Performance Horse, September 2007

Atwood’s performance horse program is concentrated
at Stony Creek Station in Orland, California, under the
direction of Jodi Elliot.
Performance Horse September 2007
&
Cutters, Cattle
Cabernet
By Tracy Gantz
Athletic horses, good cattle, fine wine and
“trading dirt” have kept Tom Atwood busily
diversified for nearly 40 years.
coco
T
om Atwood loves a good performance horse as much as the
next person. He appreciates an
animal that can motor down the
fence, cut a cow with style, or mark well in
a reining pattern. But more than anything,
he wants to produce sound, well-mannered,
versatile horses, and he has designed his farflung Atwood Ranch operation with that goal
in mind.
“I want to raise structurally correct and
sound horses,” Atwood says. “I want to raise
horses that people want to purchase and go on
with in whatever discipline suits them and the
horse. I’m happy to have them go in whatever
direction they want to go.”
That isn’t to say Atwood doesn’t have horses
that sport specific cutting or reining bloodlines. His stallion Ill Be Smart is a full brother
to Smart Little Lena, while two of his other
sires, One Smart Peppy and Colonel Doc Bar
Chex, are by Peppy San Badger and Colonel
Freckles, respectively.
Atwood and his wife, Julie, own several
ranches, most of them in Northern California,
but also in Oregon. His slogan “Cutters, Cattle,
Cabernet” speaks to the range of his interests,
from growing cabernet grapes in the vineyard
next to where he lives to raising show and beef
cattle, and performance and ranch horses.
While his horses are spread throughout
many of his properties, his performance animals are concentrated at Stony Creek Station
in Orland, California, under the direction of
ranch manager Jodi Elliott.
“With Tom, it’s truly a love of the horses,”
says Elliott, who with her husband, Jack,
has worked for Atwood some 20 years. “It’s
a passion for him. He loves the babies and
the broodmares, and he stands behind his
horses.”
Trading Dirt
Atwood didn’t start out in the cattle and
horse business—he practiced dentistry during the 1970s and also handled his own real
September 2007 Performance Horse coco
Although he can be camera shy with the media, Atwood (third from the left) poses for a picture with friends and associates (l-r) Kalley Krickeberg, Catherine Sapienza,
Linda Parelli, Pat Parelli and Mike Sapienza.
With Tom, it’s truly a love of the horses.
It’s a passion for him. He loves the babies and
the broodmares, and he stands behind his horses.
—Jodi Elliot
estate investments.
“I became a dirt trader,” Atwood says,
chuckling at the memory. “I buy and sell bare
land.”
What he modestly leaves out of the story is
that he has learned how to buy and sell land at
optimum times. When cutting horses began to
interest him during the mid-1970s, he hauled
mares to Texas to be bred. That led to investing in Weatherford property during the early
1980s, before that area, about 35 miles west of
Fort Worth, began to boom.
“I was grousing to my wife about having
Performance Horse September 2007
to haul my mares and the care they were getting,” Atwood recalls. “She said, ‘Why don’t
you just buy a place there?’
“There weren’t many places with good,
sandy soil. The pleasure and halter people
were already in Aubrey and Pilot Point. But
somebody told me that Weatherford also had
sandy soil.”
With both the land and proximity to the
best cutting stallions going for it, Atwood
bought property in Weatherford, where he
began raising top-caliber cutting horses.
“Cutting was very focused at that time, but
prices were depressed,” Atwood says. “I primarily concentrated on getting mares that had
a good performance record.”
Atwood put together one of the finest cutting-horse broodmare bands in the country.
He estimates that at one time he had about
15 Doc Bar mares. He owned mares such as
Candy Bullette, who with Mike Mowery made
the finals of the 1978 NCHA Cutting Horse
Futurity, and Queens Are Better, who won
the 1980 NCHA Summer Cutting Spectacular with Mowery and was reserve to Smart
Little Lena in the 1984 NCHA Masters with
Mowery’s brother, Rick.
During the Weatherford years, Bernie Kirkland managed Atwood’s ranches. Atwood bred
frequently to Peppy San Badger, a.k.a. “Little
Peppy,” and became friendly with the King
Ranch people. Out of the friendship evolved
a dual sale featuring King Ranch and Atwood
yearlings.
“We sold out of Will Rogers [Memorial
Center in Fort Worth],” Atwood says. “I’d
have 25 babies, and the King Ranch would
match that.”
The sales, which ran from the late 1980s to
the mid-1990s, quickly earned a reputation
as an outstanding place to find a young cutting prospect. Atwood was selling yearlings
for $35,000 to $40,000 out of mares that had
earned six figures.
