Henry Michel

Badger Mountain

          In 1925 a bay bald faced colt was born on the Willms brothers wheat ranch near Douglas, Washington. This colt was destined to be one of the most famous bucking horses in the world. When he was big enough to ride he was traded to  some neighbors, who intended to use him for a saddle horse. The young horse bucked off more than a dozen men before they decided he would only be a work horse. He liked the harness even less than a saddle so the neighbors took him back to the Willms brothers. The Willms had no use for a horse of that kind on their farm so they took him to a near by rodeo.

 

          The young bald face horse proceeded to throw every rider who mounted him.  By 1932 he had been bucking over three years and no cowboy had ever came close to riding him. Attending some of these events was a newspaper man named M. E. Hatcher. He was a friend of Leo Moomaw’s and he told Leo he’d better go take a look at this big bay horse.  At the first opportunity Leo went to the Willms brothers ranch. Henry Michel was the first to try the horse. The ride was over 3-4 jumps. Leo worked a trade for him, named him Badger and put him in the draw. The very next day he threw Henry in 3-4 jumps.

 

          The list of bronk riders who tried and failed to conquer Badger Mountain reads like a “Who’s Who” of rodeo history. Some cowboys tried him as many as ten times and failed to ride him ten times. Some on the list are: Casey Tibbs, Gene Rambo, Bill Linderman, Bill Ward,  Jack Wade, Burl Mulkey, Jerry Ambler, Buck Tiffin, Bev Connor, Guy Cash, Vic Swartz, Bob Burroughs, Jackie Cooper, Stub Bartlemay, Mose Kruger, Johnny Tubbs, Ike Roberts, Norman Stewart, Cecil Bedford,  Felix Cooper, Ole Rice, Shirley Hussey, Joe Kelsey and a great many others.

 

          By 1951 age was taking it’s toll and the great Badger Mountain was taken home to be cared for as long as he may live in peace. In May 1954 he was run into a bucking chute to check his teeth. After a few minutes in the chute he collapsed and died. Presumably his great heart failed. Badger my have preferred to end his life that way.

Leo Moomaw at Keller, WA. 1947

Leo Moomaw raised, bought, traded and provided good bucking horses from 1915 to 1960. Dynamite, Blue Blazes and Badger Mountain were three of the many outstand bucking horses. In 1925 Blue Blazes was born on the old ranch at Monse, Washington. He started bucking bare back as a yearling and continued to buck into his late thirties. Badger Mountain was runner up to Hell’s Angel in a vote to determine the best saddle bronk in the world. Badger had a rearing style finished with a leap forward and a high kick. In his 20+ year bucking career it was estimated that only nine riders were able to make a qualified ride on the great horse. 

 In 1969 the Pendleton Round up opened it’s hall of fame. Two of the first inducted were Blue Blazes and Badger Mountain. Badger Mountain has also been inducted into the Ellensburg hall of fame.

 

Remembering the Old Bucking Horses

 

The Old Bucking Horse Museum and Hall of Fame was created to preserve the memory and honor all of the great old bucking horses. A select few are honored in various Rodeo Halls of Fame like Steamboat, Tipperary, Midnight, War Paint, Miss Klamath, Hell’s Angel, Badger Mountain and Blue Blazes.

 

Badger Mountain and Blue Blazes were two of Leo Moomaw’s great horses. Badger was acquired in a trade and bucked his way to fame as the second best bucking horse in the world in 1942. Blue Blazes was born on Leo Moomaw’s old ranch east of Monse, Washington in the year of 1925 to a bucking mare named Maude.

 

Blue Blazes started his career as a yearling. He bucked bareback with a bull rigging until he was five years old and he was never ridden. About the third jump he would pull a suck back and if he did not lose his rider, he would jump the opposite way and suck back again. Blue’s tricks were always successful. His mother Maude bucked the same way.  

 

 Blue Blazes matured into a great saddle bronk and bucked off many of the great saddle bronk riders of the day. He continued to perform well into his thirties. At the 1942 Pendleton Roundup Ed McCarty and Vern Elliott, the owners of Midnight and Five Minutes to Midnight, offered Leo $2,000 for Blue Blazes and Badger Mountain. To Leo Moomaw those good horsed were worth more than money. He declined the generous offer and that weekend Blue and Badger bucked off three or four of the world’s best bronk riders.

 

When they were loose in a pasture Blue Blazes and Badger Mountain always were found together.

 

Blue Blazes

 

They bonded together with an outlaw pride.

Blue Blazes and Badger were impossible to ride.

Blue was born on the ranch in twenty five,

thirty years later he was still alive.

 

He was a mighty bronk, as I have been told.

He started bucking when he was one year old.

Blue Blazes went unridden, even at that time.

On him few good riders could win a dime.

 

He bucked bare back until he was four.

By then he certainly knew the score.

He would jump to the right and suck back hard,

then to the left and it would be, “So long, pard!”

 

 

The pictures show him twisting about.

Blue Blazes was very quick and stout.

One of Frank Van Meter with cig in mouth,

shows Blue’s head go north and shoulder south.

 

Deb Copenhaver told me with pride,

he drew him once and he was hard to ride.

All the champions tried him at one time

and he got them all when in his prime.

 

Along with his partner’s famous name,   

Blue is honored in Pendleton’s hall of fame.

Just as they always gave the crowds a thrill,

Blue and Badger Mountain are together still.

 

© Ted Moomaw      June 20, 1998

 

To see more photos and stories stop by the

 Old Bucking Horse Museum and Hall of Fame at 330 Market Street, Baird, Texas.     325-513-6702.

Leo Moomaw

 

Out of The Hat

Written By Gene Pruitt

Editor of “The Rodeo Sports News”

 

Now that Leo Moomaw has retired from the rodeo business put me to thinking about the days when I first started going to rodeos up there in northern Washington where he lived. 

            One of the outstanding events it was ever my pleasure to watch was right up there the Keller rodeo, before the Grand Coulee Dam backed the Columbia river up over the old rodeo grounds. They had a deal called the Mountain Race that was the most outlandish thing to watch since the Civil War.  

            Right back of the arena was a great high mountain covered with rocks, pine trees, and shale slides. I don’t know how high it was for sure but when you wanted to look up at the top of it, the best way was to lay down. Well they’d all ride clear to the top of this mountain while the rodeo was going on and about the time the bull riding was over they’d be all set for the race.

            There’d be perhaps fifty entries and some of them carrying a pretty fair cargo of strong whiskey and all of them would bunch up at the back of a little bench near the top. When the starter fired his pistol they’d all take off on a dead run for the edge of the rim and when all those horses cam busting over the edge it was a site to watch. The idea of this race was to see who could be first into the arena and generally speaking every on of them rode like the law was after them. 

            Just about a fourth of the way down the mountain there was a little rim rock, a shale slide and a patch of small pine trees. When those running horses hit that place it looked like nothing you’ll ever see in the movies. There would be horses, cowboys and Indians scattered all the way to the bottom and many times only two or three men would reach the bottom right side up. 

 

            One year this same Leo Moomaw had traded for a fine new saddle horse and decided he would enter the Mountain Race. He made a fine run too, came into the arena first, which proves one thing, he wasn’t afraid of anything on earth.

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This was taken from a column called Out of the Hat. It was written by Gene Pruitt for the Rodeo Sports News. Gene was the 1948 world champion bronk rider. He was born and raised in the state of Washington near Yakima and lived at Soap Lake during much of his bronk riding days..