Arizona
When the stories of legendary cowboys and cowgirls are written, there are no doubt many mentions of a great horse or two in the mix. Rich Skelton and Chili Dog. Guy Allen and Jeremiah. Roy Cooper and Stran Smith’s Topper. Charmayne James and Scamper.
The list could go on and on of rodeo legends and their legendary horses. However, there is one cowboy and his horse whose impact on the rodeo industry, namely roping and barrel racing, is still felt today. That horse was Driftwood, otherwise known to world champion roper Asbury Schell as Speedy, and though the horse died in 1960, his legacy lives on today through the efforts of a handful of dedicated Driftwood breeders, including Arizona’s own Mel Potter.
Mel Potter is no stranger to the horse and rodeo industries. He began his rodeo career at the age of 9, when he first started spending his winters in the Arizona sun, learning to rope and appreciate good horses. Potter college rodeoed for the University of Arizona and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in calf roping in 1959, the first year the event was held. However, unlike most cowboys who scrape by a living trying to make it in the rodeo world, Potter is a businessman. Summers are spent at his family’s farm in Wisconsin, where the Potter family has been growing Ocean Spray cranberries for more than 100 years. The combination of business savvy and a love of great horses has made Potter’s operation one to be envied by many.
Of course, the Potter operation wouldn’t be complete without Mel’s family. His wife, Wendy, is herself a very accomplished barrel racer, as is oldest daughter JoLynn Alexander, who lives with her husband, George, and kids on the Potter ranch in Marana, Ariz. Probably the best-known barrel racer of the family is a lanky blond by the name of Sherry – Sherry Cervi, two-time World Champion barrel racer, that is.
Given Potter and his family’s success in the horse business, you might say that he was just born with a natural ability and appreciation for good horses, but Mel might just tell you otherwise.
When Potter was growing up, it was common knowledge that the best ropers in the world were generally from Arizona and California. And, as is usually for great ropers, they rode great horses. The Driftwood line was the most popular at the time, thanks in part to Schell, but Potter didn’t put much stock into a horse’s bloodlines.
“When I started, I thought it was good cowboys who made good horses,” said Potter. “But after my experience with Driftwoods, I knew it was the great horses that made great cowboys.”
Potter’s first experience with a Driftwood horse got him hooked for life. He had acquired a colt named “Charlie,” by Speedywood, a Driftwood son. The colt was smart and learned quickly – so quickly that Potter was truly amazed by his progress.
“I calf roped on him on Monday and Tuesday, and he learned real quick,” Potter said. “You never had to teach him anything twice – he just got it. Well, on Wednesday was the big Tucson Horse Show, one of the biggest in the country at the time. I decided I should take him there to see what he could do.”
When it came time to leave for the show, however, Potter realized that he had forgotten to teach Charlie a few key things.
“I remembered pretty quick that he’d never been in a trailer before, so I had to get a neighbor to help me get him in. Once he loaded, I took him into town, and it was like nothing he’d ever seen. The carnival, flags, horses everywhere…well, his eyes were bugged out and he was acting like a typical colt on his first trip away from home. Then, I remembered that I’d never used him behind a barrier. So, I took him to run him through it a few times, and boy did it scare him. At that point, I was pretty scared. I thought I was going to make a fool of him and me.”
Despite all the setbacks, when it came time for the competition, Potter was pleasantly surprised by the colt’s performance.
“That calf was the first thing he seen all morning that he liked,” laughed Potter. “He jerked him down like a pro, even though it was the seventh calf he’d ever been tied onto. I was as surprised as anyone when we won that roping, and from then on, I started trying to get my hands on as many of the Driftwoods as possible.”
And not just any Driftwoods. One of the keys to Potter’s success is that he believes strongly in keeping the percentage of Driftwood blood high – usually somewhere around 20 to 30 percent.
“A lot of people say they’ve got a Driftwood, but it’ll only have about one percent actual Driftwood blood in it,” says Potter. “Most of our horses have a minimum of 12 percent, and a lot of them are around the 25 percent mark.”
Potter even has one mare who is 32 percent Driftwood, the highest percentage left living.
Potter is also the owner of the only living son of Driftwood Ike – making him one of last living grandsons of Driftwood – aptly named Lone Drifter. Another stallion who is a standout in Potter’s phenomenal breeding operation is PC Frenchman’s Hayday, more commonly known as “Dinero.” The 10-year-old stud is a full brother to the famed barrel horse “Bozo,” who took Kristy Peterson to World Championship titles.
Dinero, though not known as the barrel racing powerhouse Bozo was, primarily due to the fact that he’s stayed home much more to breed mares, serves as an all-around horse for Cervi in the barrel racing, as well as more than a few team ropers. In fact, Dinero, who has been Cervi’s steady back-up horse, was called upon to take the place of Tinman, Cervi’s first-string horse, when he was injured during the 2005 NFR. Dinero kept Cervi in the average race, and overall, she finished fourth in the world.
