On the trail of old bronks

The Bucking Horse Man (book) has been a work in progress since 1990. It is based on my love and fascination with the old bronks and the stories of their era. I was fortunate to have grown up handling some of the great bucking horses of the 1950s. The horses were owned by the Kelsey-Moomaw rodeo company. Leo Moomaw was my father.

From 1915 into the early 1930s Leo Moomaw had built a well know, rank string of bucking horses. Many of them he had raised on his ranch. His ranch lay about 15 miles north east of the old Fort Okanogan, site of the first fir trappers in that part of the Northwest. The Old Fort Okanogan is now under water near the point where the Okanogan river empties into the Columbia River.

In 1933 Leo joined forces with Tim Bernard and by the 1940s their string of bucking stock was well known as Moomaw and Bernard rodeo company. Leo and Tim contracted many of the northwest’s rodeos including Ellensburg, Washington and the famous Pendleton Round-up. In the 1930s and early 1940s the horses were shipped by train to rodeos at Burley, Idaho, Livingston, Montana, and on to Cheyenne, Wyoming. In 1940 the Moomaw and Bernard string traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, Little Rock, Arkansas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In the fall of 1946 the Moomaw-Bernard rodeo company was sold to Ring Brothers of Wilber, Washington.

In 1951 Deb Copenhaver was competing at Madison Square Garden and Boston Garden, when Everett Colburn asked him if he knew where he could find some proven bucking horses. Deb informed him that Ring Brothers were wanting to sell and he could talk to them when he got home.

The sale was made and Colburn sent trucks to pick them up. The horses were shipped to Dublin, Texas. In the spring of 1952 Deb won the Houston rodeo on one of the horses named Which Way.

In 2003 my wife and I settled in Dublin, Texas. I soon learned that had been the head quarters of Everett Colburn. We learned where the old Lightening C ranch was located and went out to the location. There are still signs on the gates. Colburn’s daughter had started a museum in Dublin but unfortunately she had passed before we arrived.

I started a search for the old horses, especially Blue Blazes, who was born on Leo Moomaw’s ranch in 1925. Someone told Leo that he was still bucking in the mid to late 1950s. In six years I have not found a trace. I am hoping that old programs or a horse list will be found that will show some of the names.

In an interview with Deb Copenhaver he made the statement that those old horse should never be forgotten. My wife and I have an electronic collection of over 3000 old photos and we are in the process of getting them framed and ready for a museum display.

I am thankful for the information I got from Deb Copenhaver and Ellie Lewis, Dan Taylor and many others.

Ted A Moomaw