doc-quixote-ad
A Doc Quixote ad from when he was standing.

From the Archives: Doc Quixote

A handsome, rich-colored sorrel, Doc Quixote turned heads wherever he went. 1973 National Cutting Horse Futurity (NCHA) Non-Pro Futurity Champion and Equi-Stat Elite $10 Million Sire are just a few highlights of Doc Quixote’s life. 

Doc Quioxte’s Performance and Genetics

Listed for sale as a Futurity prospect in 1973 for the alleged price of $12,000, Doc Quixote was a pretty penny — since $12,000 equals $74,000 in today’s prices due to inflation.

Potential buyer Paul Crumpler raised his eyebrows at the price, but after the great Shorty Freeman urged him to take a look at the young stallion, Crumpler flew out to California to see Doc Quixote himself. Equi-Stat Elite $1 Million Rider and coach Leon Harrel had the 3-year-old stallion for training for owners Neil and Linda Mussallem, and Crumpler ended up purchasing him. 

Schooled prior to the NCHA Futurity by Freeman and Buster Welch, Doc Quixote was in good hands. 

At the 1973 NCHA Futurity, just the eleventh edition of the show, Crumpler and Doc Quixote grabbed the Non-Pro Futurity Championship worth $1,008. It was Crumpler’s third year winning money at the Futurity, according to Equi-Stat, and his first championship. 

Doc Quixote never won money in another cutting, according to Equi-Stat, eventually retiring from cutting in 1977. 

The stallion became the cutting industries first syndicated sire with shares reportedly valued at $100,000. In 1981 Doc Quixote became part of a ‘Super Synidicate,’ which included six other horses, including three other Doc Bar sons — Doc’s Lynx, Doc Tari and Doc’s Hickory. 

Seven years later Doc Quixote sold to Heins Investment in Montana, which was represented by Pat Fitzgerald, of Paoli, Oklahoma. The following year, the stallion was purchased by Fitzgerald, who retained ownership of Doc Quixote until the stallion died at the age of 32 in 2002.

Bred by Yvonne LeMaitre, of Woodland, California, Doc Quixote is the son of cutting-horse-cornerstone Doc Bar. Out of the mare Magnolia Gal (by Bull’s Eye), Doc Quixote traces to thoroughbreds on both sides of his pedigree. His sire Doc Bar was said to be a racehorse until he wasn’t fast enough on the track and found his real calling as a cutting horse sire. 

Doc Quixote’s Legacy

Doc Quixote has a more than 1,000 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA)-registered foals. With his first foals arriving in 1974, and his last registered crop arriving in 1995, Doc Quixote was breeding as a 3-year-old and last sired foals as 25-year-old. 

A 1974 stud ad for Doc Quixote shows he stood at the Wilson Ranch in Pattison, Texas, with his fee listed as $500, which is approximately $2,500 today. 

doc-quixote-threequarters
From the QHN archives.

According to Equi-Stat, Doc Quixote has sired 445 money-earning offspring that have racked up more than $10 million dollars in winnings. His progeny have average lifetime earnings of $23,608 and have earned in cutting, reining, barrel racing and halter classes.

His top money earning offspring in Equi-Stat are 1983 gelding Poco Quixote Rio (out of Poco Lady Liz x Poco Rip Cash) who earned a whopping $1,108,885 in the cutting pen. $1,000,000 of that was earned at the 1987 Gold & Silver Cutting in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where Equi-Stat Elite $4 Million Rider Bill Riddle rode through two go-rounds and eventually scored a 221 in the finals to bring home the massive payday for owners Fares Ranch of Fredricksburg, Texas.

Other big winners for Doc Quixote included Docs Okie Quixote (out of Jimmette Too x Johnny Tivio), who earned $637,707. The 1980 stallion was the 1983 NCHA Futurity Open Champion with owner and rider Joe Heim, winning $263,483. 

The Equi-Stat Lifetime Cutting Statistics show Doc Quixote standing as #22 All-Time Leading Sire, #13 All-Time Sire of Horses 7 and Older and #19 All-Time Paternal Grandsire.

Doc Quixotes’ bloodlines continue to run in cutting horses today. 2000 stallion Cat Ichi (High Brow Cat x Laney Doc x Doc Quixote), winner of the 2004 NCHA Summer Spectacular Derby Open, has sired more than $6 million in winners throughout his career as a sire. 

For more news and information from the Western performance horse industry, subscribe to Quarter Horse News.