Frank “Scoop” Vessels III and the Quarter Horse Dynasty / Starting A Horse Farm
Frank “Scoop” Vessels III is unique in that he ranks simultaneously among the nation’s top leading breeders in both the Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse industries. The esteem in which both camps hold him is borne out by the fact that he is vice president of the American Quarter Horse Association and is also the vice president of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Known best for the creation and management of the Vessels Stallion Farm near San Diego, he was a six-time winner of the Baja Peninsula off-road races and is one of the originators of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. His farm stands the top racing Quarter horse stallion in the country, First Down Dash, as well as the leading Thoroughbred sire in the West Coast, In Excess (ire). Scoop Vessels is one of the equine industry’s most exemplary entrepreneurs.
My name is actually Frank Vessels III. They call me “Scoop” because I used to hang around the horse stalls a lot when I was a kid and so my grandfather gave me the nickname Scoop. Unfortunately, it stuck. You have to be careful as you are growing up because sometimes things stick to you for a lifetime.
As a result, when he heard that there were a lot of good broodmares with speed available in Louisiana, he soon went there to get some. Most of them had Thoroughbred bloodlines from the old Army remount stations. I still remember when I was small that he was gone for quite a while on that trip. He ended up sending back two train-car loads of mares from Louisiana; three of which became foundation mares of our operation today. Anyway, Granddad now had all these mares and was planning to raise our own horses so that we’d never get beat again, which never happens.
In those days, Huntley Gordon was an old family friend who owned a lot of land in that area. He was the great-grandfather of Robbie Gordon, the NASCAR driver. My Granddad was a good friend of Huntley Gordon, who had heard of a stallion in Arizona named Clabber. He was supposed to be the all-around Quarter Horse. It was said you could do ranch work on him all morning, rope on him all afternoon, and then run him in races in the evening. At the time, he was the world’s champion quarter running horse. These two guys got into a convertible, drove to Tucson, and bought the horse – likely for a pretty sweet sum at that time. Robbie Gordon’s dad has a photograph in his office of these two men in that convertible pulling a one-horse trailer and smoking big cigars. They must have thought they had hung the moon.
So, now we had a world champion stallion coming back to breed all those mares from Louisiana. Looking back, I consider that point in time to mark the real beginning of Vessels Stallion Farm. In years to come, there were many great horses on that place. My Dad continued not only to promote the track but also to work in Sacramento to get the legislature to legalize pari-mutuel wagering on Quarter Horses. By the mid-1950s, we were running quite a bit and there was no longer a horse shortage. Owners and trainers had discovered that running in Southern California was nice in the winter. We had some great meets and there were some really fast runners in those early days. Whenever we had famous horses, we would pack the stands.
the rest , as they say is history! I hope you enjoyed the post and were able to learn something new from this short post. Maybe starting your own horse farm?