Reference Stallions > LEO HANCOCK HAYES (Deceased)
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Leo Hancock Hayes
Leo Hancock Hayes died Saturday, June 30, 2007, of an apparent heart attack at the Funny B Ranch, near Lohn, Texas. He was twenty-seven years old.
Foaled in 1980, the year Blue Valentine died, Leo Hancock Hayes was bred by Hayes Brothers (Buster and Laurie) of Thermopolis, Wyoming. Laurie’s son Vince, owned him until he was twenty years old.
Leo Hancock Hayes has certainly helped to perpetuate the Blue Valentine legacy. Since 1998, the "Come to the Source" sale has been held in Laramie, Wyoming each August in conjunction with the Hyde Merritt Memorial Roping. Of the nineteen sires listed as reference sires for the 2007 sale, seven of them are Leo Hancock Hayes sons or grandsons: Wyo Blue Bonnet, Hancock Wiggy Bars, Hancock Red Wiggy, Blue Fox Hancock, and Blue Leo Man, Fox Blue, Blue Dart Fox, and Wyo Blue Valentine.In 2001, Randy and Susan Brookings, the owners of the Funny B Ranch, purchased Leo Hancock Hayes from Vince Hayes. They were already avid Hancock breeders and credit Fred Gist of the Wagon Wheel Ranch, Lometa, Texas, who owned Rowdy Blue Man, another son of Blue Valentine, for their involvement in Hancock horses. Realizing he was one of few own sons of Blue Valentine left, Brookings began an aggressive breeding program centered around Leo Hancock Hayes. They crossed him back on their own daughters of Rowdy Blue Man, Hancocks Blue Boy, and other lines of Hancock-bred mares. They doubled the stud fee to attract better quality mares but it didn’t slow down the breeders. Through 2006, the aging stallion sired a lifetime total of 468 registered foals. Nearly half of them were born after he was twenty years old. Even at twenty-seven years old, all of the thirty-five mares he bred this spring have been checked safe in foal for 2008. With the registration of the 2007 and 2008 foal crops his total foals will total well over 500. More than 50% have been roans.
As with Blue Valentine, most of Leo Hancock Hayes’ get have been used as ranch or rodeo horses with no official AQHA record. However, some are starting to make their mark in the show pen. Bar Star Danger, a 2002 bay roan stallion has points in Tie-down and Breakaway Roping. He qualified for the AQHA World show in Junior Tie-down Roping and earned his Register of Merit (ROM) in 2006. Blue Fox Hancock, a 2001 blue roan stallion, has AQHA points in Working Cow Horse and Heeling and earned his AQHA Open Performance ROM in early 2007. A bay roan daughter, Bar Star Sadie and a red roan gelding Pros Velvet Seven, both have points in Tie-down Roping. Several others have done well in other organized competition such as foundation shows and ranch horse competitions. -
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Leo Hancock Hayes
Randy and Susan Brookings with Leo Hancock Hayes