Page 81 - September 2022

ican Futurity
Those conversations often resulted in our stable losing a horse—and sometimes an owner. And at the day rate Dad
charged of $8 a day, every nickel counted. But he believed in telling his owners the simple truth to the best of his knowledge, regardless of the hopes they had converted into expectations. “Let’s wait and get high on him after he’s done something,” he warned me when my hopes were soaring on a
particular roan colt I groomed, a son of Leo. He was right, of course. Roleo
won his first start at Ruidoso but was chasing calves in a rodeo arena by the end of the year.
So, the cupboard was getting pretty bare in the Wells stable when Dad’s old boss Walter Merrick tossed us a lifesaver in the form of a well-known daughter of Three Bars named Lena’s Bar. She was six years old at that
time, but at her peak under Walt’s care, she had beaten the very best horses of her time, including Go Man Go, Double Bid, Vanetta Dee, and other Champions. In any case, Walt must have thought she
had a few more good races in her and
of course, he was right. The fact that he chose to send her to Dad for her farewell season was a blessing the Wells family will always appreciate.
Lena’s Bar displayed the archetypal Quarter Horse conformation of that era. She stood 15 hands and had the shortest cannon bones I had ever seen. She was very muscular, but not a bulldog. She had a beautiful head and was as well-balanced as a Swiss watch. On top of that, her disposition made her the immediate sweetheart of the stable. I learned years later that she’d been well-broke when she was a youngster and had even
SPEEDHORSE September 2022 79
er
AQHA Hall of Fame horse Lena’s Bar.
Trans-photo Lab
AQHA Photo
Lenas Bar
with her connections after winning
a race in 1958.