Hi everyone,
I don’t really know much about bloodlines and am wondering what you think about my mare. I recognize Zippo Pine Bar but not really anything else
Thanks in advance!!
Skipa Star was a famous halter stallion. Social Kitty’s name I recognize, but can’t remember why. I want to say Western Pleasure, or maybe it’s just in a number of pedigrees when crossed with Zippo Pine Bar. I just can’t remember why it rings a bell!
Sorry, can’t help on the Paint side.
You’ve got a Skipper W! Welcome to club: we have t-shirts. 
Skipper W’s have something of a cult following. They are handy little horses and all the one’s I’ve known were nice little all around horses. A friend of mine showed a few in WP back in the day.
An old time trainer, that did show many of the original Skipper Ws, when we were talking about bloodlines, he said the Doc Bars would run around anxiously asking “what next, what next”, like a wound-up toy, the Skipper W’s standing there and giving them a dirty look, while telling their riders “make me”, they were harder to motivate.
He said not many riders had the finer touch it took for the hotter Doc Bars, or the patience for the continuous compromising with the Skipper Ws.
The Skipper W were basically safe for many kinds of riders, because they rarely acted up vigorously, too busy taking good care of themselves and so their riders.
The Zippo Pat Bars have a reputation of being journeyman type horses.
They will willingly do whatever you want, without getting too worried about anything.
Many of those have made excellent ranch and rodeo horses, roping and junior events mostly.
I don’t think I have ever seen or heard of a bad actor in those lines that could not be traced to some other lines known for that.
I like all kinds and have had nice horses in many lines.
There are several others in that pedigree than Skipper W crosses.
I would look at the individual and what it has done and how, to decide which lines it took after.
Whoever put those lines together there seems to have been looking for all-arounders.
You have to take all that with a grain of salt, because there are many, many horses of all kinds of crosses out there.
While we can see traits coming down the lines, well, it is more guesses after the fact.
Each one of us has different experiences, depending on what horses we came across.
Great post, Bluey. I do think its true that bloodlines do give you a pretty good idea of how a lot of these horses act…always the odd one out, but amazing how temperment runs true.
So funny how personalities run along side that, but pedigree is a great place to start.
Nice horses on your mare’s pedigree, I am not up on paints, but you can see how the paint lines parallel the qh is similar foundation horses. Especially since paints were nice qh that had too much white. 
I bet she is a nice mare. Pictures?
Thank you so much for your replies!
I’ve only had her about a year and we have quite a bit of work to do as previously she was used as a trail horse and broodmare, then sat for 5-7 years before I bought her. She has been great to work with for the most part aside from a few arguments in the beginning like there is no trying to rub me off on the wall no matter how annoyed you are and, I know you don’t like your right lead but you do not need to go off in a bucking fit. She really is happiest just putzing around going as slow as she can get by with unless we’re on the trail and then she is stepping out enjoying the scenery.
She has come a long way in the past year and is now being used in 4-H by a 5th grader and is currently at 4-H camp until tomorrow. I just realized I don’t have any good pictures of her but can get some when she comes home.
She also just got accepted to be in a therapeutic riding program for disabled children and she starts that next week.
She has an amazing personality and just loves everyone. She loves children the most (I think since they are less demanding most of the time) and she is quickly becoming a barn favorite.
I’ll try to get some better pictures tomorrow
The Skipper horses were primarily known as all around ranch horses and excelled in roping, if I recall correctly. However, I wouldn’t peg all of them in that category because back in the day, there were a TON of them. Skippa Star (AQHA) was an all round horse, and an AQHA champion, I believe. I think he was a superior halter horse, but I’m too lazy to look it up. He also sired a heck of a lot of very nice horses with a ton of chrome. His daughters were legendary as producers.
The Zippo horses, however, were almost exclusively known for what I would consider “soft” disciplines…western pleasure, western riding, trail. Zippo Pine Bars is one of the most prolific sires of winning western pleasure horses in the history of the AQHA.