Though Atwood prefers the broodmare
side of the breeding business, when the stallion Especial entered his life, he adjusted his
operation to include standing stallions.
Especial, a son of Doc Bar out of War Leo’s
Lady by War Leo, was one of the stallions in
the Super Syndicate, a rich cutting open only
to offspring of stallions in the syndicate. Eventually, the Super Syndicate disbanded, and Especial ended up in a sale.
“Bernie and I weren’t even looking for a
stud,” Atwood says. “Bernie was buying cheap
mares and pasture-breeding them. Especial
was in the sale, and he came into the ring on
three legs—he looked terrible. We bought Especial for $7,600.”
Jodi and Jack Elliott had a ranch near one of
Atwood’s Weatherford holdings. Jodi was buying mares from Kirkland at the time Atwood
and Kirkland came home with Especial.
“I was told that Especial was a savage and
would be no good for pasture breeding,” Atwood says. “Jodi made him into a pup. She
made a believer out of me.”
Especial, in turn, made a believer out of
everyone by turning out well-constructed
youngsters for Atwood.
“He put outstanding bone and feet on horses,”
Atwood says. “I really liked that horse.”
The care that Atwood and Elliott give their
horses has resulted in animals that live long,
happy lives. Especial died at age 32, while
Candy Bullette is still living at age 32, roaming
a large pasture with a group of young horses.
“She’s a babysitter for us,” Elliott says. “We
give these old mares and geldings a job to do,
and I think that’s why they last so long. They
enjoy being out there with the babies.”
The same special attention that Atwood
horses experienced in Texas is the norm at
the outfit’s primary California ranch, as well.
Stony Creek clients, who range from celebrities such as actor William Shatner to local
horsewoman Nora Stent, respond with loyalty
to the good care their horses receive.
Stent, who owns TSR Quarter Horses in Fall
River Mills, California, sends recipient mares
Dalco
Special Especial
Especial, a son of Doc Bar out of War Leo’s Lady by War Leo, was Atwood’s first great stallion.
from embryo transfers of her Texas-based performance mares to Stony Creek to foal because,
should anything go wrong, her ranch isn’t located close enough to an equine hospital.
“They have lots of room,” says Stent of
Stony Creek. “It makes so much difference in
the babies. Jodi and her staff are great and caring. They treat my horses like their horses.”
north San Diego county and were happy to
return to California when Atwood asked them
to. In fact, Jack, who shows cutters as a nonpro, is an electrical contractor and helped Atwood build the new facility.
Stony Creek encompasses 2,500 acres and
houses the stallions and most of Atwood’s
performance mares. Because the business has
I was told Especial was a savage
and would be no good for pasture breeding.
Jodi made him into a pup. He put outstanding
bone and feet on horses. I really liked that horse.
—Tom Atwood
Return to California
Atwood developed Stony Creek because
he found himself flying to Weatherford frequently from Northern California and spending about one week out of the month there.
As shipped semen began making stallion and
mare location insignificant, he decided to
leave Texas and concentrate his holdings on
the West Coast. He convinced the Elliotts to
return with him.
Before moving to Texas, Jodi and Jack had
owned a ranch in Fallbrook, a small town in
changed since the Weatherford days, Atwood
felt he didn’t want to try to compete at the
most expensive level. That, in turn, altered
what he looks for in a potential dam.
“The cost of those mares with the good performance records has gotten so prohibitive,”
he explains. “It just doesn’t pencil out to spend
$200,000 to $500,000, especially when you’re
breeding to your own stallions. I’m going for
pedigree and conformation now.”
Jodi helps buy Atwood’s mares, and she says
she looks for young mares that have the potenSeptember 2007 Performance Horse Primo Morales
Bobby Bo Badger, pictured here with rider Robin Flourney, stands at Longview Ranch, an Atwood-owned
operation in Oregon.
tial to develop good families. She and Atwood
also look for mares that will cross well with the
Stony Creek stallions.
Currently, Stony Creek stands six stallions,
four owned by Atwood (Ill Be Smart, Colonel
Doc Bar Chex, One Smart Peppy and Boot
Scootin Dually) and two for clients (Mr Badger Lena and Doctor Shorty Brown). While
Atwood will eagerly outline the good points
of each, it’s hard for him not to show some favoritism for Colonel Doc Bar Chex, whom he
bred and fondly calls “Target.”
Atwood sold Target as a cutter, and the stallion did well. Eventually, he was compelled to
buy the horse back to stand at stud.
Just because an Atwood horse goes to stud,
however, doesn’t mean he no longer sees a
saddle and rider.
“Tom wants his stallions ridden,” Jodi says.
