By Katrina Waters

His horses not only work on the ranch, but have won some

of team roping’s most prestigious awards. Tom Nelson of

the HK Ranch believes there is no short cut. You can’t make

a good horse without pulling off a lot of

Three-time world champion team roper Allen Bach (heeling) won the $50,000 Pendleton Roundup, held in Pendleton, Ore., in September on an HK-bred horse. Photo by Kirt Steinke, www.westernrodeoimages.com.

Tom Nelson isn’t one for gimmicks.On the HK Ranch in

Placedo, he instead opts for more traditional methods to breed, raise and train horses.

He believes in things like

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Wet Saddle BlanketS

Mare Power

“I believe in mare power.” Nelson says. And he means it.

“I think the foal’s characteristics are 80 percent from the mare — temperament, attitude, conformation, everything.

“That does not mean that I don’t like a really good stud horse. Because I do. But I also like a really good mare,” he says.

In a brood mare prospect, he considers conformation, athleticism and bloodlines, but all of those follow a good mindset in order of importance.

“If she’s not really good-minded — and by that I mean trainable and not aggressive — I wouldn’t even consider [keeping] her, no matter how pretty she is,” he says.

Aside from a couple of outside mares, every mare in the herd of about 20 is one he raised. The only outside mares that have been added are ones that have already produced offspring by his studs, eliminating any risk for how they will fit into his program.

But once she enters brood mare status, at the HK Ranch, there’s no guarantee.

“I’ll give her one year,” he says, “If she’s not a good mother, I’ll cull her. Good stud horses are important, but having good mares is more important.”

Tom Nelson works a colt in the round pen.

Tom Nelson of the HK Ranch doesn’t believe

in 90-day wonders. He does believe in putting

horses to work.

Photos by Marilyn Cheatham

“If he’s not correct in his legs, he cannot be correct

everywhere else...”

Tom Nelson evaluates some HK mares and colts.

Photos by Marilyn Cheatham

Below: HKS Bossy Doc, Nelson’s Doc O Glo-bred stud is a finished roping and cutting horse.

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“good feed, clean water and big pastures,” and strict, annual cull-ing.

He believes in only selling horses they’ve ridden and used.

Nelson says they do things the old-fashioned way, and for no reason other than to produce the most trainable, useful horses pos-sible. His philosophies may not be trendy, but they’ve worked. His horses are in demand by working ranch cowboys and top team rop-ers alike. If you follow rodeo or watch The Roping Show on RFD-TV, you’ve likely seen some of his horses in action.

Getting thereHe’s been raising horses on the

HK Ranch (which was originally purchased by Capt. John N. Keeran in 1867 from a Spanish Land Grant) since 1988, but it took an indirect route for him to get there. Nelson grew up in Alabama and Mississip-pi, and graduated from Mississippi

State University with degrees in animal husbandry and range management. While attending college, he raised horses on his family’s ranch in Alabama. It was there he met two of his mentors, men he credits with contributing greatly to his knowledge of what a horse should look like and how it should perform.

One of those men was Pete Reynolds Sr., a Texas na-tive who moved to Alabama

in the ’50s because of the drought. Nelson credits Reynolds’ Texas up-bringing to some of the things he taught him about a horse.

“Pete taught me a lot about performance and how a horse should ride. He came from West Texas where they rode for miles and miles out there in a day. He taught me how a horse should be built to be useful in that kind of en-vironment. It was different than in Alabama, where you’d jump them in a trailer and go from one pasture to another,” Nelson says.

He says Ralph Eagle, one of his other neighbors-turned-mentors, taught him a lot about correct con-formation.

Nelson temporarily left the ranching business in the early ’70s when he accepted a position with an engineering company and relocated to Pennsylvania. But, within a few years, he was calling Texas home after a move to Houston where he was involved in a construction com-pany and a manufacturing compa-ny. During that time, Nelson leased a ranch in Missouri City. By the late ’80s, he was in the process of sell-ing the two Houston companies and buying a ranch in Mexico, where he planned to move.

But a business associate intro-duced him to Mary Sue Koontz, and, as he likes to say, he “never got past Victoria County.” The couple has been married since 1990.

What it takesNelson, like most who have

ridden horses all their lives, has a good idea of what he wants in one — physically, mentally and geneti-cally — and that’s what he strives to raise.

The first thing he looks at from a phenotypical standpoint is bone structure.

“If he’s not correct in his legs, he cannot be correct everywhere else,” Nelson explains.

He then examines the horse’s head — including the distance from eye to nose and the width between the eyes. He’s also interested in how the horse ties together — how the head ties into the neck, the neck in-to the shoulders, and that the shoul-der and hip angles are similar.

Once Nelson has determined a horse is properly structured, he looks at muscling and size. He says his ideal horse stands 15 hands tall and weighs about 1,250 pounds, so long as it’s put together right.

But none of that matters in a horse that doesn’t have a good mind, he says.

