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.