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Yes, there are still cowboys in this land. Cowboys who ride horses and round up cattle and drag calves to the branding fire and rope cattle and live in bunkhouses and appreciate and respect their horses and ride them off into the sunset. On a map of the United States, find the Nebraska “panhandle,” look for the second tier of counties above the Colorado border and the third row from the Wyoming border. There, on the North Platte River, in Garden County, find Lisco, Nebraska. That’s the site of the Rush Creek Land and Livestock Company, its cowboys, and its Arabian horses. In western Nebraska, “short grass country,” land is measured not in half-acres, or acres, or even in hundreds of acres, but by section, one section containing 640 acres or one square mile. Rush Creek is so measured, but even so is considered a “medium size” ranch; 3,400 acres of that vast ranch are devoted to the Rushcreek Arabian herd. Funny how a negative can lead to positive circumstances. In the late 1880s, Thomas E. Wells ended up with some Texas cattle as collateral on a loan that went bad. He heard about land for sale in Nebraska, and the cattle were trailed up from Texas to the 10,000 acres purchased from the Union Pacific Railroad. Thomas lived in Chicago and visited the ranch in summers. From that beginning, Rush Creek has grown into one of the larger cattle operations in Nebraska. Of Wells’s six children, Thomas E. Wells and Preston Wells became
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PHOTO: NELSON
Tom and Carolyn Wells enjoy an evening stroll among the Rush Creek Arabians. From that first Arabian purchased in the 1940s, the Wellses, with nearly 1,100 foals, are in second place in United States all-time breeders.
the most involved with the ranch, and their sons Tom Wells Jr. and Dick Wells managed the company until recently. Now, Lynn Jones, the daughter of Carolyn and Tom Wells III, is chairman of the board of Rush Creek Land and Livestock Company. By the 1940s, the Rush Creek remuda numbered about 1,000 — a collection of mixed breeds, mostly of the cavalry remount type, a combination of Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds, Morgans, Mustangs, and draft horses. One reason Rush Creek needed so many horses was that many of this assortment were too rank to break. At ages four and five, they did not take kindly to training. Even the “gentle” horses had to be walked for the first mile each morning. By evening, many cowboys were wearing casts and bandages, the evidence of the “gentleness” of the horses. 214 ▪ ARABIAN HORSE WORLD ▪ AUGUST 2006
Preston Wells was bothered by the waste of horseflesh and the injuries, and sought the counsel of his friend Albert W. Harris of Chicago. Harris (AHW Foundation Breeder, April 2004) had been sold on the virtues of the Arabian breed much earlier and he advised Wells to incorporate Arabian blood into the cow horses. That Preston Wells did, starting with the purchase (from Harris) of Khadine (Khalil x Medinah by *El Bulad), a 1941 grey stallion. Albert W. Harris had his own ideas on what an Arabian horse should be. Pretty was not important to him; ruggedness, stamina, and toughness were. He designed a breeding program on lines that supported those ideas. In endurance racing of the early 1920s, A.W. and his horses were forces to be reckoned with. The first Rush Creek-bred HalfArabians were foaled in 1946, and the Wellses immediately knew they “were on
Left: General Manager of Rush Creek Gerald Davis and a seasoned Arabian help to move Rush Creek mares. Right: Rush Creek Arabians run free in the gently rolling hills of the ranch. They live outside year-round, icy winters and broiling summers. Below: Former Executive Vice-President Walter Queen drives cattle on Rushcreek Quarter (Cassels Zburaff x Rushcreek Lisa by AM Litle Prince).
