Page 204 - September 2019

The Squire of Haw Creek
“This is the kind of life I love,. However, I only wish I had more time to
run Quarter Horses ”.
Although Little Dick Priest is gone, and with him a part of Raymon F. Tucker’s heart, the famous horse-man duo pumped enough blue ribbon blood into the Quarter Horse racing industry to sustain a champion- ship caliber of life for decades to come.
One of Little Dick Priest’s more notable accomplishments was to sire the 1966 All American Futurity Champion Go Dick Go...and since Raymon Tucker has always exhibited All American qualities, the two made a highly compatible and very remarkable team.
Tucker is tabbed as a “gentleman rancher” – gentleman because that’s what he is, and rancher because that’s what he does for living. He also is one of Florida’s biggest non-corporate timber producers.
A believer in old American values like patriotism, the dignity of work, and the sanctity of the family, Tucker is a devotee of the Mormon tenet that you earn your bread “by the sweat of your brow.” He loves his country, state, family and church...and ranked high up amidst all of these
is his great love for Quarter Horses. In fact, many tab Raymon F. Tucker as the father of Quarter Horse industry in Florida...and Little Dick Priest was one of the prime factors behind that industry’s consequent growth and glowing success.
Tucker operates a 13,000 acre ranch near Bunnell, Florida (8,000 owned and 5,000 leased) which carries the monicker of Haw Creek Ranch. The pasture grasses literally spring to the step. The cattle are healthy and well-fed. The calves look as if they own the place, and with Brahman, Angus, Brangus and others, the run looks like a veritable Who’s Who of cattledom.
“It wasn’t always that way, though,” remarked Tucker. “When Blanche (the former Blanche Tilden) and I were married more than 25 years ago, we had only a few acres. Now we have the big acreage, six lovely daughters, three grandsons and one granddaughter, about 125 registered Quarter Horses, and 1,000 brood cows, plus the timberland.
“Blanche and I are ‘Florida Crackers’,” said Tucker. “Our grandchildren are sixth generation Floridians on my side, and Blanche’s people came here in the 16th century. Her mother’s ancestors are reportedly the first non-Indian family to live on United States soil, and they settled here in Florida.”
A hard businessman, Tucker is always a conservationist as he works in his timberland.
He insists on leaving nature’s beauty as good or better than he found it, so more trees are grown than cut, and no timber is stripped. Tucker likes to have his livestock close to the timber, so they can go into the woods during winter for food, or in summer for shade.
Two Haw Creeks, sometimes river-deep, pass through his forests and pastures, and the waters are clear and cool. “No pollution here, ever,” said Tucker. “Let’s hope we can keep it that way.”
The sturdy Floridian is ranked as one of the most knowledgeable Quarter Horse men in the United States, if not the world. And he began assembling his knowledge at an early age when he trained colts for his father.
“Quarter Horses, who are the country cousin to the American Thoroughbred, descended from the Spanish-Barb mares taken by the Chickasaw Indians from the Spaniards’ Florida settlement
in the 1600’s,” Tucker remarked. “The mares were taken north and traded to the colonists who bred them to English Thoroughbred stallions. The ones who could run distances made up the foundation for the American Thoroughbred.
“The ‘short’ offspring moved west with the settlers,” he added, pointing out that the Western ranches and conditions provided the perfect milieu for combining the talents of the Quarter Horse with the tasks of the pioneers. “This is strictly
an American breed,” said Tucker, “and it is the cowboy’s best friend and working partner.”
According to Tucker, the original Spanish horse made a great contribution to the modern day Quarter Horse because of his stamina and intelligence. Most of the horses were small but, like the old Florida Spanish cow, they were a product of the “survival of the fittest.” Since they were born and raised under unfavorable range conditions, they died off if they were not tough.
“These were the horses that I worked cattle on as a boy,” said Tucker. We used McClellan tree-saddles and since we had no trucks and my daddy had cattle on both sides of the St. John’s River for three counties, we would pack up enough rations for two weeks, along with some grain for the horses, load all this on a 600-pound pony, mount up and ride 30 or 40 miles before we made camp the first night.”
“These ponies that were raised along the marshy St. John’s River could negotiate a boy by stepping from tussic to tussic,” Tucker continued. “He could
by Vaughn Vandergriff
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SPEEDHORSE, September 2019
LOOKING BACK - AN EXCERPT FROM FEBRUARY 1973 ISSUE