This is a republication of a series of articles prepared to celebrate Sundance 500's 30th anniversary in 2003. It has been broken down into small parts to make it easier to view on the internet.
PART ONE - The Origins of Sundance 500 International
Much of the historical information about the very early beginnings of our organization was given to me by the creator of the Sundance 500 Breeders Association, Ralph Cannon. Additional information regarding Wayne Wyant was given to me by Lois Wyant. Previous Sundance 500 Newsletters, articles from the Appaloosa News and Sundance 500 Breeders Association documents from Ralph Cannon's personal files have been used as references to complete this article.
I visited Ralph and Joyce Cannon on March 23, 2002, just one month before Ralph Cannon's 92nd birthday. The interview for Sundance 500 International was held in the Cannon's beautiful mountainside home in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Ralph explained in detail how he got started in the Appaloosa business. It is relevant and necessary to tell the story of his beginnings with Appaloosas and how his daughter's love of the breed sparked his interest that resulted in the start of our 30-year old Sundance 500 International organization.
Ralph Cannon standing under
Painting of Sunspot Revel
by Joel Hetley
BEGINNINGS
Our organization really began in 1963 when Ralph Cannon conceived the idea and a group of Sundance 500 breeders came together to promote their horses. In fact, this would make our organization 40 years old in 2003. It is wonderful that Ralph Cannon is able to witness this great organization's accomplishments and see the renewed interest by the current membership. Ralph is credited with being one of the two founding fathers and is still a member in good standing of Sundance 500 International.
The story of the famous red leopard stallion Sundance F500 has been told in articles by Harry Edwards, Mary Hare, Phil Jenkins and Mary Manley. We know of the magnificent leopard bloodlines from Sundance F500 that were found in the early Sully Appaloosas of Lee Warne and WayLo Appaloosas of Wayne and Lois Wyant. The Sundance F500 bloodline was also present in the early days of the Weber's Money Creek Ranch, the Ulrich Ranch and many other breeders, such as Ben Johnson, Carl Follmer, Clyde Knowlton, Harold Christie and the Swaynes.
The story must now be told of the humble but brilliant, hard-working man Ralph Cannon, who was a geologist by profession and a true horseman at heart. Ralph Cannon, born in 1910 in York, Pennsylvania, has seen many changes in his lifetime-the transition from horse to automobile, two world wars, the Depression, and now the age of the computer. Sundance 500 International has grown far beyond the original fellowship that Ralph Cannon envisioned and began many years ago with Wayne Wyant.
This organization was conceived as the result of the Cannon and Foreman families training and showing the Sundance F500 bred bay leopard stallion, Sunspot Revel, in the Mountain and Plains Appaloosa Horse Club during the early 1960's. Ralph Cannon's curiosity led him to to research the lineage of Sunspot Revel's dam, Rocking Chair Sun Dance F587, and led to a desire to establish a fellowship of breeders of Sundance F500 bloodline Appaloosas. Ralph also had the opportunity to watch the success of various Sundance 500 bloodline Appaloosas in regional and national events. It was during those early years that Ralph created the concept of the Sundance bloodline association and talked to breeders who ran the larger operations producing Sundance F500 bloodline horses. The story of Sundance 500 International cannot be told without first telling the story of Sun Appaloosas and the famous stallion Sunspot Revel F1904.
SUN APPALOOSAS
The Sun Appaloosas program was born in the 1950s in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico. The Cannons lived near Sante Fe, New Mexico in Seton Village next to an 800 acre horse ranch where they rode horses and attended the rancher's classes on horse handling. In 1954 the Cannon's daughter, Susan bought her own horse with parental consent. Susan began riding her horse with a friend who was a very experienced rider. One day when they were riding through the pinon pines, Susan fell and was injured, which focused her parents on locating kid-safe horses. The next winter in a new home on Lookout Mountain overlooking Golden and Denver, Colorado, while riding horses from a nearby stable, the Cannons found a perfect kid-safe horse. She was a speckled roan mare named Rocking Chair Sun Dance F587
Annual Mounted Easter Sunrise Service
Rocking Chair Sun Dance
photo by Ordell Pederson
Later in 1956, Susan pleaded to her parents, "poor old Rocking Chair, eight years old and never had a baby." Reluctantly the parents gave in. Ralph told Susan, "but just one." His daughter's request led him to look for a stallion for breeding. They went to the Annual Mounted Easter Sunrise service in search of anyone riding an Appaloosa. Ralph found a man who turned out to be an old time Appaloosa breeder, Cliff McMurtry, President of the Mountain and Plains Appaloosa Horse Club (MPAHC). Ralph explained their needs and after asking Cliff about a stallion he said, "Have I got the stallion for you!" That young stallion was Revel Junior F1728. So that spring, Rocking Chair Sun Dance was bred to Revel Junior, who in later years became a famous performance horse.
SUNSPOT REVEL
On May 16, 1957, a pink leopard colt was born in a puddle of water melted from a recent two foot snow fall. Rocking Chair Sun Dance was staying at a friend's ranch on Lookout Mountain and foaled the colt during a sunspot cycle, so he was named Sunspot Revel. That June Cliff convinced the Cannons to take the pair to the big Estes Park show of the MPAHC. The amateur Cannons did well for their first time and Rocking Chair Sun Dance received Reserve Champion Broodmare and their leopard colt placed fourth place. George Hatley registered the colt that day at the show, but when his registration papers came in the mail, it listed Sunspot Revel F18xx sired by Revel, his grandsire. The certificate was returned to Moscow for correction. When the new registration certificate came back, Sunspot Revel was registered F1904. The recent stud book had already gone to press ending with F1899.
Sunspot Revel as a foal
The Cannons were impressed at Estes Park show when all the old time breeders tried to buy the bay leopard colt. In August 1957, Cliff persuaded them to show their horses at the Colorado State Fair. At both shows they were deluged with help and advice from many old time breeders. So much interest in their leopard colt and roan mare told the Cannons they had hit the jackpot and needed to research Rocking Chair Sun Dance's ancestry. Ralph learned that she was the only registered foal of Rocking Chair Porter, one of the original 13 registered get of Sundance 500, making Sunspot Revel a great grandson of Sundance F500. Soon he discovered that Rocking Chair Sun Dance had been sired by Fox CRHA #10. Through the Colorado Rangerbred Horse Registry, Fox's ancestry was traced back to Leopard #3, son of Max #2, son of the mysterious leopard stallion, the Waldron Leopard. Sunspot Revel's pedigree goes back through two unbroken lines of leopard ancestors. Ralph also realized that Sundance F500 was in the pedigree of almost every Colorado bred National Champion at this point in time. It was right about then that Ralph named his program Sun Appaloosas.
