, from Jim Howard in ’96.  He was the match for these Hammrich mares.  At this point I can only say, based on what Pat told me, that it was Providence that brought Curly Tom into Pat’s life.  I have spoken to people, independently of Pat, and they have all said that Curly Tom was a love.  I believe that he was a love because he made a decision in his horse mind to love and serve Pat.  I believe that when people saw Curly Tom they also saw Pat’s skill as a horse woman and her love for Curly Tom take full flower in horse flesh..  I believe that when Curly Tom sired foals he was giving Pat the gift of his own kindness and mellowness in those foals.  I say this because his foals out of these Standing Rock mares were all mellower and calmer then the dams.  But there is more than that.  Curly Tom corrected for the overly long back that some of the Bad Warrior line can have.

      Pat told me that, “Curly Tom was a true curly.  He never met a stranger.  He loved every body, especially children.  Pat told me that Curly Tom passed on his love for children to his foals.  I have spoken to one lady independently of Pat, who told me how her stallion, a son of Curly Tom,  also had a special love for children and would allow them to lead him with only a rope around his neck.

     Pat told me, “ I wish every body could have met him.  Out of hundreds of horses, mostly mine, in the last ten years, there has never been one that compared to him.  I repeat, every one that ever did meet him never forgot him.”

      Curly Tom’s dam was a sorrel Belgium named Nell.  His grand sire was Peter Paint a stud renowned for gentleness.  I spoke with Dale Wooley, who owned Peter Paint for several years.  Mr. Wooley confirmed the gentleness of Peter Paint.  He described how he could control this stallion while breeding mares with only a flat halter on his head.  There was no need for stud chain or for bridle.  Peter Paint would wait quietly until the mare was ready and until Mr. Wooley gave him permission.  Then and only then would he mount the mare.  The sire of Peter Paint was Peacock D.  The dam of Peter Paint was a Damele buckskin mare.  I believe that this buckskin mare was of the Cotton Eyed Joe/OB Pinto line. 

      I believe that Curly Tom took the best of his ancestors and fused it together  into something that was very unique.  He took the mellowness of the draft and the gentleness that is found in many of the Peacock D horses and united these two qualities.  Now Peacock D goes back to the Holbrook horse, a stud owned at one time by Mr. Damele.  What I am saying is that very often the Damele  blood will improve every thing with which it is crossed.  It did just that when it was crossed with the draft mare Nell.  What was created was something that combined the best of the draft and the best of the Damele stock.  In Curly Tom we see how Damele Holbrook and Damele Cotton Eyed Joe/Old Brand Pinto blood improves that with which it is crossed by bringing out the best in both the Damele and the non Damele.  It is this ability to often bring out the very best,  both in what it is crossed with and to express the very best that lies within itself, that gives the Damele stock it’s great value to the horse world and it’s uniqueness.

      Curly Tom allowed Pat’s children to break him to saddle and bridle one day in their driveway.  When Pat asked Jim Howard if Curly Tom had ever been saddled and ridden before the answer was, “No.”  Shortly after this, in ‘97 they took Curly Tom to the Equine Affair.  Pat told me that, “He stole the whole show.”  At this time he was still very green, having only been ridden about nine times.  (At this point I want to make a very strong comment.  NOT ALL CURLY HORSES ARE AS GOOD AND MELLOW AS CURLY TOM.  I hope that all readers will keep this in mind and not do anything foolish.)

          At about the same time Pat bought Curly Tom,  she also bought a very sweet curly fox trotter mare from Jim Howard.  This mare’s name was TEOC Erin Go Bragh, ABCR 1100.  Pat told me how she deeply loved this mare because of her quietness and faithfulness.  Pat told me how one time she tripped and fell, landing right under the mare’s belly.  Erin kindly stood there while Pat picked herself up.  Now that is a REAL curly for you!  I should mention that Erin had the sweetness that many, but not all, of the curly fox trotters have.  She went back to Prince Charming T, ABCR 93, top and bottom.  However, in Erin there was not the large  amount of inbreeding that many of the curly fox trotter lines have, especially today.  

        Sadly, Pat lost Erin to cancer in ’98.  But before she lost Erin , the mare gave Pat a filly that was sired by Curly Tom.  The filly’s name is Curly Sue, ABCR 1940.  Curly Sue was bred by Jim Howard, and came along side of Erin when Pat bought the dam.   I asked Pat about Curly Sue.  She told me that Curly Sue came to them unhandled and she was a real handful.  This filly was smart, even as a foal, and just did not care what any one wanted her to do.  Pat worked very carefully with Curly Sue and was successful in gentling her and winning her respect and trust.   It was Pat’s hard work that laid the foundation for Curly Sue to go on and to have a good and useful life. With Marcia.   With Erin ’s passing, Pat grieved deeply, as any good horseman would.   The passing of Erin was a great loss for the curly world because in crossing Curly Tom to Erin , one of the biggest problems in the ABCR world was solved.  That is how to combine Damele blood with curly fox trotter blood.  Curly Tom, once again, improved the curly fox trotter by giving his substance and good hind end to Erin ’s filly.

       In Curly Sue we see that once the best of the Damele and the best of the Walker Prince T line was brought out.  So now it is time to tell what Pat and Marcia, Curly Sue’s owner have to say about this mare, who has the ability to find lost glasses, honest!

