About Us
Blue Creek Appaloosas is a breeding ranch for Foundation Appaloosas. We are one of a handful of such breeders, mostly in the United States but some of which are in Canada, various European countries and elsewhere. Some of the pedigrees of our horses go back to those of the Palouse Native American Sam Fisher. The ultimate goal of the FA movement is to create purebred Appaloosas by breeding only Appaloosa to Appaloosa and not out crossing or cross breeding with any of the other fine light breeds of horses. If a photograph of a horse lacks a link to a pedigree, please know that all of our horses’ pedigrees are available on the fine website, allbreedpedigree.com.
BCA is a small operation with fewer than 20 head of Foundation Appaloosas. Our foals are imprinted at birth. Many people comment on how relaxed our horses are and easy to be around.
We focus on disposition, conformation, and color, seeking outstanding individuals who excel in all three categories. Our horses receive basic natural horsemanship training and leave the premises eminently suitable for western pleasure and trail riding. Charles Potts put more than 500 miles on SHA Patchobys Design in 2014 including over 100 miles on the 50th Anniversary of the Chief Joseph Trail Ride in Wyoming and Montana. We are at a large distance from the bright lights and big Texas city for the National and World competition, but we show locally and regionally as time permits and our facilities are available for several youth in 4-H programs and otherwise.
BCA is a member of, among other organizations, The Appaloosa Horse Club of Moscow, Idaho, The International Colored Appaloosa Association (ICAA) of Whiteface, Texas, The Appaloosa Project, and the Walla Walla Wagon Wheelers.
The proprietor Charles Potts grew up with Appaloosa horses in Lost River, Idaho in the 1940s and 50s. He went 48 years without horses and established BCA in 2008 to investigate the genetic possibilities of Appaloosa horses. Thank you for visiting our pages and know that you are welcome at the ranch as well.
Olympic Appaloosas (& owner of two BCA Appaloosas)
Chairman and Registrar of the International Colored Appaloosas Association
Beginnings
Charles Potts was born in Idaho to an equestrian family. The Latin poet Ovid, whose names means sheep herder, was also born to an equestrian family, a few miles east of Rome. Charles, too, herded and took care of sheep. His family lived on a ranch on what was their grandpa’s homestead two miles east of Mackay, Idaho, in the Big Lost River Valley. At one time or other they had 60 head of horses, some Appaloosas, quarter horses, a TB or two, and they put up their hay with Shires. Charles’ father, Verl S Potts is cited in the first Appaloosas Horse Club stud book as an owner of a living Appaloosa Horse.
Charles began riding at two and one-half, and had four Appaloosas of his own when his family lost their ranch to the high interest 1950s, expensive equipment, shortage of labor. They were forced into bankruptcy and sold everything including Charles’ horses, at auction. No special pleading here; 50 million Americans were forced off the land between the 1930s and the 1960s. It would be 48 years before Charles owned another horse.
Charles Potts at age 16
Charles’ Father with Moore’s Boise
Blue Creek Appaloosas
The basic premise at Blue Creek Appaloosas is to breed Appaloosas with extensive Appaloosa pedigrees to other similarly endowed individuals in the steady process to reach purebred Appaloosas. A purebred individual is one with eight generations of registered Appaloosas both top and bottom of their pedigree.
BCA started in 2008 with two individual horses that had four generations of registered Appaloosas on both sides of their pedigrees, SHA Patchobys Design, aka Desi, and SHA Shilohs Fourwind, from Sunset Hills Appaloosas of Bloomfield Missouri.. The Appaloosa Horse Club of Moscow, Idaho, (ApHC) can record these individuals as GAP4s. The International Colored Appaloosa Association of McAlister, Oklahoma, (ICAA) designates them with the letter F, as in F-4.
BCA shortly acquired a weanling colt from Rafter DS Appaloosas in Fossil, Oregon, also a 4, BCAP Tobys Fossil, and two mares from Decker’s Red Eagle Appaloosas, (DREA) in Alvadore, Oregon, DREA Patchyrainwater, and DREA Imnaha Ladyhawk.