“I’m very pleased with what Dinero did in Vegas,” said Cervi. “I ended up winning about $38,000 and third in the average, which is amazing considering that I didn’t have a real great finals. It could have been much worse, and I’m just happy that I had such a solid back-up horse.”
In addition to his barrel-racing strength, Dinero is also an accomplished team roping horse, a common find on the Potter ranch.
“We rope off everything,” says Cervi, herself an accomplished header. “I try them out in the barrels, and if I think they have potential, then I use them in futurities. If I don’t they’ve got the roping to fall back on.”
“Fall back on” might be an understatement when it comes to Dinero. The palomino stud put in a full day’s work and then some at the Nampa, Id., rodeo earlier this year.
The horse was ridden by family friend Cory Petska, who heels for Tee Woolman, and the duo won first. Then, Richard Durham and Walt Woodard also rode him in the team roping, with Woodard taking home fourth place and Durham’s partner missing for him. After the team roping, Cervi took Dinero through the barrels and came out fifth.
In addition to having done well in the rodeo pen himself, Dinero is proving that his babies can perform at the top levels of competition, too. Cervi won the NFR average title in 2009 with a young mare named MP Meter My Hay, whom she calls “Stingray.” Another barrel racer, Tammy Fischer, rode a horse by Dinero that she calls “Money,” and even rode Dinero during the seventh round as a back-up horse. At the same event, steer wrestler Todd Suhn was riding yet another horse by Dinero, named MP Rightbackattya. All in all, the horses by Dinero won nearly a half a million dollars during the year’s biggest rodeo event.
“These horses have a lot of rodeo ancestry in them,” said Potter. “If you’ve been around them a lot, you know that they can do it all. I’d match ‘em against anything in the world for intelligence and quickness.”
Petska is no doubt thanking the Potters for raising such excellent roping horses. Besides Dinero, Petska rodeo Thriftwood, otherwise known as “Winston,” a five-year-old who took Petska all the way to the NFR. Petska and Woolman won the average title at the 2005 NFR, with Petska riding Winston in eight of the 10 rounds.
“It is absolutely unheard of to have a 5-year-old roping at this caliber at the NFR,” said Potter prior to the competition. Petska agreed that Winston was a key element in his move to the top at the NFR.
“He made a big difference, and I think he’s a big reason why we won,” said Petska. “No matter what kind of handle Tee gave me, Winston got me right in there for a shot.”
That’s just the kind of success that Potter expects from his horses. Winston is now the third leg of the Potter breeding program, and is busy producing outstanding offspring of his own.
With more than 58 years in the rodeo and horse business, Potter certainly knows what traits he is breeding for and which ones he is not.
“We aren’t interested in raising horses that you lope around in circles with in a suit,” says Potter. “But we do raise the kind of horses that the best ropers in the world can get on and win with.”
One of the keys to raising such high-caliber horses is maintaining the high percentages of Driftwood blood. While other lines have come under scrutiny for intense linebreeding, the Driftwood line seems to thrive with the method.
“We’ve pretty near got Driftwood blood on the top and bottom side of everything around here,” says Potter. “My goals and my reason for doing this is to make sure that the bloodline doesn’t disappear. There isn’t that much of it around anyway, and there aren’t too many people who appreciate them. The ones that do are mostly all gone.”
What’s more, Potter wants to leave his legacy on the world of Driftwood by leaving behind the highest-percentage and highest-quality Driftwoods there are. Additionally, Potter’s breeding program should produce some outstanding barrel prospects as well. He has acquired some of the best barrel blood around, mostly from the same lines that Cervi has won her world championships on.
“They cross with everything else so well, so if we outcross them, we use mares that are kin to Sherry’s barrel horses, “Troubles” [Sir Double Delight] and “Hawk” [Jet Royal Speed] because I liked ‘em,” says Potter.
Another philosophy that the Potters have is that everything is roped on, even the mares.
“We rope on a lot of the mares that will eventually be used to breed. It’s really a shame sometimes to take such good barrel and rope horses from the arena to be broodmares, but that’s how we keep the bloodlines so good,” says Potter. “Plus, having the mares be broke like that makes them better mothers and easier to deal with when they’re foaling. The colts are a lot easier to break this way, too. We hardly have any that buck at all.”
The Potters usually sell about 35 weanlings every winter, keeping a few for themselves to make into rodeo horses, as well as keeping some of the fillies for broodmares.
“We don’t usually sell that many finished horses, but we do keep them around for competition,” says Cervi. “We have about four good head horses and four good heel horses because you never know when something is going to get crippled.”
The sturdy string of horses and back-ups is certainly a key component to the success of Cervi and Petska, as well as generations of rodeo cowboys and cowgirls who have had the opportunity to be mounted on a Driftwood horse. And with Potter at the helm, it seems that the great line of Driftwood horses will be around for generations to come.
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