“Of course you can’t tell by looking,” Nelson says. “You’ve got to ride — really ride — the horse to

understand its mindset.”He says he strives to raise intel-

ligent horses that are easily trained, and he won’t put up with biting, kicking or any other “bad-acting stuff.”

Genetics are also important to him.

Most of his brood mares go back to Leonard Milligan, the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Superhorse of the Year in 1980. Leonard Milligan’s owner, Bobby Shelton, loaned him the horse for three years. During that time, Nel-son got three Leonard Milligan-sired colt crops. He kept all of the fillies, which went on to be the basis of his broodmare herd.

Nelson also has a stud by Les Glo Colonel, by Colonel Freckles, and another he raised by Doc O Glo. The Doc O Glo stud is a finished rop-ing and cutting horse and is regu-larly used in the roping pen.

He says from the cutting horse side of the bloodlines, you get the “cow” and from the other side you get the speed, conformation, muscle and athleticism.

“It’s kind of a blending of both to get the type of horses I raise,” he says.

And there is a good market for the type of horse he raises, going to ranchers and day work cowboys as well as amateur and professional team ropers.

A team roper in his younger years, Nelson naturally produces that type of horse and HK horses have seen great success in the team roping arena. Two have been nomi-nated for PRCA Horse of the Year awards. (One was ridden by Kory Koontz; the other, by Johnny Phil-lips.) In 2007, he had three horses at the Bob Feist Invitational, the richest one-day roping in the world. Last fall, three-time world champi-on Allen Bach won the Pendleton Roundup on a HK-bred horse.

He credits nine-time National Finals Rodeo competitor Tyler Mag-nus, host of The Roping Show, with helping him get his horses into the PRCA-type market.

“Tyler Magnus has ridden my horses quite a bit,” Nelson says. “When I have a horse that has ex-

ceptional potential, I’ll send him to Tyler and he’ll ride him for a while and sell him for me. He handles the marketing of those horses.”

He says the team roping horses he raises must combine athleticism with trainability and an overall good mind — maybe even more so than the horses sold for hard ranch work.

“In this day and age, most of the team ropers — not the profes-sional boys, but the amateur ropers who go to ropings every weekend — don’t get to ride their horses ev-ery day. Consequently, they need a horse that is easily trainable and remains trainable. That’s the mind-set that I breed for. I don’t want any broncs; I don’t want any biters or kickers. I won’t tolerate that in HK horses.”

‘Just using them’A lot of hard work goes into not

only the horses Nelson retains on the ranch, but every horse he sells.

“I never sell weanlings, year-lings or two-year-olds,” Nelson says. “I keep everything until we can ride them.”

He’s quick to credit all of the people who help him with the young horses.

Wayne Carroll has worked with the HK Ranch horse program for 15 years. Jace Tibbs and Storm Somoza (the Nelson’s grandson), ride colts and help with the training.

Marilyn Cheatham, who pro-vided most of the photographs for this story, comes down every fall to halter break colts. Nelson can’t say enough about the great work she has done in halter breaking and starting young horses.

He says they typically ride their colts in the spring of their second year for 30 to 45 saddlings — first in a round pen, then out in the pas-ture — and then turn them out until they are three years old.

In the spring of their three-year-old year, Nelson says they get the horses up and just pick right up where they left off. He says they start by riding them in the pasture briefly then work up to several hours a day. They gradually work

into ranch work — dragging calves with them, checking fences and water trough — and generally “just using them.”

During this time, Nelson re-evaluates each horse to decide if he wants to keep it for more train-ing or sell as a three-year-old. He generally keeps five or six of each age group.

Nelson is adamant about not putting a young horse into a situa-tion too early.

“We never introduce them to an arena until they are three-, com-ing four-year-olds,” he says. “We never start roping off of the horses until they are really broke, have really been used on the ranch and have a good handle.

“And, knock on wood, I’ve never had a problem with a horse fighting the [holding] box, or rear-ing up and resisting the box be-cause he was broke in the pasture. He was broke and trained outside. To him, it’s just another job.”

In addition to being worked on the HK Ranch, Nelson’s young horses get worked on other ranch-es. He allows his cowboys to use the horses for day work on other ranches, and considers it a win-win: His cowboys are happy, be-cause they get to pick up a little extra work and money, and his horses are better because of the ad-ditional cow work and scenery.

“When they are in that train-ing stage, the more cattle you can work on them, the quicker you are going to make a good horse,” Nel-son says.

Although he strives to never push a horse mentally, he will work one hard physically.

“In riding and training my horses, we don’t use a lot of gim-micks. We don’t buy into the new fads,” Neslon says.

“We’re very old-fashioned in our approach — the way I was taught by Pete Reynolds and Ralph Eagle. We ride our horses a lot. I believe in wet saddle blankets making good horses. I don’t be-lieve in the 90-day wonders. Our theory is to just ride them — and ride them a lot.

“You don’t need gimmicks. Just wet saddle blankets.” ■