Blue Valentine

The Working Horse, October 2002

Blue Valentine was Red Man's most prolific son.

Blue Valentine passed on his sire's legacy of usability and functional conformation to the Merritt Horses of Wyoming. Hyde Merritt horses were popular with ropers for 25 years and the breeding is still found in many remudas in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

Blue Valentine's sire Red Man was a well-known sire of top ranch mounts throughout the Arizona cattle country. During the 1940's and 50's, the majority of usin' horse men were more interested in what an individual animal could do under saddle. The Red Man foals could do the job, out on the ranch, in the rodeo arena, and stayed sound while doing it.

Red Man's foals earned 80 race wins, 18 stakes winners, earning a total of $28,848 back in the days when purses were low. He sired 15 Race ROM earners.

Red Man had a long hip, was tremendously deep through the heart girth, had withers that would hold a saddle and lots of bone. As a sire he passed that size and bone, athletic ability, roan color and good black feet on to most of his line. He was quick out of the box, could really "blow up on one" and after the catch was made and the slack rope pitched away, stop and get back. Red Man took to the event like a "duck takes to water", carrying on the tradition of the Hancocks as rope horses.

Red Man was sired by the legendary Joe Hancock. Joe Hancock showed speed at a young age and before his racing career was over, Joe Hancock was open to the world at any distance from the starting line to three-eighths of a mile. He won his races by being so fast away from the line that the other horse couldn't catch him. There finally came a time when Joe Hancock simply ran out of competition. He stood pat at three-eighths of a mile, but no one wanted to take on the brown stallion.