by Terry Lidral
Sammy Andrews bought 007 Catwalk from Dale Kling at the Breeders Classic Bucking Horse Sale in Grassy Butte, North Dakota in 2017. The stud horse caught Andrews’ eye for his looks and his conformation.
“I liked his color and build,” said Andrews of the dark bay bald face paint stallion who was 7 years old at the time. “He’s real pretty and he’s got great conformation. He’s built good. He suits my breeding and he’s just my size for a stud.”
That size is 1200 pounds and somewhere around 15.3 hands or more. It’s in the middle range for bucking horses – not large and not small. And that’s the size horses Andrews is breeding for.
“I’m down in Texas and large horses don’t do well in our part of the world,” Andrews explained. “Big horses in heat don’t take it well. They don’t last long.”
And Andrews feels small bucking horses are not an asset to a bucking program.
“Small horses don’t get the high scores,” Andrews told us. “They don’t look as powerful as the bigger horses when they buck.”
Besides his exceptional good looks, Catwalk has an unusually calm demeanor.
“He’s the calmest stud I’ve ever been around,” remarked Andrews. “He doesn’t act stud at all.”
And Catwalk is easy to handle.
“You put him in the pasture and he’s real calm. You back the trailer up and he’ll go get right in.”
Catwalk has always had a calm demeanor according to Dean McDonald, who raised the pretty white stockinged dark bay horse on the 7 West Ranch in Buffalo Lake Metis Settlement.
“That horse is a unique kind of stallion,” said McDonald of the horse originally named Hold True. “He is out of a gray mare I bought off an old couple years ago. That mare was not bucking stock. I think she might have been a Clyde cross, but she had the look. I bucked her and she was outstanding. She had another paint foal, a half-brother to Hold True called Indian Ink, who is calm the same way. He’s one of the quietest studs I’ve ever known.”
On the sire’s side, Catwalk is out of a stallion named Cajun, a grandson of Rex Logan’s L1 Cowboy and McDonald bloodlines that go way back. Cajun is now 14 years old and lives as a stud on the 7 West Ranch.
“There’s a lot of Cowboy breeding around here in Canada. Take a look at the Calgary Stampede program and you’ll find it there,” McDonald went on to say of the proven bloodlines Catwalk carries in his veins.
Not only is Catwalk an exceptional looker with a unique temperament, he began his bucking career at an unusually young age.
“My son wanted to try his first-ever saddle bronc and I told him to get on this horse because of his calmness,” McDonald began the story with a chuckle. “Did my son go for a ride that day! In my mind, that horse was a 20-21 pointer and from then on showed consistency (at that level.) We started using Hold True (in events?) at the age of 2, coming 3.”
That bucking consistency and his quiet nature earned the dark bay stallion his original name.
“My son and I were sitting around that evening and my son decided he wanted to name the stallion,” related McDonald. “The words ‘Hold True’ were tattooed on my son’s knuckles and he decided that those words fit the stallion’s character. So, that’s what we called the horse.”
The McDonalds bucked Hold True in amateur rodeos and that’s where he got noticed by Dale Kling.
“Dale came to an amateur rodeo in Canada and we were bucking our young stud. The first day, Hold True bucked like hell. And he bucked the second day as well. Dale liked him and asked me to set a price. I did and Dale bought him,” McDonald told of the sale that sent Hold True to North Dakota where he was given the new name of Catwalk.
But McDonald was worried about sending a single horse to a new ranch. Horses have a pecking order and they tend to pick on a lone addition to their herd
“Hold True went with no partner,” related McDonald. “I like to sell horses with partners because the new horse is at the bottom of the pecking order and it can take a year for them to establish themselves. And Hold True was so calm and quiet. But he adapted real quick and he worked out well.”
Dale Kling bucked the horse now named Catwalk in a futurity in Pocatello, Idaho.
“Catwalk is a great looking horse with his mane and tail flying when he bucks,” McDonald told us. “They took a picture of him bucking at a rodeo in Idaho. It’s a neat picture and it was shown all over. I think that picture is the reason so many people know who that horse is.”
It was those good looks that brought Catwalk to the Andrews’ ranch in Texas. And Sammy Andrews is quite satisfied with the way his Canadian born stallion is performing.
“Catwalk is consistent and he gets better each year,” Andrews told us. “When he’s ridden, the score’s usually in the mid-to-high 80’s.”
“He’s a popular horse to get on. His calm mannerisms are unreal. He doesn’t mind standing and waiting. And you know what he’s going to do when the latch is cracked,” added Andrews. “He likes to circle to the right.”
Catwalk has been bucked as a saddle bronc, but Andrews likes the idea of using him as a bareback horse.
“We’ve tried this horse in bareback competition and we like him there,” said Andrews. “He’s more of a hopper and that’s what works in bareback. We’re going to put him in there a little more.”
And, as a stud, Andrews hopes that, along with passing on his bucking ability, Catwalk will put the right size in his colts.
“We have some bigger mares and I think his size will work well with them. We’ve bred to him for two years now and last year’s yearlings are a pretty good size. And several are colored up just like their daddy.”
This year’s foals are just starting to be born.
“We bred 12 mares to him and we just had our first two foals in the last couple of days. We’ve had a stud and a little filly. Too bad it’s going to be 5 years before we find out how they buck.”
It will be some time for Andrews to find out how Catwalk turns out as a sire. But McDonald has already seen what kind of horses Catwalk can produce.
“I bred 4 mares to Catwalk before we sold him to Dale Kling. We got 2 really good mares. And they buck. They are something to watch. They really stretch out when they’re in the air,” said McDonald with pride in his voice. “I keep track of Catwalk and how he’s doing. I believe he ended up in the right hands with Sammy Andrews.”
As Andrews looks to the future of his herd, he plans on breeding Catwalk to one of his top performing mares.
“We don’t breed our bucking mares every year,” explained Andrews. “We can’t be without our top horses and we do live cover. But this year I plan to breed Trophy Wife to Catwalk. I’m really excited to see how that works out.”
Author: Terry Lidral
Terry Lidral is a western writer/journalist who lives in Idaho. She is the publisher and editor of the online magazine Bucking Stock Talk and the online magazine Western Living Journal. Her publishing credits include Storyteller for Real American Cowboy Magazine, writing feature articles for Humps N Horns Magazine as well as a wide variety of national and international web sites, historical magazines and news publications. She is known for her "up close and personal" profiles of celebrities and industry moguls such as NPR's Tom Bodett; PBR's Wiley Petersen and D.H. Page, PRCA's Sammy Andrews, Cindy Rosser and Julio Moreno to name a few. She has been applauded for her way of making a personal connection between her readers and her subjects. She indulges in her love of rodeo by serving as an associate board member for the Caldwell Night Rodeo. She is also an accomplished trainer and handler in dog agility. Her shelties Amelie and Milo are titled in NADAC, USDAA and AKC.
