Lost Breed - National Appaloosa Ponies

 In this show program for the 1972 Columbian Park Horse Show,

there was a class for a pony breed that most people have never heard of:

National Appaloosa Ponies!

Screenshot of 1965 print ad from eBay.

Information about them is difficult to come by, and I only know about them because of the Columbian Park Horse Show. Having said that, I did find this snippet recently in an online forum:

There was also the short-lived National Appaloosa Pony Incorporated (NAPI), in Indiana, which was in business the same time as the POA, Inc. An advertisement in the 9-1966 Western Horseman magazine, the NAPI stated that they registered “the most popular riding size pony… the Appaloosa Pony 40 inches up to 14 hands.” In the book America’s Horses and Ponies, the registry is called National Appaloosa Pony Association [NAPA] with height requirements from 40 inches up to 55 inches. The NAPI mantra is that the registry is “preserving the Appaloosa Pony” as found, as opposed to the POA which is “creating a new breed”. 

The 4th Annual National Appaloosa Pony Sale, held 4-8-1967 was promoted in the 2-1967 issue of the Horse Bits magazine. Many NAPI ponies were double registered in the POA. Registered Appaloosa stallions were sometimes used in NAPI programs. Holliday Dancer ApHC F-3110 (also sired POAs) and his son Dancer’s Jim Dandy ApHC F-3575 were used by the G-C Ranch (Appaloosa horses and ponies), owned by Glen Coons, Maquon, ILL. Dancer’s Jim Dandy’s sons, Dandy’s Running Otter ApHC T33049 and Dandy’s Redheart NAPI P1135 were also used in the program, and were crossed on NAPI daughters of Holliday Dancer ApHC 3110. Mary Tolan also bred and/or owned POAs that were double registered with NAPI- Tolanka’s Raindrop POA T2330 (Colimo line), Apple Jack POA T2140, and Tolan’s Peggy POA T4645. Tolan had other NAPI registered ponies, including Tolan’s Roan (to Dragon POA 103), Black Beauty T38, Tolan’s Pixie (Colimo line), Tolan’s Colimo, and Tolan’s Maggie.

From Opinions about Appaloosas, Mexican in the Mix, by Rangerbred Researcher, Sherry Byrd, undated.

Notice how it states that the breed was short-lived and that the breed registry was here in Indiana. Proponents of the breed felt the POA was a created breed whereas the Appaloosa pony was a distinct breed in and of itself and the registry was trying to preserve them. (It reminds me of the Foundation Appaloosa Horse Registry.)

Robert and Violet Giltner bred these ponies and they and their ponies were well known in the late 1960s/1970s here in Lafayette.

They also owned a shop, Hoos-Yer Square, that sold square dancing clothes and western wear. (The name of the store is a play on the word Hoosier and then connects the word Square from square dancing to a busy local shopping area named Market Square.)

Their little shop is now a business office, but I remember shopping there and being amazed at all the frilly square dance dresses.

The Giltners' influence on the local horse community was enough that the NAPIs got their own classes at the Columbian Park Horse Show. No other breed got that privilege.

So, what happened to the National Appaloosa Pony Registry? To the ponies that were bred, sold, and shown? I don't know. My sister Leslie also draws a blank when it comes to the Giltners and their ponies. It's as though they and their NAPIs just quietly disappeared.

Just as the breed did.

From Baseball Field to Horse Show Ring and Back - Part Two

Continuing on from yesterday's post about the baseball field that was also a horse show ring. Apologies for some of the photos in today's post. They are very old and I didn't want to remove them from their photo album to scan, so I simply took photos of the photos.

The baseball field at Columbian Park was the site of the biggest horse show between Indianapolis and Chicago for forty years or so.

It went by several names (Lafayette Horse Show, Lafayette Society Horse Show, and the Lafayette Charity Horse Show), but Leslie and I simply called it the Columbian Park Horse Show.

This is the class list from the 1973 program in the previous photo. You can see how the name differs. (I showed my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt, in the 1973 show.)

The baseball field as it was when it was used for horse shows. This is prior to the extensive renovations it underwent two years ago. (Photo from Google Images.)

Trucks and trailers would roll onto the grounds surrounding the baseball field and park around the attractions. See those stairs to the left?

Those are for the Big Dipper slide. Can you imagine parking your trailer around that and unloading your horses while kids are going up and down that slide, screaming all the way? Somehow it worked for us! (Photo from Google Images.)

The show encompassed as many disciplines as it could. (Heading toward first base! Haha!)

And it was my first exposure to live gaited horses.  (Rounding to second base now.)

This is Hot Cotton. He was an Appaloosa and Leslie and I looked forward to watching him jump every year. I even have a model named after him.

We also looked forward to when the English riders would be asked to hand gallop. Oh, the dust that would kick up, but we didn't mind!

The night show always began with a parade of colors under the lights. By this time, Leslie and I were hot, sweaty, and dusty, but we always stayed for the night show.

Leslie and I would furiously record the names of the winners in the program but we couldn't always keep up with the announcer. (Besides, we wanted to see the winners, not just write down their names!)

The pitcher's mound was where a table with awards was set up along with the announcer and an organ. Throughout the show, and especially when the horses were cantering, the organist would play along with them.

It just felt right to hear organ music on the field again during the Aviators game.

As I was going through my old Columbian Park Horse Show photos and programs, I noticed something, something I had tried to find via Google but had gotten no results. It's a breed of horses that was very, very local (although there was a registry for them) and I don't think any of them exist any more.

More on that breed tomorrow. Stay 'tooned!

From Baseball Field to Horse Show Ring and Back - Part One

Yesterday, Craig, Teacher Daughter Lisa, and I went to a baseball game in the newly renovated baseball stadium, Loeb Stadium, at Columbian Park and Zoo in Lafayette.

It's beautiful and the home of the Lafayette Aviators, a collegiate summer baseball team.

The Aviators are a nod to Amelia Earhart who joined the faculty here at Purdue University in 1935. 

She was a counselor in the Study of Careers for Women and Technical Advisor in the Department of Aeronautics and was still on faculty at Purdue when she disappeared in 1937.

Earhart with Purdue dignitaries at the Purdue Airport. (Photo from Purdue Archives.)

Even though I am not much of a baseball fan, it was a lot of fun.

But I couldn't help but think back to my childhood and teen years when I used to sit in these seats on warm summer days with my sister, Leslie. But we weren't there to watch baseball.

We were there to see show horses. Can you imagine a horse show being held right here on this baseball field? With horses trotting and cantering around the outfield? It's true - they did.

The location was listed as Columbian Park Recreation Center - also known as Loeb Stadium.

This horse show was the highlight of the summer for Leslie and me. Our mom used to drop us off at the stadium at noon with money for lunch and snacks, and we'd be in it for the long haul until the evening show was finished. Sunburned but happy, it was the absolute best day of the year for us.

More tomorrow. Stay 'tooned!