Skippa Rope

My parents bought a five month old filly for me in 1962 when I was a young girl. She was what we called a red roan with too much white to be registered in the AQHA. Because of this she was cheaper than the registerable quarter colts. But we liked the extra color and were told that we could probably get her registered in the fairly new American Paint Horse Association registry. After starting with a spotted Shetland and then graduating to a larger Welsh type paint mare and then to a quarter gelding it was obvious the color caught our family's eye from the very beginning.

We registered her as Baby Doll McCue APHA 10,357. She was actually a sabino with a bald face, white legs, white belly and small white spots up her hip areas.

When she was five years old Dad and I called Hank Wiescamp wanting to breed to his stallion Skip Hi, APHA 8. He said he would, and we hauled her to Alamosa, Colorado as soon as possible. When we arrived Hank told us he didn't know why he told us he would breed our mare over the phone because he never bred outside mares. But because he told us he would, then he would do it. Hank really liked baby Doll and tried to buy her from us, but we wouldn't part with her.

The next spring she foaled the colt we called Skippa Rope. The first time Hank saw "Rope" he said we were lucky. "You could breed horses your entire life and never get one that good." Hank saw him several times and each time tried to buy him. Once he told me to "name your price". He was not for sale though and never would be.

Rope was a natural on his leads and the sweetest horse to be around. He was willing to do anything for you, and very athletic. He became an APHA Champion, sire of Champions and National Champions.

Through the years he sired 160 colts, 155 spotted paints and only 5 solids. People would bring mares to us who couldn't seem to produce color. He very seldom let anyone down. He was not a very big horse, 14.3 hands, but he really threw a lot of size into his colts. Dale and Jean Fell bred a 14.1 hand AQHA palomino mare to him hoping to get a small paint for Jean to ride. The colt, Sky Roper, a palomino tobiano, grew to be 15.3 and became a National Champion jumping horse as well as earning a superior in jumping and amassing a total of 1639 points in his career, 120 in halter and 1519 in various performance events.

Fly Skip Fly, a chestnut tobiano stallion owned by APHA's past president, John and wife Anita Hertner, also out of an AQHA mare, was another of Rope's get we were extremely proud of. He became superior in halter as well as a superior All-Around and produced 115 get. "Fly" earned 316 total points with 52 in halter.

A quarter horse and thoroughbred breeder in our area, the family of James "Sonny" and Carol Keen wanted to breed some mares to Rope. We made a trade of three studfees for a pick of a young mare out of his band of AQHA and TB mares. I picked a two year old appendix AQHA mare, Spicy Sullivan. She was a well put together 15.2 hand bay mare with a blaze face. Bred to Skippa Rope she produced Roper's Sullivan, which we later sold to Dean and Linda Norman of Lander, Wyoming. Roper's Sullivan was a sabino stallion that became an APHA Champion with a total of 133 points. He sired 43 registered APHA colts. One of these, Sullivan's Heathen, earned 91 halter and 426 performance points, and has sired 134 registered colts.

Through the years I married and divorced twice and now have reclaimed my maiden name. It probably appeared that Skippa Rope sold several times, but he never did. He was always mine. I learned to team rope because I wanted to put cattle points on him but did not want anyone else to ride him. Ok, so call me selfish - I can live with that where Rope is concerned. I went to college a little later in life (hay was expensive - I needed a better job). I faded out of the horse business for some years, but I always kept Rope and a couple of others.

When Rope was 24 he had an impaction and I lost him. That spring I took a tobiano granddaughter of his and bred her to a sabino great-grandson of his - Heath Bar None (by Sullivans Heathen) owned by Wayne and Nancy Schomaker. I had the same color combination going as the first time when we bred the sabino mare Baby Doll McCue to the tobiano Skip Hi that produced Skippa Rope. Plus Spicy Sullivan was on both sides of the pedigree. With this combination Ropers Reflection was produced - the stallion I am now standing. "Flec" is marked almost like Baby Doll MCCue - way back where it all started.

Sandra Messler