It is really quite a miracle that Doc O’Lena was ever born at all.
The Jensen family of California bought his dam, the severely foundered Poco Lena, in 1963, with the intention of breeding her to their already proven halter and performance sire, Doc Bar. In addition to an already heart wrenching story behind her laminitis, Poco Lena had suffered long-term effects from the drugs that had kept her from cycling during her cutting career. It took three breeding seasons before she carried a foal. That foal was Doc O’Lena, born June 21, 1967.
Shorty Freeman of Scottsdale, Arizona, trained Doc O’Lena as a 2-year-old (though he always conceded that the colt trained himself). At the 1970 National Cutting Horse Association Futurity a year later, Doc O’Lena and Freeman became the first competitors to make a clean sweep of the futurity’s preliminary go-rounds, semi-finals and finals. Doc O’Lena earned a lifetime amount of $21,991 in the NCHA.
When Lenaette won the NCHA Futurity in 1975, Doc O’Lena became the first futurity winner to sire a winner. Smart Little Lena, a stallion from Doc O’Lena’s ninth crop, was the first horse to win NCHA’s Triple Crown. Doc O’Lena also sired Tanquery Gin, Shorty Lena, CD Olena, Mr Sun O Lena, Travalena and Scarlett O Lena. By 1978, Doc O’Lena had been syndicated for an unprecedented $2.1 million.
All in all, Doc O’Lena sired 1,310 foals. Of these, 321 accumulated 3,978.5 points; 87 earned performance Registers of Merit (also nine amateur, three youth); nine earned Superior performance awards; four were world champions; six were youth world champions; six were youth world champions; and four were reserve world champions.
Doc O’Lena died on February 27, 1993, at the Phillips Ranch in Frisco, Texas. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1997.
Biography updated as of March 1997.