Blue Valentine

Out in ranch country, when talk turns to horses, sooner or later the conversation turns to this or that stallion and the generations left behind.

Usually sooner.

“Occasionally, there arises in the descendants of (outstanding American Quarter Horses), a stallion whose reputation and ability establishes a separate name, and his get are in the future then known by this stallion’s name,” wrote Bob Denhardt, a principal founder and the first executive secretary of AQHA.

Now we’re talking Blue Valentine. Bred by Kenneth Gunter of Cochise, Arizona, Blue Valentine was by Red Man, one of the best sons of Joe Hancock. The blue roan colt was foaled in 1956 out of Beauty’s Dream, who had reportedly won a race at the Sonoita County Fair and already produced some really nice rope horses. Beauty’s Dream was a 1938 mare by Valentine, whose sire, Lone Star, traced top and bottom to Traveler’s son Little Joe. Lone Star was by Billy Sunday, whose dam was the famed match-racing Peter McCue mare Carrie Nation.

Dell Haverty, who knew those horses well, bought “Blue” as a yearling from his friend Kenny Gunter. Dell, a rodeo champion (and later National Cowboy Hall of Famer), rodeoed extensively on Blue. When Blue was just 3, Dell won the all-around and the calf roping on Blue at the Scottsdale, Arizona, rodeo. While Dell continued to rope calves, bulldog, team rope and single-steer rope on Blue, other family members also took their turns on him. Dell’s wife, Connie, rode Blue in a  rodeo queen competition at the Ranch Days Rodeo in Wilcox, Arizona; the Havertys’ daughter Kathy, needing a barrel horse for a rodeo in 1968, saddled Blue, made a couple of practice runs and took third in Blue’s first competition around the cloverleaf.

Connie Haverty was the daughter of Buster Hayes, who with brother Laurie ranched as the Hayes Brothers at Thermopolis, Wyoming. Already having the Joe Hancock stallion Texas Blue Bonnet, the brothers bought half interest in Blue from Dell, who rodeoed on Blue in early winter rodeos down south before sending him back north for the later breeding season in Wyoming.

Hyde Merritt, a National Cowboy Hall of Famer who also roped steers on Blue Valentine, was married to Buster’s daughter Dede. Hyde bought the other half interest from Dell in the late ’60s, while he, Laurie’s son Vince and Dell were each roping steers on him during this time. Everett Shaw, who rode many great rodeo horses and was a multiple world champion, was flagging the roping at Cheyenne Frontier Days and told Hyde that Blue was the best steer horse at Cheyenne that year.

Like his sire and grandsire, Blue Valentine was good minded and gentle, and acted like a gelding around other horses. Dell’s kids, when they were around 4 or 5, would drop down off tree branches onto Blue’s back and ride him without a saddle.

“We sure liked the Hancock horses, especially old Blue’s colts,” Hyde Merritt told the Journal in 1980. “They have a mild disposition…they’re good cow horses and have a lot of speed.”

In addition to his mind and disposition, Blue passed on speed, good bone, toughness, soundness, longevity and cow savvy, not only to his offspring but also to subsequent generations of willing and trainable horses.

“These horses are good anywhere you put them, in these rocks or in the arena,” Hyde said. “We never have to shoe one…and we never have an unsound horse. I think that’s because of the black feet and good bone that Blue puts on his colts.”

Blue Valentine sired only 210 registered American Quarter Horses before he died in 1980 but the stallion left a heritage measured by superior mares and sons such as the legendary Gooseberry; Blues Kingfisher; Ruano Rojo, who sired at least three sons that have earned in excess of $100,000 each in arena earnings; Salty Roan, a notable earner on the rodeo circuit and Register of Merit sire; Leo Hancock Hayes, a Register of Merit sire who made a large impact on Blue Valentine bloodline breeding programs; Rowdy Blue Man, a high-profile sire in Texas; and grandget such as Blue Fox Hancock, an AQHA Champion with 65 halter points and more than 728 performance points.

“As far as Blue Valentine’s legacy goes, I never thought it would be this way,” says Hyde’s son Chip Merritt, who grew up jingling horses on the stallion in the morning and using him to feed cattle in winter. He’d use the horse to drag a sled with bales of hay. when the snow was too deep to drive through. “All I knew was that we were getting good colts out of him and people liked him, but I never believed it would take off like this….At the time, we all just knew he was a good horse, and it was a good line of horses to have.

“Today, we see so many Blue Valentine breeders all over the country that live and breathe Blue Valentine, paving their own paths with this bloodline.”

So that’s what we’re talking about. Out in ranch country, when talk turns to horses, sooner or later it’s talking Blue Valentine. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2024. 

Biography updated as of July 2024.