Mares with More
The Old Joe Bailey Mares By Larry Thornton
Old Joe Bailey was a true pure South Texas Quarter Horse. His contribution to todays horses comes mostly through mares that helped form the foundation of the pedigree. Not all of our endeavors to look at the influence of mares on the quarter horse breed are limited to selecting single mares as Mares With More. Often a line of mares or a group of mares become known by the founding sire’s name. That is the case of a group of mares referred to as the Old Joe Bailey mares. The influence of the blood of Old Joe Bailey on the breed comes through his daughters as well as some linebred Old Joe Bailey mares and some daughters of his son Fred Bailey. The Old Joe Bailey influence shows up through the tail female line, the line that follows the bottom line of the bracket pedigree. The stallion we know as Old Joe Bailey was foaled in 1907 and bred by Dick Baker of Weatherford, TX. Baker sold s Old Joe Bailey to Bud
Parker, also from Weatherford. Parker owned Old Joe Bailey for most of his life and thus this great stallion became known to many as Weatherford Joe Bailey. The name Old Joe Bailey as the Weatherford Joe Bailey distinguishes him from several stallions named Joe Bailey. The wide use of the name Joe Bailey comes from the popular political figure of this era, Joseph Bailey of Gainesville, TX, a member of the U. S. House of Representatives in 1890 and a member of the U. S. Senate in 1900. The popularity of this figure in Texas history led to many followers naming their horses after him. The primary stallions found in the history of the quarter horse with the name Joe Bailey include Gonzales Joe Bailey and Nixon’s Joe Bailey.
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Gonzales Joe Bailey became Joe Bailey P-4. The stallion Nixon’s Joe Bailey was the broodmare sire of Gonzales Joe Bailey. Victoria Short in her book “Unregistered Foundation Sires Of The American Quarter Horse” writes that Baker and Parker were at one point partners in owning Old Joe Bailey. It is widely reported that Parker sold Old Joe Bailey in 1928 to C. D. Swearington who then sold the horse to Jack Tindall of Eastland County, TX, in 1929. (Short uses the spelling Tinsdale for Tindall in her material on Old Joe Bailey.) Tindall sold Old Joe Bailey to E. A. “Bus” Whiteside in 1931. Whiteside was the last owner of Old Joe Bailey. The life of Old Joe Bailey is pretty much a simple story of a stallion that apparently had a lot of quality that sent him directly to the breeding shed. There is no record that Old Joe Bailey was ever raced or used in any type of performance event. He was used as a breeding stallion that proved to be a great asset to the quarter horse breed. Bob Denhardt in a story he did for The Quarter Horse Journal in August 1963, titled “Joe Bailey P-4,” discusses both Old Joe Bailey (Weatherford) and Joe Bailey P-4 (Gonzales). Denhardt emphasizes the significance of Old Joe Bailey making it into the stud book, and gives several reasons. He writes, “Although Joe Bailey lived until 1934, you could say he ‘was born 20 years to soon.’ Although he spent the better part of 30 years in Central
WORKING HORSE MAGAZINE • March/April 2015