A living Legacy: World War II Vet and Cutting Horse trainer turns 100

BY Sally Sexton Courtesy Weatherford Democrat

Arthur "Curly" Talmage has been on the planet for a century, and he has a collection of colorful stories to prove it. The World War II veteran and longtime cutting horse trainer recently celebrated his birthday milestone at Santa Fe Health and Rehab, with several special guests he has encountered through his career.

"All the little boys wanted to be cowboys, and I was one of them," Talmage said. "When I do something, I did it. You don't like it, get out of the way." Talmage's daughter, Nancy Foust, recalls her father getting up early and coming in late on their 107- acre ranch off Farm-to-Market Road 1886 in northern Parker County. "It was all about the horses; he lived and breathed the horses," she said. "He fed the horses before he fed himself. After he had his breakfast, he went back out to the horses, came in and took a nap, and went back out to the horses. In the evenings when it would get dark, he would do welding for pleasure or whatever he needed to repair."

The ranch was home to 20-40 horses at any given time, Foust said. Talmage's grandfather was a harness maker who introduced him to horses early on, and he soon sought out work on dude ranches before a stint at King Ranch with Loyd Jinkens, a founding member of the National Cutting Horse Association.

Marine served at Saipan & Iwo Jima

Talmage didn't want to be drafted into the Army, so he joined the Marine Corps in 1941, serving in the Fourth Marine Division during World War II.

"Marines are big and tough. I was a big sissy, but anyhow, three years I was there with them," he said of the battle between U.S. troops and Japan for control of several Pacific islands in the 1940s. "After Roi and Namur, we made an advanced base in the Hawaiian Islands — Maui — and we'd go and retrain our groups and go get another island."

The next island captured was Saipan, which Talmage said was a lot bigger than the previous ones. "The way I can remember, I only saw one building on the whole island, and that door flew open and Japanese soldiers started coming out," he said. "The leader of the group who took over told the Japanese, 'You come out peacefully, no weapons, we won't hurt you.' We'd grab them by their collar, lead them down to the beach, put them in one of their boats and tell them to go home. But if they came out with a weapon in their hand and looked bad, we shot them. Pretty simple."

The little one-eyed colt. Talmage and his wife had just gotten married, with their first baby soon on the way, when he got a call from a friend, Ira White, about a colt he wanted him to come and see. After lunch, Talmage went over to the barn, put his nose up to an old knothole, and took a peek. "I think he must have seen me also because he looked right at me, and when he did, I could see a spot in that right eye," he said. "I said, "Oh, gosh. What would I want with a one-eyed colt that had never been ridden? All that work is ahead of you."

Then came the battle for Tinian, which many historians call a turning point during World War II, as it allowed Allied forces to advance in the Pacific and work their way toward Japan. "That island turned out to be very important," Talmage said. Tinian was chosen as the site for a secret mission during which the USS Indianapolis would transport components of the Little Boy atomic bomb, later dropped on Hiroshima, to the island. "Iwo Jima was our last campaign, thank goodness," Talmage said. "I was nothing, nobody – but it felt important to me."

During his birthday celebration, Talmage met retired Marine Col. Collin Andrus, who presented him with his own Marine colonel's coin, a sign of comrade and unity that honors the actions of those who receive one. "You're my hero. I want you to know that," Andrus told him. And if there's one thing Talmage won't tolerate, it's anyone talking down the Veterans Administration. "They've been good to me," he said, through tears. "They paid for my room here and they send me a little money every month." Two caseworkers from the VA were on hand to celebrate Talmage, presenting him with a "Happy Birthday" poster signed by members of the VA North Texas Health Care System.

Talmage offered to return the following day with checkbook in hand and horse trailer in the driveway. White wanted $350 for the colt. "Here I am, practically newlyweds, we're expecting our first baby and I got to thinking, 'You damn fool! Think about all the doctor bills you're gonna have, incidental expenses with a new baby. And you volunteered to spend $350?'"

Still, there was something about the colt, who would later be known as Rey Jay, that stayed with Talmage, and White led the horse out of his pen. "He was halter-broke and you could lead him around a little bit," Talmage said. "He was a gorgeous animal. Just two years old and never been ridden. That's not much to sell — it's lots of work, lots of feed bills, veterinary bills."

What may have seemed a foolish decision might have been one of the best ones he ever made. Talmage took the colt home and got started on him. "The more I handled him, the better I liked him," he said. "He had a beautiful disposition, never fought back. If they'll try and do what you want, you can get along with them. It's just like raising a child. Every time I would try something with him, he'd try to do it. He just kept getting better and better and better."

One day, Talmage put a calf in the pen and had Rey Jay follow him around, turning him this way and that to control the calf. "That's basically what cutting is all about," he said. "You pick one calf out, and his instinct is to go back to buddies. The horse's job is to stop that calf and not let him get back in the herd."

The colt took to it almost naturally, with very little guidance from Talmage. As the two progressed, the trainer decided it was time to compete at one of Jinkens' well-known Fourth of July shows. "Everybody knew Loyd Jinkens; he was a horse-training fool," Talmage said. "His show was coming up pretty quick, so I paid my entry fee to enter [Rey Jay] in the show and thought, 'You damned fool, you just threw away more money.'"

It would turn out to be a wise investment, as moments later, he and the colt were called off as winners. "I nearly fell off the horse," Talmage recalled of the mid-1950s competition. "Then I went over and looked at Bud Dearing, who was standing by the gate. Bud looked at me and said, 'you did all right.' That was quite a compliment coming from him."

That first competition proved the ultimate motivator for the Parker County duo, and another show was on the horizon – this time a registered quarter horse show through the American Quarter Horse Association. It had a junior division, up to 4 years old, and a senior division. ages 4 and up. "I entered him in the junior cutting, and I thought I did all right," Talmage recalled. "When I came off, they announced me as first place again and I thought, 'This is unbelievable!'"

As the show began to wind down, the senior division winner, a horse named Motor Scooter, was announced. What followed was a surprise to Talmage — the junior and senior winners would face off for the show championship. "I started to complain – yeah, I just won the junior class but that's that colt's second show. That [senior] horse may have won $5,000 already, who knows? That's just not fair," he said. "But I decided to back down. I didn't want to be a poor sport about it. I asked [Ray Jey] for the best he had, and he gave it to me."

Motor Scooter's performance followed, and to Talmage's disbelief, he was announced as the winner, taking home a nice, big trophy he still has today. Talmage and Ray Jey went on to win a number of shows across the country, with family traveling in tow. In Indiana, Talmage was approached by a prospective buyer who purchased Ray Jey for $5,000 and a palomino mare. Foust said the sale went to pay off doctor and hospital bills. "Mother cried," she said. "She was sick that he sold him, and he was, too."

Ray Jey went on to earn a Superior in cutting in 1960, an AQHA championship in 1964, and ended his career with the NCHA with more than $20,500 in earnings. He sired 126 foals, including Freckles Playboy, Colonel Freckles, Tamulena, Ray Jynx, Nurse Rey and more. Talmage continued his career as both cutter and trainer, and stayed involved with the community, where he helped in the Silver Creek and Azle 4-H programs, teaching horsemanship, showmanship and introductory disciplines.