Dad and I had McCurdy horses in the mid-1960s, but he had been aware of them and had ridden them even earlier than that.  These horses were brought to southeastern NC by the scores by a horse/mule trader from Bladenboro, NC named Henry James White, Jr.  Henry James had made contacts in Lowndes County, Alabama and was catching the horses wild, out of the huge swamp pastures where they were running free, breeding and thriving.  In those days, Henry James was known to return from Alabama with as many as 15 at one time.  We knew he was getting them from Alabama, but no one knew exactly where.  Like a good fisherman, he didn't give out the exact direction of his favorite fishing hole!  All of the McCurdy horses we had in the 60s came from Henry James.

Dad rode a McCurdy stud named "Doc" (Doctor McCurdy).  One of the stories we had heard back then (there were many, and sometimes they conflicted) was that these horses were the product of plantation walking horses that were crossed with some Arabian blood brought back to the U.S. after WWI by an Army veterinarian named McCurdy, who then developed this breed.  We now know that wasn't true- there was no veterinarian, and the confusion stemmed from the fact that there was a horse named McCurdy's Doctor, who became the foundation stud of the McCurdy breeding program at the old McCurdy barn in Lowndesboro.  But this story explains the stud's name.

We also owned several McCurdy mares- my main McCurdy horse was a little mare named Freckles, who was a fleabitten grey.  She was a great mare that would go anywhere- I used to swim her in the Lumber River.

My parents moved from the country into town in 1972.  I don't think that we ever intended to get out of the horse business; it's just one of those things that happens when you get involved with other priorities.  Dad had decided to go back to seminary, and he was putting his heart and soul into his ministry work.  My uncle, Robert Suggs, became custodian of the horses, as he had large pastures where he could accommodate them.  I was finishing high school, college and seminary.  At some point, I turned around and the the only McCurdy horse left in my uncle's pasture was my Dad's old stud, Doctor McCurdy.

Grandson of our Doctor McCurdy, owned by Robert Suggs of Elizabethtown, NC

Fast forward to June, 1989:  Dad and I drove to Las Vegas, NV to attend the Southern Baptist Convention.  We were both serving Baptist churches at that time, and we decided to combine our church duties with an epic father/son cross country trip.  Dad had traveled extensively in Texas, and I had been as far as Oklahoma, but there were vast parts of the West that neither of us had ever seen- so we decided to remedy that.

After departing South Carolina, we spent our first night on the road in West Memphis, Arkansas.  On the second day, we drove into Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweeping down the plain!), to Tulsa, then due West into the panhandle, where we turned North into Kansas.  Being that we were Matt Dillon fans, we spent the second night in Dodge City and toured "the Long Branch" and Boot Hill the next morning.  Then we continued West into Colorado and, after crossing Wolf Creek Pass (11,000 feet above sea level), we spent the third night in Durango.  On the fourth day, we turned South into New Mexico, then West again to Arizona, and across Hoover Dam into Nevada.

The return trip was great too- across Arizona, where we saw the cliff dwellings near Sedona, then across the corner of New Mexico and into Texas, where we spent a night at some long-forgotten motel.  The next day we made a bee line for Alice, Texas (home of the Rattlesnake Roundup)  It was a hard day on the road, but we finally arrived on Saturday night at the place we were staying- a ranch near Alice that was managed by one of Dad's wild-hog-hunting buddies.  We slept in the bunk house that night (I'm not kidding), and Wade, Dad's friend, had to go in and make sure no scorpions had slipped in since the last cleaning!  The next morning (Sunday!) we went hog hunting on the King Ranch with Wade and Darren, another cowboy.  After finishing up about mid-day, we showered, got in the truck and started for home.  We spent that night somewhere near Lake Charles, Louisiana.

But I digress...

The following day we started for home in S.C.  Dad and I had been talking about the McCurdy horses all the way to Las Vegas and back, as we often did when we were together.  As we entered Alabama and turned North toward Montgomery, our thoughts and conversation turned again to memories of these great horses.

I had been keeping my eyes peeled for horse businesses or tack shops- anywhere we might get some information on the McCurdys- and as we passed through Montgomery, I saw a big horse trailer dealership beside the Interstate.  I remember saying to Dad, "Let's go back and ask them if they know anything about the McCurdys".  He was driving, but he turned around and we did just that.  Sure enough, there was a friendly fellow in a white cowboy hat who remembered the McCurdy horses, and he had a high opinion of them. I remember him saying, "you could ride one down the railroad track and he'd never step on a crosstie".  But he said they had "about played out" (I think this gentleman was Jim Pitts, who was a director of the Alabama Racking Horse Assoc.)

Dad had written a monthly column in "Full Cry" (coon and tree hound enthusiasts' magazine) for over 30 years, and he made mention of the McCurdy horses in his column.  Joe Wood, of Greenville, AL, put Dad in touch with Roy Rogers, who was also looking for some of the old timey McCurdy horses.  Dad began to correspond with Roy and others by phone and letter, and that was the beginning of the McCurdy Plantation Horse Association, and later the Registry.

I have copies of the some of Dad's writings about the McCurdy horses, and I'll post those in a later blog.