Arena Tracks: Chicken Rebel, part I
I’ve often said, “Every horse needs a girl.” It’s one of my core beliefs, as verifiable as the shape of the earth and the color of the sky. The love a girl has for a special horse is different from the emotion and connection in other relationships. Sure girls love their parents, tolerate their siblings and eventually lose all sense and fall in love with a boy, but the love shared by horse and rider is something remarkable that can’t quite be quantified. While all of these relationships are special, some are extraordinary. Even more amazing is a horse that can be a partner in that rare connection with several different riders. Chicken Rebel was one of those horses. From Beverly Hackens to Paulette Roseth, over to Shannon Porch, down to Wendy Harvey, back to Britni Porch and finally, home again to Paulette Roseth, Chicken Rebel made his mark and started the careers of several notable South Dakota cowgirls. He also set the bar pretty high for what they expected from the horses that followed in his hoofprints.
Chicken Rebel, a blue roan son of Rebel George and out of a Bull T Bar mare named Scratch Bars, slid into the Agar, South Dakota pasture of Porter Nuttal in 1972. There’s not a single reference to poultry on his papers so we can only postulate the thought behind the name, but Chicken Rebel was horse enough to wear that moniker with pride. The Nuttals, Texas transplants, brought their cowboy ways with them to South Dakota. Porter was a natural athlete who spent a couple years playing college football and helping Northern State College win a conference track championship before giving in to the draw of the family ranch and the horses they were raising. Back home in Sully County, Porter began to breed and train horses for pretty much whatever folks wanted of them, be it reining, cutting or racing.
The world lost Porter Nuttal five years ago. His wife, Sharon, remembered Chicken Rebel, a testimony to her recall considering the number of horses that came through their barn over the years.
“Oh sure!” she said. “He was a blue roan stud that we ran in Casper one summer. Those were such fun years.” Sharon also mentioned that Porter kept a detailed journal for many years, documenting the weather upon rising and at bedtime as well as other events throughout his day be they mundane or life altering. Those journals are a treasure of South Dakota history I hope to be able to tap in a future article.
Out in Wyoming, the Walker family of Kaycee were in the market for a herd sire and something that could cover some ground on their ranch. Brothers Pat and Mike Walker met the Nuttals in Casper and purchased Chicken Rebel after one of the races the summer of 1974. They polished his track training, put a little handle on him and set to ranching. The young stud had a good mind and was stout enough to head steers and drag an uncooperative mama cow wherever she needed to go. He could also catch something plum bent on running away. They bred their mares to Chicken Rebel and while Walkers weren’t into the racehorse scene, they’d race his offspring in the local pumpkin roller races and blow away the competition. The winnings didn’t exactly put them in a higher tax bracket, but they gave Walkers a sense of pride and made them walk a little taller on their way back to the horse trailer.
Pat Walker married Linda Batchelder, a New Underwood, South Dakota native, and often came back to stay with his in-laws when he judged South Dakota High School Rodeos. It was during one of those trips back to New Underwood that he and Darrell Hackens got to talking horses. Darrell’s girls needed a timed event horse and he liked what he was hearing about the stud Pat owned. The Walkers had several foal crops by Chicken Rebel and it was time to switch stallions and for him to find a new pasture. Darrell did his research and had pretty much committed himself to buying the horse when he drove to Kaycee, a one horse trailer in tow. After putting up the necessary front of indifference, shuffling around, giving the blue roan the once-over and commenting on his pigeon-toed stance, Darrell admitted he wanted the horse. The deal was struck, funds exchanged and the men went to load the horse. Chicken Rebel had been all over the country in a 1970s two-horse straight load trailer but flat refused to hop into Hackens’ trailer. The men used all their cowboy ingenuity to get Chicken in the trailer, but were left scratching their heads. Finally one thought to look over the trailer and found a chicken roosting in the manger. Chicken Rebel proved to be a chicken when faced with an actual chicken. The irony was not lost on the men. Chicken removed, the stallion loaded peacefully and enjoyed the ride to his new pasture back in South Dakota.
Back in South Dakota, the pick up and horse trailer turned off Pioneer Road and rolled to a stop along Elk Creek and Chicken was unloaded at the Hackens’ place. Darrell’s youngest daughter Beverly, 18 and in need of a barrel horse, kept her eyes on the new purchase. A few weeks watching her dad and brother riding him was enough for her. She stepped up and claimed him for herself. Beverly put in the time with Chicken, establishing a daily routine of a horse walker warm up followed by a leisurely walk across the bridge spanning Elk Creek to the barrel patch where she’d walk, trot and lope the pattern. Chicken took to the cans like a rooster to daybreak and within a month or so was cruising a nice pattern with nary a long breath or prancing step. The pair would walk the mile back to the barn, unsaddle and his day would be done. Chicken had found his first girl.
The night before the Belle Fourche 4H Rodeo the skies opened and it rained the kind of rain we pray for in South Dakota. The next morning, in typical “we ride rain or shine” manner, the rodeo kicked into action, a foot of mud in the arena. Chicken Rebel, still a stud, stood next to Beverly’s friends’ horses without the slightest whinny or squeal, only mildly curious about the circus that was erupting around him. Beverly had brought him to the rodeo with about six weeks of barrel training between the two of them. The slop made her doubt her choice, but given there wasn’t another barrel horse in her trailer, tightened the cinch and pulled down her hat before staring at the open gate. Chicken took to the sloppy arena like a duck takes to water. When Beverly pulled him up at the gate, she was dumbstruck. She had never RUN him hard and for sure had never worked him in a muddy arena, yet here they were WINNING the barrel race.
Beverly postulates that Chicken may have run on muddy tracks, but whatever the reason, the horse LOVED a muddy arena. Pat Walker agreed, “He’d just bury his belly in the mud and run.” The rest of that summer Chicken Rebel, the novice barrel horse who liked the mud and loved his little jockey, either placed or won dang near every event they entered. People started to talk about that good looking blue roan stud that Hackens’ had, and the talk turned to breeding.
Darrell ran a small band of broodmares, breeding somewhere between eight and 10 each year. They used Chicken Rebel as their herd sire and the offspring went on to show the same talent as their sire. Folks will remember Melody Hackens Smith’s great horse Rascal (Mr Chicken Antica) who took her to numerous SDRA and Badlands Circuit wins as well as earning her the 1990 WPRA Rookie of the Year honor. Rascal was by Chicken Rebel and out of a mare named Antica by Barleo Saline. Chicken Dandy, an outstanding gray gelding out of Amego Daisy by Top Smoke Deck, was also trained by Beverly Hackens and run by Shari Porch, Shannon Porch’s younger sister.
And that is where we will leave it for this week. Next week, Chicken Rebel takes on the high school rodeos with Paulette Roseth, Shannon Porch, Wendy Harvey and Britni Porch. Chicken Rebel became a household name and cemented his place as a South Dakota legend.