Fossil’s sire was Ulrich Cheyene, and his dam was WAR Tobys Nightwind. He is essentially a Wyoming Appaloosa, matured to 15.3, with good size and bone. The mares, Desi, Patchy, and Ladyhawk were smaller, 14.2, and more refined. The plan at BCA was to get Appaloosas that were taller at the withers than their dams, with denser bone, better feet and legs, and to extend the refinement into subsequent generations.
By 2012 we hit a trifecta. Desi gave birth to BCA Tofoz Fudasan, Patchy gave birth to BCA Tofoz Shandalupa, and Ladyhawk gave birth to BCA Tofoz Pahsimeroi. All fillies, GAP5s or F-5s, colorful, gorgeous, and distinctive.
By 2020, when we should have been breeding for Purebreds by 2024, we hit a wall. For three solid years, all we got were colts. We have been treading water with GAP7s and F-7s since 2020. If Charles Potts lives long enough, BCA will have its first purebreds in 2027.
SHA Patchoby’s Design aka “Desi”
5-6
It takes four years to take a single step in the quest to breed purebred Appaloosas. The step for BCA from fives to sixes was tedious, confusing, and difficult.
To begin with Charles could only find five level five colts in the entire country, and two of them were right here at BCA, Tofoz Chatanga, and Tofoz Kagoshima. The third of the five turned out to be only a four. The fourth of the five, Poplars Zamocha, (actually a 6) was still young and his owner didn’t want to breed him.
Charles took a plane ride to Albany, New York and drove to Williamstown, Massachusetts to visit with Maury Lawson and look over her colt, AHF Loyal Heart, the fifth of the five. He look fine and plans were made to breed him by AI. Those plans went haywire when his sperm count wasn’t high enough. Charles leased him, and Lawson and he shared the expense of transporting Loyal Heart to Walla Walla. He had bred two mares by live coverage when Charles got his test results back and he was positive for PSSM1. Charles took Loyal Heart out of service and returned him to Massachusetts.
BCA got one clear foal, the GAP6 filly BCA Heartbeat Pasxa out of BCA Tofoz Shandalupa.
Charles close bred Chatanga to BCA Tofoz Pahsimeroi and got a great colt, BCA Chats Yamahawk. Yama to Pasxa produced a great GAP7, BCA Yamas Pasxapa.
Because of the enormous distances in North America, the sparsity of breeding programs, and the fact that the movement does not have critical mass, means this problem of advancing the generations is structural and continuous.
Getting colts only for three straight years, 2020, 21, and 22, means it will be 2027 before we produce a purebred Appaloosa, BCA Yamas Pasxapa to BCA Red Deers Chabado.
BCA Yamas Pasxapa and BCA Red Deers Chabudo,
future progenitors to BCA’s first purebred Appaloosa!
The BCA Red Deers Syringa Story
The bottom line of Syringa’s pedigree, commencing with BCA Zamos Juliaca, to BCA Tofoz Dublspring, and on to DREA Imnaha Ladyhawk and to DREA Eagles Imnaha, we find in the 5th generation back, Wakons Navajo Eagle. Taking Navajo Eagle back to the 8th quintile we find the thoroughbred, El Bueno. If El Bueno’s place were taken up with a registered Appaloosa, then Syringa would be a purebred.
Wakons Navajo Eagle appears four times in Syringa’s pedigree, here, twice in the double iteration of Poplars Zamocha, and in his grandam GW Cheveyos Sunspot’s pedigree. These latter three are beyond the 8th quintile and do not affect his status leaning toward purebred.
Every time you get El Bueno, you get three iterations of Rock Sand. Every Rock Sand is good for four iterations of Pocahontas, born in 1837. I believe that indicates 48 occasions of Pocahontas in Syringa’s pedigree.
And if that wasn’t enough, the four closeup occurrences of Wakons Navajo Eagle show him as the progenitor of a male horse and a female horse, on top and bottom. Gender balance top and bottom. This sex balancing is what moves the genetic recapitulation forward. They are in his wheel house.
Not only does Syringa have all of this, much from Zamocha, he also has many of the horses in the Pasxa Yamahawk line as well. A heavy horse, heavy with potential. Beautiful, well built, GAP7.
