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Show SOUTHERN UTAH NEWS WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15, 2001 Community They'll be coming down the canyon when they come - Western Legends' special equine guests ! ?' 4 .. S i head-stoppin- St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California with a stagecoach they had built for them. While in California, they got acquainted with the Highway 50 Wagon Train people and were invited to participate in the annual wagon train that goes from Carson City, Nevada area to the Sacramento, California area every June. Highway 50 goes, through South Lake Tahoe and over Spooner Summit and Echo i. i c- 11 uA I . j s' M' I' - Placerville and Sacramento. Its a very scenic and steep highway. In the 80s, the Wolverton ily headed to Arizona (to thaw out, as Red puts it) where they now have a ranch west of Tucson. They still raise Morgans and about every other kind of horse also. Red claims hes got a horse for every buyer. They use their horses in the movie industry, and were out at Old Tucson, ? .4 . a tourist attraction, pulling stagecoaches and hauling tourists for six years. One of the movies they were getting geared up for requested a magnificent stallion for the Army Captain. Red looked around and found The Silverstreaker, a big gray If V t 1 1, Red Wolverton and his team will be heading to Kanab on September 6, 7 and 8 for the Western Legends Round-Uended up with 30 or so colts from coming into his hands and then and one an AQHA mare. Red Streaker and about half were you get 10 horses pulling on top works with both mares and geldgray. The Morgan cross colts of that. Red and Kip have spent a ings in the hitch. Several years have a stronger color domina- lot of time hanging from a ago the Wolvertons did a movie p. was AQHA stallion. He is by Mr. tion because only a couple of singletree with lines nailed to it, called Deadman. The Tailwind and out of Bar Tidy. them are gray. Streaker was a to get the muscles and reflexes so a big Indian who weighed 350 lbs Usually you dont have a stal- big horse being 16.1 hands bare- they are able to slip that near in the nude and he was cast to ride throughout the whole movie. lion on a movie set because you foot and weighing 1300 lbs (on swing, pull slack on that off-leay Red tried several big saddle horses dont need any added distrac- slim rations) so most of the colts a little attention on the co-st- ar d, off-bod- tion, but Streaker was an outstanding horse and perfect for the role. In fact he made such an impression on Red that he ended up breeding him to all his Morgans and other mares for several years. Red already had some Morgan Quarter crossbred horses from a Morgan stud, and liked the cross real well for an horse. Red kept Streaker for seven years before giving into other pressures and sold him to a lady in New Mexico, who kept him at stud until putting him down for cancer in 1999. The Wolvertons all-arou- nd have some size on them. Well, it was just natural to put the grays together as a hitch. Then the Highway 50 people talked Red into (they really had to twist his arm) pulling the lead wagons for the last two years from Dayton, Nevada to Folsum, California. So in June the whole family loads up and went on the wagon train. Reds son Kip is the driver with Red being the relief. Wife Marge rides in the lead wagon with grandkids Tanner and Siena. Reds daughter-in-laKellie, and grandson Cletus, nephew Destry, usually are the w, outriders. Now you dont just put 10 horses together and go around the block! It takes a lot of driving, changing horses around to find where they work the best, and getting their shoulders worked down and muscles in shape to pull the heavy loads. That is providing they are all broke to drive to begin with. Also getting the drivers hands and arms in shape. The lines alone weigh 20 lbs., , for Ucotorrt Lcgsncis vjclskdncl, '' . Grab those cowboy boots and shine up those belt buckles! Get : weekend on September This years contest will feature three judging categories; Best Dressed Female, Best Dressed Male and Best Business. Prizes will be awarded in each category. Ifyou would like to participate, and register yourself call the Southern Utah News at V : for consideration. Round-U- p y t , If youre out and about the Pass and on down to Strawberry, Three Points area west of Tucson, Arizona, chances are you will run into a very spectacular sight. Do I see six, eight, no its 10 head of gray horses pulling a big wagon down the road. Boy, g and talk, about staring! Lets start at the beginning. Red Wolverton has been driving horses since the early 40s on the big hay fields of the ZX Ranch in south central Oregon, where the horses were pretty big and snorty. You learned how to drive in a hurry, and had some wrecks along the way. In 1948, the ZX chicken fed over 500 horses, mostly harness horses, when they bought 26 John Deere tractors, but still kept about 70 teams to feed with in the winter. From the ZX, Red ranched for while in central Oregon where a he kept a couple teams for feeding and parades. Then on to Colorado in the 70s. He was raising mostly Morgans then and put together two six-u- p hitches. In 1976, the Wolverton family retraced the Overland Trail from Sff-- 15 21-2- 3. 644-290- 0 . etc. There are not many people in the United States that can drive 10 head. Not many people even have big enough hands to hold four or five lines in their hands. Shake hands with Red sometime and youll see what I mean. Red and Kip have the swing team bucked back to the point team so they only have eight lines coming into their hands. On a big hitch you have the leaders, swing, point, body, and wheelers and you always have and you your near and call your horses that way. For instance, ifRed says go get Kacey, Pocohantus, Sashay, Malapie, off-sid-es Polecat, Jalapeno, Quanah, Wampum, Onyx, and Deuce then you know how he is working them and in what order. All these horses are broke to ride, even the little Percheron mare. (The Percheron Streaker cross mare is a lot larger than the purebred Perch mare) I should add there are two horses in the hitch that are not related to Streaker. One, the Perch mare and they would about fall over every time the actor tried to get on. But Onyx, (the Perch Streaker cross mare), just looked him in the eye and said come on big boy and show me what youve got. She would just lean in and then-packhi- m all day. Onyxhas grown a lot since then, weighing around 1700 lbs. now. The Wolvertons are getting the hitch ready for Labor Day weekend in Sacramento for the annual Gold Rush Days where they will be promoting Highway 50 and The Annual Wagon Train and hauling tourists around Old Town Sacramento. From there the hitch is traveling to Kanab, Utah to participate in the Western Legends Round-UThey will join the wagon train before coming into town. They will also be around town and in the parade to exhibit a little bit of history by showing the hitch with everything pretty much authentic from the old days. So come on out and see the hitch and talk to Red or Kip and get a taste of yesteryear. p. 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