Working Ranch Magazine January/February 2025

BY KATIE HUTTON bloodlines

Is it learned or are they born with it? Details of Disposition

when you breed for looks and extreme talent, you relinquish on disposition a bit. “In team roping when you get to the 11 on up and the open stuff, competitors will put up with a lot for that talent,” he explains. “They know that’s what it takes. If they got to buck him out in the morning before they get on him, well they’ll just do it because they can win on him. But somewhere in the range of 70% of the world prob ably needs a pretty good quiet one that they can get along with.” When you look at the phenotype of a horse that’s a bit more level he’ll allow you to get away with leaning on his mouth like a second saddle horn, Brinkman explains. When you’re walk ing trails, he walks rather than jigs because it’s physically hard for him to jig. “Really talented horses are higher in their shoulders and their necks and they move their feet a lot because it’s really easy for them to do so. He could be a really good-minded horse, but because he’s so athletic, he gets ahead of his rider quite often, then they have difficulties and he gets the reputation of not being a good quiet horse, but it’s just that they are horses who are a whole lot more talented than we are, or at least more than I am.” Based on Brinksman’s experience, hot grabby horses take three genera tions to bring down to calmer, gentler mounts; you can however go up pretty fast with one intentional cross. When breeding for disposition both the mare and stud selections matter, however, you will tend to get more out of your broodmare selection simply because they live with their dam for the first year of life, and her disposi tion rubs off on them. If she’s bold and unworried, they will be too; if she’s the dominant mare her foals tend to follow suit. Clients and customers return year

KENDRA SANTOS/TEAM ROPING JOURNAL

n the Sandhills, near the small ranch town of Ericson, Nebraska, broodmare bands numbering over 400 traverse the landscape with foals by their side at Pitzer Ranch. AQHA Hall of Fame member How ard Pitzer started the operation in 1945. Alongside his Hall of Fame stallion, Two Eyed Jack established a family tradition of raising hors es with ability, conformation, and disposition.

consistent with those proven lines. For the Pitzers, their broodmare bands are grouped by what they are breeding for, whether that be family ranch horses or top arena competi tors. And disposition depends on the demands of the horse. “When I’m breeding for the number four roper market, and the family horses, dis position would be prioritized right after soundness,” Brinkman says. “Soundness always comes first and is the hardest to keep but disposition is the big deal. He will be ugly and gen tle and they will love him and he’ll have a home forever. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and if he’s a good one, he’s a beautiful horse.” According to Brinkman who serves as the AQHA’s Second Vice President,

How much does breeding determine disposition? According to third-gen eration rancher, horseman, and team roper Mr. Jim Brinkman, “It makes a lot of difference. Working with them early, having good training, and things like that will surely bring it out or make it better. But truthfully, the gentle ones are just born that way.” Brinkman, alongside his wife, Tana, and their grown children, continues in his grandfather’s footsteps of manag ing, training, and overseeing the Pitzer Ranch’s American Quarter Horse pro gram. According to the horseman, the horses who have family lines of being gentle tend to stay that way. Two Eyed Jack’s (Two D Two x Triangle Tookie) progeny were quiet horses, and since the early sixties, the Pitzers have stayed

70 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.