When you try to take a famous modern Appaloosa back through only its Appaloosa parents to the 20th generation, most likely there will be blank spots and dead air. We can only surmise and project what those unknown horses might have looked like. But with Pocahontas, we get the benefit of more than 300 years of the Jockey Club’s record keeping. The record keeping of the Appaloosa Horse Club, formed by Claude Thompkins in 1938, is even now only 87 years old.
Beyond F7 GAP7
Given the challenges of the large distances in North America, and the shortage of high foundation Appaloosas, one of BCA’s success stories is as follows. BCA Heartbeat Pasxa bred to BCA Chats Yamahawk yielded three colts, all 7s. The oldest of which, BCA Yamas Misqualu is with Jan Dobson at Foggy Valley Farms in Tennessee and is in line to become the sire of the first F8. The second of these colts, BCA Yamas Yellow Hawk is with Sherri Ritter in St. Mary, Missouri, who also operates a fine breeding program. It has always been a goal here at BCA to place as much of our stock with great breeding programs as possible, so as not to lose the progress we are making with their genetics. The third of these three full brothers is still with us here, due to be a two year old in 2025, BCA Yamas Pasxapa. He will be a great partner to BCA Red Deers Chabudo but not until 2026 and the offspring won’t be available until 2027.
The examination of the underpinnings of these three colts, bringing together the lines of BCAP Tobys Fossil, Poplars Zamocha, DREA Comanchebluhawk, and AHF Loyal Heart, shows the following. They reach back to the great leopard herds of Don and Mary Ulrich, mainly Ulrich’s Many Coups on one side, and also WAR Starnight bred by Ray and Irina Weese. BCAP Tobys Fossil is essentially a Wyoming horse. And on the other side the great leopards of the Ghost Wind Stallions, such as Solar Flair Eclat. The great work of Marlene Ross at Wakon’s Appaloosas created Wakons Navajo Eagle, who figures prominently in our lines. The approximation of the applications of the Tesio method, to reiterate the genes in the engine room of 4-6 generations back should yield horses of great style and versatility. We can say with confidence that the 7s in my keep are infinitely more gentle, teachable, and well built than the 4s we started with.
We believe all these pedigrees are accurate on allbreedpedigree.com so we wont try to massage the entire back story. But it is there for our edification.
The Pasxa Yamahawk Line
Although we didn’t get any fillies from the matings of BCA Heartbeat Pasxa to BCA Chats Yamahawk, the colts we did get are on their way into the foundation stud books. BCA Yamas Misqualu, now with Jan Dobson of Foggy Valley Farms in Tennessee, BCA Yamas Yellow Hawk with Sherri Ritter in Missouri, and the one we have retained, BCA Yamas Pasxapa will be the sires of some of the first eight full generations of purebred Appaloosas.
We are grateful here at BCA that Jan Dobson and Sherri Ritter could recognize the steps we had taken and the all around quality of the colts. They bring into a single framework the successful efforts of The Ulrich line and the WAR Appaloosa line out of Wyoming, bred by Ray and Irina Weese. They add in the Pratt and Decker lines from Oregon. They also have the Ghost Wind Stallions and through KKS Blue Phoenix, they reach back to Red Eagle, Mansfield’s Commanche, and Toby I.
All near leopards and heterozygous, they are a blend of the very best into future creatures, classics here now, and on the threshold of purebred.
Purebred Appaloosas
There have never been purebred Appaloosas. Several of us at ICAA are on the cusp of breeding them for the first time, achieving the industry standard of eight full generations of registered appaloosas on both top and bottom of a pedigree.
Light horse breeds interbreed regularly and with mixed results. Presuming the white stallion that the Nez Perce Native Americans gifted Lewis and Clark with was a homozygous Appaloosa, then every foal he sired with whatever solid colored mare would probably have spots, and look like an Appaloosa even though the foal would be a half-breed.
Why does it matter that pure bred Appaloosas be brought into existence? To reach the unexpressed potential in the gene pool, care needs to be taken. I can say with confidence that the horses I have bred who are in the upper reaches of the gentle slope toward purebred, are easier to train, friendlier, more willing to express a bond between horse and handler than the horses lower in the range.