PHOTO: NELSON
the right track” in their breeding program. “Those foals were so much better than anything we had had,” Carolyn Wells noted. “They had so much action, such nice dispositions.” The stallion Garyb (Sahar x Zaryf by Rifnas), bred by the Van Vleet ranch, came to Rush Creek a few years later, along with some Half-Arabian mares. No foals are listed for Garyb, so he may have been used in breeding HalfArabians. By this time, the Wellses recognized that their path to excellence would come only from a herd of purebred Arabians. Over the years, Rush Creek bought five mares that are considered the foundation mares of the Arabian program: Zarkasa (Alcazar x Kassala by Katar), a 1949 bay mare bred by Norman Harris; Karbala (Kateef x Kalinin by Khalil), a 1951 grey mare bred by A. W. Harris; Kazelle (Khelim x Kaikee by *Nuri Pasha), a 1950 chestnut mare bred by Alzada Carlisle; Khidra (Khelim x Kaikee by *Nuri Pasha), a 1949 chestnut mare bred by Alzada Carlisle; and Raga (Gulastra x Ramghaza by Ghazi), a 1941 chestnut mare bred by General J. M. Dickinson. All the mares carried Harris or Davenport lines except Raga who traced to Egyptian and Crabbet lines. When it came time to introduce new bloodlines, several outside stallions were brought in, including AM Litle Prince (AlMarah Indraff x *Crown of Destiny by Oran) and Al-Marah Knight (Al-Marah
Radames x *Kabara by Rissalix). “AlMarah Knight really improved the Rush Creek horses,” Gerald Davis, general manager of Rush Creek, notes. In later years, Russian, Polish, and desertbred stallions added refinement and Arabian type. In 1953, the proverbial “long tall stranger” rode into Rush Creek. No ordinary stranger. Ellis Ruby was a former professor of animal husbandry at the University of Arkansas and had his PhD from Texas A and M. He grew up on a cattle ranch, so he knew the business and was named manager of the horse operation. Ellis Ruby recognized the value of excellent workers on the ranch. In 1964, he wrote: “There is not a title in the ranching industry that conveys more approbation of the worth of a cowboy than that of ‘top hand.’ Top hand refers to that rider of the range whose ability to handle cattle and the multitude of related jobs is much above the average of the breed. This is the cowboy on whom owners rely to make sure that their ranching operation is a success. There are many good ropers, bronc busters, and cowhands, but the top hand is more than one of these.” 215 ▪ ARABIAN HORSE WORLD ▪ AUGUST 2006
Ellis Ruby found two strong allies in appreciating the Arabian breed in two neighbors (meaning about 100 miles away). Ted Jeary raised endurance-oriented Arabians on his Hyannis Cattle Company Ranch, and the late Dr. Bill Munson used Arabians at his Shalimar Ranch to work cattle. When Bill and his family arrived in Nebraska, their Arabians were in Quarter Horse country, an area occasionally tinged with anti-Arabian sentiments. To counteract this, Bill took his Arabian gelding, Al-Marah Jaunty, to a neighbor’s branding where Jaunty worked all day long without a bridle, cutting cattle, bringing calves to the branding fire. Apparently no one noticed, nor did anyone comment on Jaunty’s performance. They might have thought Bill was just a big show-off. Later he learned he’d made friends for the breed. Ted Jeary (AHW Foundation Breeder, September 1999), an Endurance Hall of Famer himself, breeds top endurance Arabians. His efforts include Witezarif, five-time winner of the Tevis Cup, a 100-miles in one-day race,
H E R I TA G E BREEDER considered the toughest ride in the country. The three ranchers were fast friends and in no way considered each other competitors. Rush Creek is a working ranch, and it’s a business. “One reason we use Arabians on the ranch is because you can get more work out of fewer horses because of their endurance,” says Gerald Davis, general manager of Rush Creek. “They’re not big, but they’ll last all day.” New cowboys at the ranch occasionally voice the complaint: “Those little horses ain’t gonna get the job done.” But that kind of talk goes by the wayside once they’re aboard Rush Creek Arabians. Arabians’ work at Rush Creek is paced by the seasons and the needs of the cattle. Winters are spent feeding the 6,000-plus cows in their pastures, breaking ice on the watering troughs, and repairing equipment and machinery. Just as the cattle do, the horses spend the winter outside, finding their own shelter against the snow and icy winds. Spring is calving time. From the first of April to mid-May, the cowboys are on 24hour maternity duty, making sure cows aren’t having trouble calving. Then they ear-tag and dehorn the calves. The herd is broken down into groups of about 550 head, so that the
riders can move around the herd about every two hours. The foals arrive in late spring, about 18 foals per year. The mares are brought into pastures where they can be checked twice a day, but they foal on their own. (By the time the males are yearlings, 99 percent of them are geldings.) Each year, foals are named with the same letter of the alphabet, the names preceded by “Rush Creek.” This year (2006), all the foal names begin with the letter “A.” In the summer, most of the cowboys are on haying duty; the ranch produces about 6,000 tons of alfalfa and 2,000 tons of grass hay each year. At about this same time, Lyle Sherfy and his crew start breaking the two-yearolds. They get groundwork and are saddled, but are not ridden until they are three. The move from a round pen (where they spend as little time as possible) to the open range, averaging about 30 rides before they’re turned over to one of the Rush Creek cowboys as personal mounts. By that time, the
Above: Raga (Gulastra x Ramghaza by Ghazi), one of the five foundation mares for Rush Creek, produced a lifetime total of eight foals, 1947 to 1960. Left: Al-Marah Knight (Al-Marah Radames x *Kabara by Rissalix), bred by Bazy Tankersley, is credited with 156 foals, almost all bred by Rush Creek.
