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Appaloosa History
Timberline Stock Ranch

From my acquaintance with Roy Kline, I became aware of the Timberline Stock Ranch in the early 80s. Roy had a sale catalog from a 1975 Timberline production sale held in Montana. Roy had also purchased some Timberline stock (Holy K Smoke and Nava Jo Candie) through a Haz-Cliffe sale held in Ohio where Timberline stock had been offered for sale. I was thoroughly dazzled by the spots in the Timberline catalog, and eventually wrote a letter to them, not even knowing if they were still in business. Turns out they were still in business, and that is how I learned the following about Timberline Stock Ranch, and managed to purchase some of their horses.

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If Money Creek Ranches was the Leopard Capitol of the World, I think I must amend that to say that Timberline Stock Ranch was the Leopard Capitol of the West. If you have ever seen one of the Timberline catalogs, or look into the pedigrees of the Ulrich horses, you may agree with my statement. Timberline is where Don Ulrich got his big boost in producing leopard horses "they" came from Timberline Stock Ranch not out of Ulrich's back pocket. And it was certainly what put leopard spots on Wolf Oak Appaloosas - either those we purchased directly from Timberline, or those Timberline descendants we purchased from Roy Kline.

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The Beginning

Ralph and Helen Brown own Timberline Stock Ranch, a 2500 acre spread in Montana. They joined the Appaloosa Horse Club in 1961. In 1956 they bred a couple of mares to an Appaloosa stallion owned by neighbor Dan Morgan. The resulting blanketed foals must have given them the disease of 'spotted fever', because they started adding Appaloosa mares to their herd. At their peak, I seem to remember Helen telling me they would have 60-90 foals in a season. That's a huge operation in anyone's book.

It wasn't until 1965, while attending the National Appaloosa Show, that the 'leopard bug' bit them. From that show on, the mare band was selected for leopards. They decided they needed their own stallion as well, and selected Timberline Speckled Drifter #18715. Drifter was purchased from John Braunger in 1965 for $200, being unregistered and 28 years young at the time. The Brown's registered him and used him for three seasons.

The Brown's also purchased and used Morgan's Rhondo #3501 [Two Tone F-426 x Tilly Freckles F-424]. Rhondo, bred by Dan Morgan, was a bay blanket that Timberline used for five years.

Rattler C [Tip #1486 x Domino T-3289] was another stallion used at Timberline. He was a black blanket grandson of Chief Joseph F-688.

During the mid 70s, the Brown's also leased Warren's Tribal Dancer. He was later sold by the owners in one of the annual production sales.

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The Leopard Days

Another stallion they used was Candy F-320 [Juaquin F-801 x Cloud Princess F-1026]. He was leased in 1966 from Maragret Besecker Farnsworth, Quarter Circle Circle Ranch, Gunnison, Colorado for one season. Candy was about twenty years old at the time. The majority of the foals produced by Candy F-320 the next year were leopards. From the lease of Candy F-320, the Brown's kept a leopard colt to use as a herd sire. This son of Candy F-320 was Navajo's Candy, out of the mare Crusty T-691. Crusty was purchased by the Brown's in 1965. She was a daughter of Chief Navajo F-1971 out of a daughter of Chief Navajo.*

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The Legacy of Navajo's Candy, Simcoe's Weeping Willow and Weeping Water

Navajo's Candy did a super job of siring leopards especially from the two Simcoe Sarcee daughters that the Brown's had managed to wheedle away from Charlie W. Peterson. These two mares were Simcoe's Weeping Willow and Weeping Water. Both of these mares were re-registered by the Brown's as Charlie supposedly had a little tiff with the ApHC, and destroyed many of his horses' ApHC registration papers. It was unfortunate as the pedigree on the dam's side dead ends with "a Charlie W. Peterson mare." Simcoe's Weeping Willow produced Ulrich's Many Coups and Money Creeks Weeping Willow among others. Weeping Water produced Moroccan Leopard II-1472 (pictured below on this page), who was a herd sire for Timberline, and WOA Sarcee's Candy. I recollect Ralph saying these two mares made his program - or mares like them make your program. Either way, I could tell Ralph was very proud of those mares, and considered them a cornerstone of his current breeding program.

As mentioned above, one of the offspring of Weeping Water when she was bred to Moroccan Leopard F-1472, was Moroccan Leopard II-1472 #209543. He was also a successful sire at Timberline. He was later sold to the midwest, South Dakota if my memory is accurate.

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Helen Brown told me that Mary Hare visited them while she was an ApHC director, and more or less convinced them that they ought to get the Chief Chelsea line. In time the Brown's purchased Dun Roven Chelsea's Image #92259 [Chief Chelsea x Dun Roven Indian Penny] for $1200 as a weanling from the Woodlings of Medina, Ohio, who owned Chief Chelsea. If my memory serves me correctly, I remember that the Brown's were not entirely satisfied with him, and did not use Image that many years before selling him.

