Miss T Stuart was bred, foaled and lived her entire life on the Stuart Ranch in Waurika, Oklahoma, in a broodmare pasture, tending her babies. It was a quiet life, and she was one broodmare among many.
It wasn’t until her babies and their offspring began showing that the dun mare’s true value became apparent.
Miss T Stuart was by Breezy Buck and out of Pretty Sally, a beautiful mare bred by R.T. “Bob” Stuart of the Stuart Ranch and sired by Big Shot Dun, the source of Miss T Stuart’s own dun color.
She was never broke to ride and probably never received any deworming or hoof care, according to Terry Stuart Forst, Bob’s daughter who runs the family ranch now. Miss T Stuart was part of the broodmare band and was treated the same as the other broodmares were at the time.
The mare was only shown once, and that was with her daughter Seven S Valentine in a produce of dam class in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1976. Though the mare and foal placed first and earned a point, Miss T Stuart didn’t enjoy the experience; and it wasn’t repeated. She just returned to the pasture and kept on turning out high-quality foals, three of them AQHA Champions.
Bred exclusively to Son O Leo, a 1961 stallion by Leo and out of a Sugar Bars mare, Miss T Stuart produced 20 foals for the Stuart Ranch.
Miss T Stuart’s 20 foals earned 236 halter points and 565 performance points – a respectable accomplishment for the time – but when her daughters began producing foals, Miss T Stuart’s influence spread into almost every AQHA show discipline.
Miss T Stuart died in 1991. Today, her name can be found in bloodlines of top performance stallions across the industry. Several of her granddaughters still produce foals for the Stuart Ranch, many of them the same dun color as she was.
Miss T Stuart was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2014.
Biography updated as of March 2014.