Research ~ Doc O'Lena

At the horse auction, Lisa and I were looking for fillies that had references to Doc O'Lena - a famous QH sire - in their bloodlines, or Doc O'Lena himself in the part of their bloodlines listed. Until today, when I did various extensive research on Doc O'Lena, I had a vague but incomplete knowledge of who, exactly, Doc O'Lena was, why he was famous, and what famous things his get had/have done.

Did you know that Doc O'Lena sired over 1,300 foals? That's tons more than Secretariat - a brilliant horse, even a miracle to the racing world - who produced just over 600. Doc O'Lena is the second leading cutting horse sire of all time, when it comes to producing money-bringing offspring. Though, some say that Doc O'Lena wasn't famous for his work and skills so much as the offspring he produced. Most, if not all, of his offspring accomplished some great feat, if it wasn't bringing home a championship title, it was breaking or making a record. Of those 1,300+ foals, a couple of the greatly known ones were:

Smart Little Lena - $743,275 in winnings, NCHA Triple Crown winner, NCHA Derby co-champion, and Super Stakes champion
Todaysmyluckyday - $105,836 in winnings, NRHA O Futurity Champion, World Champion
Lenas Dynamite - $265,325 in winnings total, Bonanza 4-Yr-Old O Champion, Tropicana 4-Yr-Old O Futurity Champion
Tap O Lena - $458,501 in winnings, NCHA O Super Stakes Champion, NCHA Super Stakes O & Non-Pro Classic Champion


And that's just a few. I could name so many more, but I just don't have the time, will, or energy. Anyways...

Doc O'Lena wasn't supposed to be born. No, he wasn't an 'oops' foal, just his chances of actually being born were slim. You see, his dam, Poco Lena, was an ex-cutting horse who had been put on drugs to keep her from cycling during the season. Poco Lena had been taken out of show biz when she foundered badly and went down. She recovered enough to go back into the show ring, but when she was being shipped from Arizona to her owner's ranch, she foundered again. Her driver abandoned her, and she was found days later in a much worse condition. She was taken to Mr. and Mrs. Jensen's ranch, where the Jensens were standing Doc Bar - you all know him, the famous halter stallion by Three Bars - and the Jensens took three years out of their lives and wallets to nurse Poco Lena back to health, with the help of three veterinarians.

By this time, Poco Lena was cycling again. She was bred to Doc Bar, and after many attempts and frustrating days, Poco Lena took and later foaled Doc O'Lena. Poco Lena was re-bred to Doc Bar, and this time the result was Dry Doc.

After she foaled Dry Doc, her condition gradually decreased and she died a while later. She was put into the NCHA Hall of Fame (the first horse ever), and then the AQHA Hall of Fame (first mare ever). Poco Lena was a great horse, as we can all tell - thanks to her, we have all of the children of Doc O'Lena, one of the greatest sires ever to have lived.

Doc O'Lena was trained by Shorty Freeman as a 2-yr-old, and when Doc O'Lena showed at the NCHA Futurity as a 3-yr-old, Doc O'Lena became the first horse ever to take a clean sweep of all of the preliminary events, semi-finals, and finals. $21,991 was Doc O'Lena's total earnings over his life in the NCHA.

Smart Little Lena, Doc O'Lena's colt, was the first horse to win the NCHA's Triple Crown. Out of Doc O'Lena's 1,300 foals, 321 of them aquired 3,978.5 points, nine earned Superior Performance awards, four were world champions, and six were youth world champions. Doc O'Lena died in 1993, and was put into the AQHA Hall of Fame.

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What do you think? Informative? =)