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The Busy Years

Timberline ran about 60 head of mares, and sold the majority at an annual production sale in Billings, Montana during the 70s. These sales were advertised with full page ads in the Appaloosa News. I think the reason that the name Timberline does not fall from Appaloosa folks' lips as does Ulrich and Money Creek is that they often did not register their stock. Therefore their ranch name was not attached to that many of their horses, which translates into less visibility and less notoriety.

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The Last Decade

It is a shame that the Brown's suffered the loss of their home twice from fire as many photographs they had preserved went up in smoke. It was a loss of Appaloosa history, as well as for the Brown's.

Helen told me that Navajo's Candy had been poisoned. Her son stated that he had been struck by lightning. Whichever way Navajo's Candy died, it was not old age. I think that loss lessened their desire to produce Appaloosas. When I contacted them, they were using a Go Par Go bred stallion from Jack Bowser on the mares they still had at the time, which appeared to be less than 10 mares in 1983. She also mentioned that Weeping Water had gone to the killers. Weeping Willow went to someplace in the midwest - Missouri sticks in my mind - for her final days. And the last son of Navajo's Candy and Weeping Water, came to Wolf Oak Appaloosas.

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Afterword

I hope you have gleaned from this scant text and the photographs, that at one time Timberline Stock Ranch was a huge operation in the Appaloosa community...and they truly do have a far reaching influence in today's Appaloosa world, especially among the [leopard] foundation people. They just aren't credited for it.

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Update (November 2009)

It was brought to my attention by Elaine Morgan of Jesta Ranch that Timberline Stock Ranch was having a dispersal sale at the Billings (Montana) Stock Sale in the Fall of 2009. The following 21 horses were offered for sale. All foals sired by D lucky Strike unless otherwise noted.

• TSR Autumn 1995 grade red leopard mare with bay colt at side
• TSR Ginger 2004 grade red blanket mare
• TSR Tawny 2001 grade red blanket mare with red (bay?) leopard colt at side
• TSR Indians Red Dancer 2003 grade bay leopard mare with blanketed filly at side
• TSR Freckles Red 2005 grade red leopard mare with red leopard filly at side sired by quarter horse
• TSR Jypsy Sue 2005 grade black leopard mare with colt at side sired by quarter horse
• BFFTSR Tamber 1999 grade red leopard mare with filly at side
• TSR Saphire 1997 grade red leopard mare with bay colt at side
• D Lucky Strike - Stallion #624282 2003 blue roan/leopard Sire: Charley Brown Button x Centenial Special Dam: Sleepy Dai x Ford's Roi Dai
• 1989 ApHC Bay mare - Shokoko Princess #481174 Sire: Shokoko Joe x Bar D's Revel Dam: Windy Sundancer x Windward Sun with bay colt at side
• 2001 ApHC Bay Roan mare -BFFTSR Cheetah #606529 with fewspot colt at side Sire: Baron Prince x Baron Poco Dam: Ulrich's Tamara x Ulrich's Many Coups
• 2000 ApHC Bay mare - BFFTSR Cheeka #596960 with sorrel filly at side Sire: Baron Prince x Baron Poco Dam: TSR Timberline Lady
• 1999 ApHC/HCOC Red Roan mare - Brite of Dawn #627601 with colt at side Sire: My Brite Conclusion x Mr Conclusion Dam: Hawk's First Dawn x Bar Too Dan
• 1997 ApHC Bay mare - OK Ima Easy Chick, #627390 bred to D Lucky Strike. Sire: Easy Savage x Easy We Go Dam: Northern Dear x Northern Horizon
• 1988 ApHC Bay mare - Ulrich's Tamara #590042 , may have colt sired byD Lucky Strike Sire: Ulrich's Many Coups x Navajo Candy Dam: Ulrich's Sarokee Sue x Navajo's Candy
• 1996 ApHC Bay Roan mare - Wind River Tiger Gal #552607 with fewspot leopard colt at side Sire: PS Valentine x Sundae Tiger Dam: SP Tiger Princess x Sundae Tiger
• 2009 grade fewspot leopard colt sired by D Lucky Strike
• 2009 grade black blanket colt sired by D Lucky Strike
• 2009 grade red leopard colt sired by D Lucky Strike out of TSR Timberline Lucy
• 2009 grade few spot leopard colt sired by D Lucky Strike
• 2009 grade red leopard filly sired by D Lucky Strike out of BFFTSR Splash's Doll

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The 2009 foals, sired by D Lucky Strike, that sold separately:

I'll make a guess that Timberline Stock Ranch kept the dams of those five foals...maybe there will be more TSR Appaloosas in the future.

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End of the Timberline Story

The above information is accurate to the best of my knowledge. Bringing any errors or discrepancies to my attention will be appreciated.

Thank you, Pat Sunstrom (granddaughter of Margaret Besecker Farnsworth), for the corrections!

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*per Palmer Wagner

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This page last updated on November 27, 2009. ©2003-2009 Wolf Oak Appaloosas/Appaloosa Territory