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trainee will stand quietly for the slap of saddle leather and for mounting, move out on cue, stop, side pass, roll back, jump a log, go into water, back around barrels, and do sliding stops. The cowboys finish the horses, and by the time they are five, they are full-fledged Rush Creek cow ponies. Summer is breeding season for the Rush Creek mares. Matings are decided upon the previous fall, based on past history of matings, compatibility of bloodlines, and conformation. The mares are segregated by their prospective mates, and on June 1 the stallions are turned in with their mares where they stay until September. “The conception rate is 85 percent to 90 percent,” says Gerald. In the spring, the cattle are gathered, calves are roped and dragged, bawling and protesting, to the branding fire where the Rush Creek three-leaf clover brand is applied. At the peak of the branding, the Rush Creek crew brands about 550-600 calves a day. The foals are branded too, with the Rush Creek three-leaf clover on the left hip with a number to further identify them. On September 1, any cowboys in need of new horses turn in their old ones and by the luck of the draw are assigned new green-broke two-yearolds. The ideal is for every cowboy to have a horse he’s retiring, a horse he’s bringing along, and two horses he can use for hard work on the range. Gerald Davis came to Rush Creek in 1967, moved up to foreman, manager of the North Unit (the largest on the ranch), and in 1990 became the general manager. Gerald feels that his experience with all phases of the operation, being a good organizer, and being a forward thinker who is not afraid to make changes all help him in this role. The greatest change Gerald has seen in his years at Rush Creek is going from pencil and paper to the computer world. Gerald supervises five cattle unit managers, one horse unit manager, and one shop manager. Their
Top left: Horse ranch manager Lyle Sherfy's duties include managing the Arabian herd. Top Right: Gerald Davis, general manager of Rush Creek, appreciates good horseflesh and particularly the usefulness and stamina of the Arabian breed. The Rush Creek Arabians do more work with fewer horses, so they are important to the economics of the operation.
jobs are to look after the dayto-day activities of their units and the employees under them. Gerald notes, “The most enjoyable part of my job is people. The least enjoyable part of my job is people.” The Arabians at Rush Creek now number 150, of which 20 are broodmares. The stallions currently being used at Rush Creek are HV Suns Heaven And Earth (HV Sadats Rising Sun x CE Fa-Ness by Nigas Spotlight), Comar Raphael (Comar Azraff x So-Far Karey by Comar So-Far), and Rushcreek Kip (Shalimar Caribou x Rushcreek Aztec by SAHR Magnafy). Not every Rush Creek-bred horse cares whether cattle keep or not and shows no interest in chasing a renegade cow. That horse might have a lot of getup-and go, but a cow career is not in its future. Those horses have little trouble finding new careers as pleasure horses or endurance horses. Endurance riders have learned to depend on the toughness and stamina of the Rush Creek horses, and Rush Creek is one of their favorite shopping places. American Endurance Riding
Bottom: The Rush Creek Arabians know nothing of life in stalls. The mares are pasture-bred, they foal without human attendance, and the foals learn how to deal with all kinds of terrain. Here is Comar Raphael (Comar Azraff x So-Far Karey), the grey, with his mares.
Conference statistics usually show a disproportionately large number of Rush Creek Arabians at or near the top of the list. In 1976, just to mention one, Rush Creek Champ carried 220 pounds (rider and tack) to tie for first place in the Tevis and won the Best Condition award. The Wellses appreciate their own product. In 1979, when she was 60, Carolyn Wells finished the Tevis on Rush Creek Faye. Rush Creek has hosted an annual Cow Country Competitive Trail Ride, a twoday event over 60 miles of trail through terrain demanding of horses, especially the nonresident horses. It was said that no guest riders expressed any desire to see Rush Creek in its entirety. Rush Creek Lad was inducted into the AERC Hall of Fame in 1979 as the highest mileage horse in the history of the sport (at that time) with more than 21,000 career miles, a world record. Currently, more than 100 Rush Creek-bred Arabians are active in endurance 217 ▪ ARABIAN HORSE WORLD ▪ AUGUST 2006
competition. “Rush Creek horses are successful endurance horses because they’re raised on the range,” says Lynn. “From Day One, they run up and down the hills, which in the end makes a much better horse. We have learned that a good cow horse makes a good endurance horse.” Carolyn and Tom Wells, who live in Florida, spend some time at Rush Creek every year, as do their daughter Lynn and her husband, who live in the Chicago area. “I’ve always had a ranch horse or two that was ‘mine,’” says Lynn. “And last year my husband and I each had three horses issued to us.” Carolyn’s brother attends board of directors meetings, and he follows ranch activities, but he’s not active in day-today events. While the picture of a group of hairy Rush Creek Arabians, standing on the plain, tails to the zero wind, their coats covered with snow, will generate sympathy, on the other hand, these horses have never known neck sweats, around-the-clock stall time, groomer’s clippers, drug testing, or ginger. Rush Creek will long continue to breed the kind of sound, useful Arabians required by riders who have work to do and places to go.