J. B. Ferguson

Some people do not put stock in fortunetellers.  But J. B. Ferguson had a weakness for them, and one particular visit changed his life and AQHA forever.

In the late 1930s, Ferguson was working for a major oil company and was responsible for drilling operations.  One day, Ferguson drove to El Campo, Texas, and noticed a sign advertising a fortuneteller in town.  Ferguson drove to the trailer house and the old lady told Ferguson he would change positions within the next 90 days.  She also said that another man would offer Ferguson a job and he should take it.

It all happened as the fortune teller predicted.  Ferguson quit his job at the oil company and started working for Jack F. Hutchins of the Shanghai Pierce estate.

Ferguson and Hutchins became close friends.  Hutchins wanted to learn about the oil industry and Ferguson wanted to know about ranching.  The two men bought a number of quarter-type horses before AQHA was formed and later registered the horses under F & H.

In 1946, Hutchins died of cancer and his widow asked Robert Denhardt to divide the horses in two groups.  One group was to go to Ferguson and the other to the Hutchins estate.  Ferguson won the coin toss and chose the group with the bloodlines of Lobo, Joe Louis, Bill Thomas and Humdinger.

Ferguson was in the breeding and Quarter Horse racing game.  He bred Go Man Go, and bought the roan stallion's sire, Top Deck (TB).

Ferguson also bred Top Deck's (TB) son Moon Deck, an AQHA Hall of Fame horse who sired world champion and Hall of Fame stallion Jet Deck.  Other horses bred by Ferguson include Hall of Fame horse Top Moon and All American Futurity winner Hustling Man.

Ferguson was an AQHA Director from 1940 until his death in 1978.  He also served on AQHA's racing committee and was made an Honorary Vice President in 1962.

He died in 1978, and was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 1990.

Biography updated as of March 1990.