The Working Lines | T he Pedigree Mystery
of
Pep Up
By Larry Thornton ........................................................................................................................................................................................................
O
ne of the early puzzles that confronted me as a pedigree researcher was the lineage of Pep Up. The AQHA Stud Book showed that Pep Up was sired by Peppy P-212 and out of the mare Canalita by Solis. Then I started finding pedigrees showing that Pep Up was sired by Macanudo and out of Petra R2 by Little Richard. Today the official AQHA pedigree on Pep Up is the Macanudo/Petra R2 pedigree. The AQHA registration file on Pep Up will tell us how the confusion over his pedigree came about. His file was made available to me by the AQHA Heritage Center and Museum. We will start with a letter dated July 23, 1957, from B. F. Phillips, Jr. to the AQHA employee Ralph E. Morrison. Phillips wrote, “In looking over the tabulated pedigrees that you supplied me on my recent trip to Amarillo, there seems to be an error in the pedigree of Pep-Up, P-2100. It was always my understanding that this horse was sired by Peppy P-212.” The pedigree Phillips got showed Pep Up to be sired by Macanudo and out of Petra R2. Here is some of Morrison’s reply to Phillips, “I am returning to you the pedigree form on Pep Up, AQHA P-2100 and also a pedigree form on Old Mac, AQHA 2162.” The Morrison letter continued, “This is the story as told to me by Bob Anderson, and the facts as confirmed by Doctor Northway of the King Ranch, concerning these two stallions which the Waggoners bought from the King Ranch.”
MACANUDO ch 1934 QUARTER HORSE #0000211
“At the time the colts were unloaded in the corrals at the Waggoner Ranch, the weather was very bad and the corrals very muddy. The cowboys, from the first day, got the two individuals mixed up, and their true identification became an error. Actually, the horse they called Old Mac was by Peppy. Old Mac was born in March 1941, and we have the usual King Ranch pedigree on one of their large yellow sheets of paper. Old Mac shows to have been a sorrel stallion, branded with a “W” on the left tail set and branded with another “W” on the right rear leg, ‘possibly on the inside from the hock area up.’ This was a special brand by an outstanding Mexican cowboy brander who took great pride in branding the horses for Doctor Northway. Therefore, Old Mac should be carried as sired by Peppy, by Little Richard, by Old Sorrel, and dammed by Canalita (roan mare ridden by Lauro), by Solis, by Old Sorrel. The second dam is a roan Quarter mare by Hickory Bill. This information, of course, will show on the pedigree form which I am sending to you. Old Mac died in the latter part of 1948 or 1949.” “On the stallion, Pep Up, the King Ranch pedigree shows the colt was sired by Macanudo, by Old Sorrel, by Hickory Bill, and dammed by a mare called Petra, by Little Richard, by Old Sorrel, and the second dam was a mare by Lucky Mose. From the two pedigrees, you can readily see that these two stallions were very closely related from a genetic standpoint, and Mr. Anderson suggested that since Old Mac had died at such an early
OLD SORREL ch 1915 QUARTER HORSE #0000209
CANALES BELL ch 1923 QUARTER HORSE #0000141
PEP UP ch 1941 QUARTER HORSE #0002100
PETRA R ch 1933 QUARTER HORSE #0000144
LITTLE RICHARD ch 1922 QUARTER HORSE #0000017
LUCKY MOSE MARE QUARTER HORSE U0074259
14 Working Horse Magazine Summer 2021
HICKORY BILL b 1907 QUARTER HORSE U0072141 DR ROSE MARE QUARTER HORSE U0070544 ROAN CLEGG 1 QUARTER HORSE U0078835 PELICANA ch 1917 QUARTER HORSE U0075741 OLD SORREL ch 1915 QUARTER HORSE #0000209 LUCKY MOSE MARE QUARTER HORSE U0074259 LUCKY MOSE 1904 THOROUGHBRED (USA)
PETER b 16.0 1 LUCRE ch
HICKO b 1907 CLEGG ro
TEXAS sor ~19
HICKO b 1907 DR RO
LUCKY 1904
GUIDO ch 1887 BOETI b 1890
