Page 80 - SPEEDHORSE April 2018

Solis (by Old Sorrel) was one of the horses used in the
Bob Kleberg program of inbreeding and line breeding to perpetuate the blood of Old Sorrel in which sons of Old Sorrel were bred to daughters of Old Sorrel. The results were so outstanding that ranch management decided to try to perpetuate Old Sorrel through this program, the success of which is legendary.
looking for, however, through his offspring. They explained it this way, “But when his son Solis
was mated on Old Sorrel’s daughters, the results were so good that the management decided to try to perpetuate Old Sorrel through line breeding and inbreeding.” The success of this program
is legendary, but more important to the King Ranch, it led them to do some of this down the road with their Thoroughbred breeding program.
The success of the King Ranch line breeding to Old Sorrel can be seen in Wimpy P-1 and Peppy P-212. These line-bred Old Sorrel stallions earned the Grand Champion Stallion title at the Fort Worth Stock Show. Wimpy won in 1941 and earned the #1 in the AQHA Stud Book, while Peppy P-212 won in 1940. Peppy was tested for his speed and reportedly ran 440 yards in :22.2. Examining Peppy for his speed shows how quickness was an important part of the ranch program.
Richard Kleberg Jr. (Dick), the son of Richard Kleberg Sr., became an important part of the King Ranch management team. He started
out working on the Laureles Division that was managed by his father Richard Sr. Richard Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a
lawyer and then later returning to the ranch to serve on the management team assisting Bob. He became the Chairman of the Board in 1968.
By the 1970’s, the ranch found that they had reached a plateau or leveling off in the Old Sorrel bred Quarter Horses. Dick Kleberg and his son Stephen “Tio” Kleberg set out to put some hybrid vigor into the breeding program with the NCHA World Champion Cutting Horse Mr San Peppy.
Mr San Peppy, a descendant of Old Sorrel through his dam, was a grandson of Leo, a racing American Quarter Horse. Leo had an official race record of 20 wins in 22 starts.
The move of Mr San Peppy to the King Ranch brought the ranch to the top of the cutting industry, allowing them to become leading breeders of cutting horses. A key to this success was Peppy San Badger, by Mr San Peppy. Peppy San Badger won the 1977 NCHA Open Futurity. He is out of Sugar Badger by Grey Badger III by Grey Badger II. Grey Badger II was a successful racehorse and was a line bred Peter McCue stallion. Peppy San Badger is a key contributor to today’s King Ranch Quarter Horse.
“Horses made a success of my ranch,” Richard King once remarked. One of the places
1985-86 AQHA President Stephen “Tio” Kleberg is shown above accepting the award for Woven Web’s induction into the 2016 AQHA Hall of Fame. Tio and his father Richard “Dick” Kleberg Jr., the son of Richard Kleberg Sr., decided to put some hybrid vigor into the King breeding program with the NCHA World Champion Cutting Horse Mr San Peppy, a descendant of Old Sorrel through his dam.
Captain King and then Robert Kleberg Sr. were successful was selling their horses to the Army. The Army Remount Service would buy stallions of various breeds and place these stallions with ranchers and farmers that had mares.
The remount plan was to improve the quantity and quality of horses for the army, and the horses being bred benefited the ranchers
as well. Most of the remount stallions were Thoroughbreds, with many of them having race records. The use of Thoroughbreds brought an improvement in conformation and speed that is the base of any ranch breeding program.
The King Ranch, with Bob Kleberg serving as an agent of the Remount Service, stood several Thoroughbred stallions. The Thoroughbred remount stallions included Lion D’or, Naughty Boy II, Remolino and Lovely Manners. These stallions contributed to the ranch remuda. Don Manners, by Lovely Manners, is one of the early racehorses bred by the King Ranch. Born in 1936, Don Manners became a ROM racehorse in the old American Quarter Racing Association. He was a registered Thoroughbred with starts on Thoroughbred racetracks.
78 SPEEDHORSE, April 2018
© King Ranch