Tue, 15 Jan 2002 / FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, Metro 
FORT WORTH, TEXAS -pg- 4 Star-Telegram Staff Writer

"UNIQUELY HUED BREED ATTRACTS HORSE LOVERS"

Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show and Rodeo

FORT WORTH - Calamity Jane stole Chubby Turner's heart. Turner was 15 when he first saw the paint mare in a cutting horse competition at the Stock Show.  Calamity Jane fired his imagination, the place where Turner kept his love for western movies and cowboy icons such as the Lone Ranger and Tonto.  "She was a neat mare," the 53-year-old Weatherford resident said Monday. "From that day on, I wanted a paint horse."  

Now he exhibits them at more than 150 shows a year. On Monday, he rode DELTA DOC O LENA, a 5-year-old, in a paint horse cutting competition at the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show and Rodeo. Turner & the bay tobiano stallion won the event.  "Paints catch people's eyes quicker than solid color horses,"  Turner said. "It's the fastest-growing breed today."  

Turner appeared in a special "Color of Money" cutting event Monday. This is the second year that the Stock Show has hosted the contest, in which exhibitors compete for $25,000. The American Paint Horse Association has added $5,000 in prizes, which the Stock Show has matched. Money was also added for junior cutting, senior cutting and amateur cutting. 

According to the paint horse association, the breed's bloodlines date to the 1500s, when Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortes brought 16 war horses to North America. One was a sorrel and white horse with spots on its stomach. That horse bred with American mustangs, giving birth to the paint horse breed. The paints soon became a favorite of American Indians, particularly the Comanches, who are widely considered to be the finest horsemen on the Plains. Paints are appealing because of their colors, said Darrell Dodds, editor of the Paint Horse Journal, the magazine of the paint horse association. "Their unique coat patterns is what the breed is all about," Dodds said. "Plus, they are calm animals and not very high-strung.  They are easy to get along with, and the coat patterns' contrasting color is the flash that draws people to the breed." 

The American Paint Horse Association was formed in May 1965 from the consolidation of the American Paint Stock Horse Association and the American Paint Quarter Horse Association, both of which were founded in the early 1960s. The new group had 1,300 members and 3,800 registered horses. Today it has 100,000 members and 640,000 registered horses.  There are four major paint patterns: overo, tobiano, tovero and splashed white. A paint horse may have one of the patterns or a combination.  Jim Kelley, the association's executive secretary, said the uniqueness of paint horses attracts many owners.  "We deal in a business of snowflakes," he said. "No two horses look alike - like pieces of art. They have talent and sheer athletic ability."

ONLINE: American Paint Horse Association, www.apha.com