Angel Quarter Horses: Breeder focuses on performance success

Riverton – For Terry Angel of Angel Quarter Horses, one of the most rewarding parts of raising registered performance Quarter horses is seeing their clients do well with their horses.

“Seeing the foals and horses we’ve raised go on to be trained in performance-specific jobs and doing well is very rewarding,” he says. “We’ve got quite a few horses around Wyoming that people are using for team roping horses and other jobs, and it’s pretty neat to see.”

Angel and his wife Jackie own and operate Angel Quarter Horses near Riverton.

Starting out

Angel Quarter Horses began approximately 20 years ago with the goal of raising high-quality registered Quarter horses, says Angel.

“The stallion we started with came from the Arapaho Ranch over in Thermopolis. He was a Beau Bonanza-bred horse,” he continues.

The couple first began breeding the stallion to mares they already owned, and then, they began to build up their broodmare herd with additional purchases.

“We had some good quality mares already, and we started to buy more good mares as we went,” comments Angel. “We kept breeding and buying mares every once in awhile.”

After an incident in 2009 that resulted in the death of their first stallion, Angel explains they continued the program with two new stallions they purchased the year prior.

“We continued breeding with those two stallions and bred them to some of the mares we had and some of the mares out of our old stud,” he notes.

Breeding operation

Angel Quarter Horses’ goal is to produce top-quality performance horses, breeding six to 10 mares per year, says Angel.

“Mostly, we’re just focusing on performance horses – mainly rope horses, ranch horses and rodeo horses,” he says.

In the past, the business has utilized auctions and consignments for selling their horses, but Angel explains they now market primarily to private buyers through word of mouth.

“In the last few years, we’ve been doing more private treaty than anything else,” he comments.

While they primarily market to Wyomingites, Angel notes that Angel Quarter Horses has attracted buyers from as far away as Louisiana.

“We also have horses in Washington state and Montana,” comments Angel. “Mostly we sell in Wyoming, of course, but we’ve had horses go to quite a few different states.”

As they continue their operation in the future, the couple hopes to continue improving the quality of the horses they produce.

“We just want to focus on producing the highest quality we can and specifically on raising performance rope horses that are top notch,” he says. “We might not breed quite as many mares and focus on quality instead.”

Stallions

Angel Quarter Horses finds it important to use a variety of performance proven bloodlines.

Angel explains, while their first stallion came from Bonanza bloodlines, the couple is utilizing new bloodlines with two new stallions.

“One of our stallions is a son of Gallo Del Cielo, and he’s out of a daughter of Rosie O’Lama,” he says. “Our other stallion is out of a stallion called Nu Circle N Cash and the performance mare Sparkles Suzana, which is a half sister to Shining Spark.”

They have also combined the genetics from their original stallions with the new bloodlines.

“We’ve been breeding some of the Bonanza-bred mares to these studs and been getting some really nice colts,” comments Angel.

Other influences

In addition to their outstanding sires, Angel explains their breeding program incorporates notable performance bloodlines in their mares.

“One of the mares that’s been a big influence on our breeding program goes back to Joe Queen and Joe Reed II,” he says. “We have a lot of daughters out of her.”

From reputation breeder Hank Wiescamp’s program, Angel Quarter Horses also uses bloodlines that trace back to Scooter W.

Doc Bar bloodlines also make an appearance in the breeding program for Angel Quarter Horses.

“Then, we’ve got one mare that’s a High Brow Henry mare,” he comments. “We’ve got some Colonel Freckles influence, too.”

Summarizing their breeding program, Angel says, “We’ve got some diverse, different bloodlines. It’s not all one bloodline, which is important.”

Emilee Gibb is editor of Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at emilee@wylr.net.