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Larry Thornton - Biography
AUTHOR - PEDIGREE CONSULTANT - QUARTER HORSE
BREEDER
Welcome to
Thornton Quarter Horses, "The Working Lines" and the pursuit of breeding
superior horses ... with author, pedigree consultant and Quarter Horse
breeder, Larry Thornton
Larry started
with a serious interest in bloodlines in the mid 1960's, and a dream
to become a Quarter Horse breeder. His intense interest in pedigrees and
how to utilize this information lead to a long career as a prolific writer
and student of Quarter Horse breeding.
FLASH!
Larry's next book, "Bloodlines N
Pedigrees" will be published soon. Watch for
more information here.
It all started
when Thornton wrote his first article for SPEEDHORSE in 1984. After
that article, Larry became a regular contributor to SPEEDHORSE,
writing a monthly column and other features. His interest in performance
horses led him to write a series of articles for the National Cutting
Horse Association’s CHATTER magazine on famous cutting horse
bloodlines. This evolved into the the popular monthly feature titled
"The Working Lines" that has been published in SOUTHERN HORSEMAN
since August of 1989. It presents information and histories of top
performance horses in the industry, both past and present, eagerly used by
readers as learning and research tools for the performance horse industry.
"The Working
Lines" and other pedigree articles written by Thornton are currently
published in several magazines around the country. These publications in
addition to SOUTHERN HORSEMAN, include THE WORKING HORSE, FOUNDATION
QUARTER HORSE, THE PACIFIC COAST QUARTER HORSE JOURNAL and
PERFORMANCE HORSE.
The success of
"The Working Lines" column lead to the publication of "THE WORKING
LINES" and "THE WORKING LINES VOLUME II" books. These books are
a compilation of some of the "Working Lines" columns. In book form, "The
Working Lines" serves as a quick and handy reference for horsemen
researching pedigrees.
Larry Thornton
has been a contributor and/or consultant to several other outstanding
equine books. They include "LEGENDS III" (Quo Vadis) and
"LEGENDS IV" (Ed Echols), as well as "DOC BAR" and "LITTLE
PEPPY and the KING RANCH."
"I credit any
success I have as a pedigree researcher and consultant to the people I
have interviewed," states Larry about his career in the pedigree world.
"B. F. Phillips, Jr. was the first great horseman and breeder to give me
an interview, and his input made my first article a success. By following
with what B. F. Phillips started, I have been able to visit with many
great horseman in our industry, giving me the opportunity to learn about
some famous breeding programs, their great horses and their breeding
philosophies. A primary goal of Thornton Quarter Horses is to provide
Consulting Services and pass that information on to others in hopes that
we can all breed better horses."
Speaking of
breeding a better horse, Thornton is currently developing a breeding
program around his stallion Triple Cutter Bill and a select band of mares
that form the base of his breeding program. This band of mares includes
two granddaughters of Continental King, a granddaughter of Cutter Bill, a
linebred Leo San mare and a granddaughter of Doc’s Hickory.
"One of the
great breeders of the early years of the AQHA was R. L. Underwood,"
explains Larry about his current breeding plans. "Underwood took advantage
of many of the top bloodlines of the era, but the base of his breeding
program dealt with the Copperbottom bred stallion, Golden Chief.
Copperbottom was the foundation sire of the second oldest family of modern
Quarter Horses. The Copperbottom’s were noted cow horses of early Texas.
The greatest contributor to the modern branch of the Copperbottom horses
is the AQHA Hall of Fame stallion Cutter Bill. Our new young stallion is
Triple Cutter Bill. This colt carries three crosses to Cutter Bill and is
our link to this great bloodline and our efforts to perpetuate this line
of horses. It is important for us as breeders to continue the bloodlines
that make up our breed, and the Underwood breeding program was one of the
best."
Thornton has
another interesting aspect to his life. Having graduated from the
University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Animal
Science, he later finished the requirements to become an Agricultural
Education Instructor. He is currently the Horticulture Instructor at the
Area Vo-Tech Center in Russellville, Arkansas.
Despite the
involvement with horses, the Thornton Family is the true highlight in his
life. Larry and Judy have been married for 35 years and they reside in
London, Arkansas. They have two children, Nancy and David. Nancy is
married to Roger Snook and they have five children ... Kristen Leanne,
Christopher, Michael, Kristen Brianna and Matthew. The Snook family lives
near Capot, Arkansas. David is married to Aja Rose and reside in Elma
Washington.
Larry Thornton’s dream of being a Quarter Horse breeder
got started with Quarter Horse pedigrees and the history that goes with
them. That dream has grown to become a reality through "The Working Lines"
and the development of Thornton Quarter Horses. So, welcome to Thornton
Quarter Horses, "The Working Lines" and the pursuit of breeding good
horses. |