“We work them on cattle as long as they’re
legged up, and they love it. That’s why they
are so good-minded.”
Atwood attributes much of the stallions’
manners to the gentle, yet firm way Jodi and
her mostly female staff care for them.
“She just gets them to love her, and it shows,”
he points out. “They’re doing what she wants,
and they think they’re doing what they want. It’s
a gift and probably her strongest suit.”
Jodi explained it this way: “We can’t outmuscle them, so we have to outthink them.
Performance Horse September 2007
We give them the respect that we expect to
get from them. Stallions are smart, and they
can be as disciplined as anything else if they’re
taught to do it.”
That discipline is impressive to even the top
people in the cutting business. For example,
Ken Wold happened to be at the ranch one day
when Target was being exercised.
“Wold asked if he could ride him,” Atwood
remembers. “He spent some time with Target,
and he said, ‘I think I could do something with
him in the World’s Greatest Horseman.’”
That might not have seemed unusual except
that Target was 12 years old at the time. Wold
put some training on the stallion and the following year rode him to Reserve Champion
honors behind Bob Avila and Paid By Chic in
the 2000 National Reined Cow Horse Association’s Greatest Horseman contest.
Branching Out
Atwood has branched out from the performance horses at Stony Creek. He keeps
his cattle on an 11,000-acre ranch in Red
Bluff, California, and leases part of it to other
cattlemen. He also has cattle and timber operations on about 100,000 acres he owns in
Oregon.
Rob and Becky Williams run Longview
Ranch, the ranch horse division of the Oregon
operation that includes some cutters and rein-
At Atwood Ranch Naturally in Elk Grove,
California, yearlings receive light training
according to the Pat Parelli natural
horsemanship method.
With so many irons in the fire, Atwood has
a lot to oversee. But he has installed key people
at each ranch, all of whom are devoted to the
same basic goal: producing sound, well-mannered, versatile horses.
“This industry got to the point where we
were producing throwaway horses,” Atwood
says. “I have my own pasture ornament. That
horse was so unsound; we use him for the
kids. He has tiny little feet, and you can tell
coco
ers. They stand the stallion Bobby Bo Badger, another son of Little Peppy who has performed as both a cutter and reiner.
Atwood’s interest in developing ranch horses
also led him to purchase a Thoroughbred stallion named Red Fire, a son of Hennessy, who
is a Thoroughbred sire of several talented running Quarter Horses. Atwood plans to breed
some of his mares by Colonel Doc Bar Chex
to Red Fire.
“I want to get good, big ranch horses,” Atwood says. “They probably won’t be worth
much, but I want to try it.”
Mike and Catherine Sapienza have begun
another new Atwood division, Atwood Ranch
Naturally, in Elk Grove, California. They are
followers of the Pat Parelli natural horsemanship method.
“We’re trying it out with my yearlings,” Atwood explains. “It makes sense to me to give
yearlings some light training. The earlier you
can teach a horse, the better it is for them.”
The Sapienzas’ methods echo much of what
Jodi and her crew do with foals at Stony Creek.
“If the mare foals out here, the very next
day the baby has a halter on,” Jodi says. “Some
people bring in babies that are quite wild, and
we start halter-breaking them right away.
When people pick up their horses, they are
amazed at how broke and calm the baby is.”
Atwood even has a training division in
Southern California with reining trainer
Danny Girardi.
“I have about 20 horses for him, and I ride
his reiners,” Girardi says. “I’m going to try
to qualify two of his horses this year for the
[AQHA] World.”
Girardi has known Atwood for about 20
years, having shown Atwood’s horses since age
19. He has won the AQHA World in reining
and has trained others to do the same. Girardi
says that he and Atwood are now focusing on
training reiners for non-pros instead of making the mad dash toward developing a futurity
prospect. And while Atwood has performance
horses in training, he offers most of his foals to
buyers when they are long yearlings, keeping
only the occasional filly to replace older mares
in his broodmare band.
This past January, Atwood experimented
with a sale at Stony Creek.
“For a first sale, overall we did fairly well,”
Elliott says. “We took in outside horses, too,
offering about 120 horses. Something like 750
to 900 people were there.”
The sale included horses of all ages, from
yearlings to riding horses and broodmares.
his hocks are hurting him. The horse has no
withers. He’s just not made to hold up. That
isn’t what I want to raise.”
At Atwood’s ranches, whether it’s a performance horse, a ranch horse, or simply a riding
horse, the animals are built to last.
“That’s the reason I’ve stayed hooked
so long,” Atwood says with a smile. “I’ve
found things I want to do, and I’m happy
with it.”
September 2007 Performance Horse