Dry Doc, pictured in 1991, was born in 1968. Sired by the legendary Doc Bar and out of the great mare and NCHA Hall of Fame inductee Poco Lena, Dry Doc was destined to become a star performer and sire.
The stallion was ridden to the 1971 National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Futurity Open Championship by legendary cutting horse trainer Buster Welch. Dry Doc, bred by Dr. and Mrs. Stephen F. Jensen, of Paicines, California, earned more than $85,000 in NCHA lifetime earnings and 96 American Quarter Horse Association points during his show career.
As a sire, Dry Doc’s 421 money-earning offspring won more than $4.2 million. The stallion’s top five money-earners included: Dry Clean ($284,250), Dry Oil ($217,905), Dry Dot ($124,521), Dry Doc’s Dottie ($104,608) and Dry Darlena ($102,016). Dry Doc’s sons have sired 854 money-earners who have won nearly $3.6 million, while his daughters have produced 713 money-earners with total earnings of more than $8.5 million.
Dry Doc, one of only two offspring Poco Lena produced, was the mare’s last offspring. Her first foal, Doc O’Lena, was also a superstar in the cutting pen – winning the 1970 NCHA Futurity Open Championship with the legendary Shorty Freeman aboard – and in the breeding barn.
According to an article published in the October 1980 Cuttin Hoss Chatter, Mel Chartier, a Michigan construction company owner, had watched Doc O’Lena win the NCHA Futurity. He later saw an ad in the Quarter Horse Journal introducing Poco Lena’s last son. Chartier called his good friend Buster Welch and told him he would give $25,000 for the colt. Not even knowing at the time if the colt was for sale, Welch was able to make the deal and Chartier, along with two partners at the time, became the owners of the future Futurity champion. Chartier later bought out his two partners and stood the stallion at his Fairhaven Farms breeding operation located about 45 minutes from Detroit.
In 1982, Chartier sold half interest in Dry Doc to Warren Quarter Horses in Rosharon, Texas, where the stallion stood that season for a $7,500 breeding fee. The following year, the historic King Ranch purchased the stallion outright for a reported “multi-million-dollar deal” and stood him to the public for a $10,000 fee. Six years later, in 1989, the King Ranch sold the stallion to the Hanley Ranch in Lincoln, California, where he lived out the remainder of his life. Dry Doc was humanely put down in April of 1997 at the age of 29.
