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Leon Freeze Pilot Point, Texas
Handy Nugget - A Branded Shoemaker

In 1968 I bought a yearling colt from Warren Shoemaker. Mystic Chance was a pretty sorrel, with flaxen mane, three stockings and a strip. His sire was Sir Chance, an AQHA Champion stallion Warren was using by Great Chance, the good palomino stallion that someone had shot in the pasture. Sir Chance's dam was Pasamonte Easter, a daughter of Golddust Shoemaker. Mystic Chance's dam was a palomino daughter of Sailor Cue, named Sail Slipper.

When Mystic Chance was two years old I bred three mares to him. Sometime in mid-summer I noticed that he wasn't tracking right behind, so I called Dr. Dan Anderson, who was a well-respected veterinarian in the Ft. Worth, Texas area and he asked me to bring the horse to his clinic for observation.

I took him to the vet on Monday morning, and I had to be out of town all week. When I got home Friday night my wife said Dr. Anderson wants you to call him.

I got him on the phone and the conversation went something like this: "Leon, I've been practicing for 35 years and I have live lived with the fear of something like this happening, but this is the first time it has. I had a sorrel colt that came to the clinic to be gelded, and I castrated the wrong horse. Everything is going to be okay though. I've already notified my insurance company and they will be calling to settle with you." Well, they called, but settlement was to be 18 months down the road.

We've all heard it said, that everything happens for the best. At that time I couldn't see any good coming out of this situation. However, we found out that Mystic Chance was a wobbler, and had to be put to sleep. So I go back to Warren and found that Sailor Cue, his main stallion, had a full brother three years younger, that he had sold to an Appaloosa breeder in Gallup, NM, who later had sold Handy Nugget to the Navajo Indians. I then called the AQHA and found that he was owned by a Regina Holyan. I wrote her a letter and about two months later found out that she had sold him to her brother Art. At this time I was a Fieldman for the American Hereford Association, and as luck would have it I was going to the Reservation for the Navajo annual steer and heifer sale.

I got in touch with Art about 10:30 at night to find out that he had left Handy Nugget out on the Reservation, but would get him and bring him to a set of corrals in town by 6:30 the next morning. He also stated that he didn't want to sell him for money, but would trade for registered mares. Needless to say I was at the pens at 6:30. There stood a very poor 16 year old stallion. Had I not known his pedigree, I wouldn't have been at all interested.

This was early October 1971 and Art didn't have a phone, so we made a deal for him to call me collect at a certain time so we could negotiate a trade. On December 8, 1971 the trade was finally made, and we met in Tucumcari, NM and swapped horses.

I left Handy with my father in Oklahoma, and between December and March 1, 1972 he put 250-300 pounds on him, and he looked like a different horse. We bred our first mare about the middle of February, and when she came back in heat we had Handy checked to find he had very little sperm. We put him on wheat germ oil, and in less than 30 days he was settling mares.

He was 17 years old when we first used him and had only sired 16 foals. When he died at 23 years he had sired 153 foals, 28 performers, 3 AQHA Champions, and a gelding with 217 points in 7 different events.

We had four sales featuring his get and service, selling 30 plus horses in each sale. With his influence, they averaged over $3000. We lost the last two daughters in 2002 at the age of 23. We have two grand daughters that are proven producers.

Of the three AQHA Champions by Handy Nugget one was Handy's Poor Boy, an outstanding sire owned by Wilson and Rucker of Alpharetta, GA. The other two AQHA Champions were the mares CW Rita owned by CW Williams of Gallup, NM, and Shesa Royal Nugget, owned by Larry McLarty of Peyton, CO. The gelding with 217 points was Han D. Silver.

Another son that left his mark in the northwest is Skippen Nugget, owned by Sharon Wilson of Idaho Falls, ID. Sharon's breeding program is built around Skippen Nugget, his sons and daughters.

A few years after the mishap with Mystic Chance I ran into Dr. Anderson and a friend at the Ft. Worth Stock Show. He told his friend about the incident and when he was through, I said to him, "Doc, as it turned out you did me a favor." His reply was, "when are you going to pay me?"

I'll never have a stallion do for me what Handy Nugget did. In all probability I would not have had him if Dr. Anderson hadn't made a mistake. Sad part is that Warren Shoemaker is gone and there are no more Branded Shoemakers.