The Skipper horses were crossed on paint mares because they had a history of producing crop-outs, who at the time were denied registration with the AQHA. They had a HUGE influence on the APHA horses that you see today.
I had a Skipper W descendant I showed successfully in western pleasure, and yes it’s true, ‘make me’ and generally businesslike rather than cuddly, very talented but by no means push button. I later foxhunted that horse for 20 years. Your mare’s pedigree also includes Poco Bueno and I have yet to meet one that isn’t good-natured, it would be interesting to know whether that or the Skipper tendencies are more visible in your mare. Your description suggests both are evident at different times!
Oh. I suppose I should share a little anecdote about my Skipper W fellow. In his 28 years, only one adult male climbed aboard and did NOT get dumped (because I strongly suggested he dismount, NOW, when I saw the wheels setting in motion). On the other hand, toddlers and elementary school age kids could have their way with him. He would groundtie in the arena when my toddler son abandoned him to go play with the barn cats, my son would eventually return, lead him to a fence, climb up the fence and hop on, well, you could just see the halo glowing on that horse. He was therefore perfect for providing ‘pony rides’ at school and other events.
[QUOTE=Beverley;7630006]
I had a Skipper W descendant I showed successfully in western pleasure, and yes it’s true, ‘make me’ and generally businesslike rather than cuddly, very talented but by no means push button. I later foxhunted that horse for 20 years. Your mare’s pedigree also includes Poco Bueno and I have yet to meet one that isn’t good-natured, it would be interesting to know whether that or the Skipper tendencies are more visible in your mare. Your description suggests both are evident at different times![/QUOTE]
Those horses are priceless.
I had one like that, he would, when I was taking down a fence in the horse pasture, come over and literally figure that I was wrapping the chain around the post, pulling it, getting back off to pull the chain loose and go to the next post.
He watched me and when I pulled one post, he would reach over and lip the chain until that post fell and I could drive to the next one.
He was born broke and gentle and sweet and would do what anyone wanted, at his speed.
We saw to it that he never had a rider that was not going to honor who he was, a rider that was wanting a horse to do very much, hurried and without notice jump out there, because that he was not.
A more steady eddie you would not have found anywhere.
He also was a smaller, chunky palomino that looked like a teddy bear, kids fell heads over heels over him.
I bought him as a two at a catalog horse sale.
I saw the horse from far away while on the overhead walks and made a beeline for him when I saw how he stood there, how he managed himself in the pen with milling horses.
The seller came just as I was petting him, a fellow I know and said he brought him over hoping I was there, because he was such a sweet horse.
I rode him around and he was green, but willing and the seller laughed and said he didn’t like him because he would not move for him.
I bought him on the spot.
He was Skipper W all the way around, top and bottom.
A friend, when she saw him, said “jeez, a Skipper W, you are in trouble”.
She didn’t like them, too opinionated for her, she said, they always gave her trouble.
I wonder who the OP’s horse took after in looks?
Western Horseman has a book “The Hank Wiescamp Story” about these horses.
Very interesting to read all those stories.
Ok, was in a hurry and didn’t get a great picture but here is one. She is standing a little weird and isn’t usually so camped under in the front.
Found a picture of her pretty face
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Go to allbreedpedigree and look up Skipper W’s grand sire Nick and see if you find a head or face resemblance, hard to tell from your photo. My gelding foaled in 1967 was a carbon copy of that head except sorrel or chestnut if you prefer instead of palomino.
I think she is a cute pleasure bred mare and looks so comfortable to ride.
QH people spend a lot of money on slow…it is a good thing.
Well, she doesn’t favor the Zippo side of her pedigree. I’m not familiar with the paint side so I don’t know if she’s resembling those horses or not. If I was going to take a stab at it, I’d say the Skipper side based on her bulk and color. I don’t recall that the Skipper horses were pretty-headed…a lot of them could be rather coarse. Because she may favor her paint side, it would be fun to see photos of that side of her pedigree.
