Tracing today’s cow ponies’ roots to their first American-born sire.
By Bob Welch
In the prologue to his seminal work, They Rode Good Horses, The First Fifty Years of the American Quarter Horse Association, Don Hedgpeth outlines the history of the precursors to what would become the American Quarter Horse.
While the AQHA points to several “foundation” sires, one name is likely the most influential: Steel Dust. Steel Dust was born in 1843 and came to Texas the next year.
Hedgepeth writes,
His progeny and his legend spread as cowboys drove Longhorns up the trails from Texas and opened the Great Plains to ranching. The name Steel Dust came to identify an entire breed of horse; they were called “Steeldusts,” the cowboy’s favorite kind. They were heavily-muscled horses, marked with small ears, a big jaw, remarkable intelligence and lightning speed up to a quarter mile.
Chances are, if you own an American Quarter Horse and log onto allbreedpedigree.com, you will find Steel Dust in your horse’s ancestry.
Curiously, he was named for a rust-colored 19th-century medical concoction/by-product of steel production. At the time, some thought it brought good luck.
Another horse with a metallic-inspired name, Copper Bottom, was also putting his stamp on what would become the cow ponies of Texas. Named for the practice of sheathing the bottom of ships with copper plates, General Sam Houston brought the horse to Texas in 1839. His progeny is as ubiquitous as Steel Dust’s, however, the two are often lumped together as early sires of the cow ponies of the West since they were both in Texas at the same time—and perhaps partly because of their memorable names.
The most significant commonality they share, however, might be their ancestry. Both horses trace back to Sir Archy.
Sired by Diomed and born in 1805, he was named for his breeder, Captain Archibald Randolph. Ralph Wormely IV bought the horse as a 2-year-old. Wormely entered him in his first race as a 3-year-old, but the horse came down with strangles. Rather than pay a forfeit fee, Wormely ran him in that race and then another before Sir Archy was fully recovered. Though he ran poorly in those two races, Sir Archy never lost again.
After changing hands several times, he ended up in the barn of General William Richardson Davie, governor of North Carolina. Davie retired him to stud because he was so dominant on the racetrack he could find no opponents.
Copper Bottom was a son of Sir Archy while Steel Dust was a fifth-generation descendant. Many horses in the Thoroughbred racing world trace back to Sir Archy as well.
Sir Archy was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame with nine other horses from America’s early racing history in 1955.
So while his name might not be on the tip of many of today’s horsemen’s tongues, this royally-named runner is no doubt the first great American-born Thoroughbred sire of horses from the ranch to the racetrack. ★
This article appears in the Summer 2023 issue of the Ranch Record. Would you like to read more stories about NRHC and ranching life? When you become a member of the Ranching Heritage Association, you’ll receive the award-winning Ranch Record magazine and more while supporting the legacy and preservation of our ranching heritage. Become a member today.