 This is what Pat e mailed to me,  “Marcia loves Curly Sue. …Once Marcie was out riding, and did not duck under a limb.  Off she went, and her glasses went flying.  Curly Sue would not come back to her, and she is blind as a bat with out her glasses.   So she crawled to Curly Sue while feeling around for her glasses.  When she finally reached CS, still feeling around, she found them At CS’s feet.  Put them on, got back on and rode off.  Don’t remember details of second time, but basically the same thing.  CS stayed put until Marcia got to her and the glasses.  The helicopter incident was when the chopper was too close to the ground,  just above the tree tops, while they were riding in a park.  CS did not throw her, but when it went over, she jumped enough for Marcie, not expecting it either, to lose her balance and fall off.  As scared as both of them were.  CS stayed with her.  She got up and led her to a bench to get back on.  Even tho CS was shaken too, they rode out of the park.  She took her back the next day, expecting her to be leery, but she did fine.  The last time Marcia wrote me, they were riding and she decided to let CS eat some grass, so she got off, and CS walked a little way and stopped.  When she called her back, she did not come.  Marcia walked over to her, and there, at her feet were the glasses that Marcia had lost a year or so ago….’’

And here is what Marcia has to say about the mare,  “She is the BEST.  We were on a trail ride this past week in a remote area, and we had to bushwhack around a bridge that would not hold her.  In the process I did not bend low enough for a branch and my helmet cover got stuck and she kept going and I was going backward then suddenly the cap let go and branches swept across my face and I sat up without my glasses!!!  I got off and it was dark in the woods with flecks of light coming thru and calf deep in every color of leaf imaginable.  I said, “Lord God, I can’t leave here without my glasses.  Curly can get us back to the barn, but I can’t drive!!”  She was eating leaves here and there, I had my face to the ground, can’t see a thing.  Broken branches everywhere, both of us tramping all over.  This went on quite awhile.  Then Curly suddenly looks up and starts walking toward the trail.  I grab the reins, she stops and puts her head down.  And there right in front of her feet is a little pink semi opaque glasses bow sticking out of the leaves.  Very strange because the limb had swept the glasses off my face to my right, they were found by the trail to my left, so must have been  thrown on the back lash to the left.  I was not looking anywhere near there!!  I was so astounded.  I could not believe Curly found them.  We had an awesome trail ride after that.  I was astounded what God had done thru Curly.  It gives me goose bumps just telling you about it!  My glasses were not broken.”

     One of Curly Tom’s offspring is a young mare named Lakota Prize. Pat calls her Katy, the horse.  She is out of Pat’s favorite Hammrich mare, Lakota Woman.  Of the four Standing Rock mares, Lakota Woman is the most people loving.    This young mare has her dam’s body, but she has the same eyes as Curly Tom.  She seems to sense what people want from her and she has to goodness to work with that.  She seems to want to give even more than is asked of her.  This can be seen when the trainer asks for a stop.  The young mare will stop and the take two steps back with out being asked to do so.  She is stopping just like the Clinton Anderson training video says a horse should stop.

    Curly Tom showed Pat what a curly horse really is.  He showed her that a true curly has a certain kind of mind, a mellowness, a certain goodness and a true love for people.  Pat told me many things about what a true curly is.   Here are some of them:

1.     Curlies learn quickly and for that reason get bored with too much repetition.  They learn and are ready to go on to the next thing.

2.     Curlies do not want you to be mean to them because in their mind they did nothing wrong.  When you push a curly to hard they think you are being mean to them.  They do not know why you are being mean because they did nothing wrong.  

3.     A true curly would rather turn and face the problem than run from it.  If you are the problem and are mean to them they will face you.

4.     When a curly has been abused, he NEVER forgets. 

5.     A true curly  has a certain kind of mind.  That mind was seen in Curly Tom.  (Here I want to add that Pat is talking about an independent mind that also has a deep love for people.)

Pat asked me to be sure to write that Curly Tom will have his painting included in the “Beautiful Horses of Ohio” project.  I hope one day to be able to see the painting that is doing painted of him.

            I prepared for this article I poured my heart out over two pictures of Curly Tom.  I want to tell you what I saw in those pictures.  In 1991 I had the privilege of visiting Dr.Wayne Oler, an old time curly breeder and a very compassionate man.  Wayne ’s old stallion was Dixie D.  The expression that was in Dixie D’s eye is one that I will never forget.  It was an expression of peacefulness, awareness and quiet dignity.  There was a nobleness and presence there that flowed into my heart and made me want to be a better person.  Please note that I did NOT say better horse person.  I said better a human being.  I saw that same expression in Curly Tom’s face that I saw in Dixie D’s face.  That is why I mourn his passing, even though my grief is pale compared to Pat’s.

     Curly Tom gave Pat his heart.  That is the very best gift of all.  But he also gave the curly horse breed something.  In Curly Tom the best characteristics of the Damele horses and the best characteristics of the Belgium Draft horse come together.  Then he passed this goodness on to the foals that he sired with the old Standing Rock horses.   Furthermore, when he sired Curly Sue, he improved the Prince Curly T line.  What this means is that the Damele curly blood, when it is mixed appropriately with other curly lines, improves both itself and the lines with which it is mixed.

   A true curly horse is not just a horse with curly hair.  A true curly is a horse with a certain kind of mind.  A true curly horse is a horse with a mind like that of Curly Tom.

          In closing I want to thank Pat Wilson for her help.  It was an honor to get to know such an honest and honorable lady.  I also want to point out that Curly Tom was able to give so much to the curly horse breed because of the skill and hard work of Pat Wilson.     Pat told me that all of Curly Tom’s foals are worked with from the time they hit the ground until the time they are sold.  They are all gentled, taught to halter, lead, they are all sacked out and know how to stand tied.  They will follow Pat any where on the farm.     Pat loves on and corrects the foals so that they will become good horses for their future owners.   Truly Pat is doing the hard work of a good breeder.   In closing when I say, “Thank you, Curly Tom.”  I am also saying, “Thank you, Pat.”        

Sincerely,

Penny Johnson, ABC breeder

Kootenai Curlies, Bonners Ferry Idaho