Modern Day Treasure Hunt: The Search For Wimpy P-1’s Papers is Over

By: Brittany Bevis

Longtime AQHA enthusiast, Mike Kelly, along with a close-knit group of some 100 donators is very excited that their modern day treasure hunt has come to a successful conclusion. The prize is one of incredible historical significance. Late yesterday evening, they were able to obtain the original registration papers for Wimpy P-1.

For those not familiar with Wimpy P-1, he was the very first horse to be registered with the American Quarter Horse Association. The chestnut stallion was foaled on the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas on March 3, 1937. However, the original application for his papers lists his birthdate as April 3, 1937. Wimpy, who was sired by Solis and out of a mare named Panda, became a foundation sire for King Ranch and was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 1989 after he died at the grand old age of 22.

For Mike, a 50-year-old horse trainer from Waterford, New Jersey, the idea of being able to hold Wimpy’s papers in his hand “was surreal, like a dream.” Mike is just one of 870 people in a private Facebook group called Quarter Horse Tales. That’s where this tale begins.

“We’re a group of a bunch of old time horse show people, breeders, AQHA judges, and pedigree experts that are all very familiar with each other,” Mike says. “We’ve known each other for years, and it’s fun reminiscing about the past. We talk about who showed what where, when, and under what judges.”

“One night, I made a post about Wimpy. On that post, people started chatting a bit. One of our members, Debra Jo Endres-Ard, showed us a picture of an eBay auction of Wimpy’s papers. After looking at it, I thought there was no way it could be valid. How can the papers of the #1 horse registered with AQHA be up on eBay? There’s no way that’s possible. I thought about it all night, but I hated to dismiss it if it was true. I got to doing a little investigating and found out that this person had three other horse’s papers along with Wimpy’s. After putting two and two together, the same person owned all four horses. Everything was starting to fit together into a picture. I thought it might be possible.”

After having a conversation with a curator at the American Quarter Horse Museum, Mike became even more convinced that these papers were the real deal.

“After talking to them, I was pretty well convinced they were real,” he says. “I e-mailed the seller to ask how they got the papers and to challenge their authenticity. About an hour later, I got a phone call from a woman who elaborated a story to me that made perfect sense. This was the real deal. I know who she is, and she was in that circle of people that owned these horses.”

“I told her that I didn’t think the papers should be for sale to anyone. They should be in the AQHA Museum. I said I represented a group of people that were prepared to buy the papers, but she had to give us a reasonable price. We didn’t want to get in an online bidding war. An hour later, she talked to the executor and said they would sell the papers to us for $2,000, but they wanted to add two more names to the list of donators. Those two names are people who owned the horse at one time. We hit a home run. This is the real deal.”

Shortly thereafter, Mike held a private conversation with other moderators of the Faceboook group including JD Folbre III, Marilyn and Pete Bowling from Oasis Ranch, and Cindy Buchanan. After making his intention clear that he thought the papers should be purchased and donated to the Museum, the decision was made to post about it online in their group and give everyone a chance to donate $20 to help preserve a part of history.

“It took off like a shot,” he says. “From there, people were coming out of the woodwork who wanted to get involved. The way AQHA is now, we are so separate. I’m a reiner, so I’m in NRHA. Then, there’s NCHA and NSBA. We’re just in a million different directions. To have everyone come together and participate in this was a good thing.”

“This is a big deal. He’s the first ever registered Quarter Horse. He belongs in the Museum. In no time at all, we had all the money gathered together, and we came up with a plan to get the papers picked up without anybody getting nervous. We had done our homework, verified who the seller was, and we weren’t giving our money via an online entity. It was a real person. That relieved some of the tension.”

Cindy Buchanan and Niki Walden met the seller last night at a public location to verify the accuracy of the papers. Then, the papers were directly deposited into the bank. When the weather clears up, Mike hopes the entire group will be able to make the trip to the Museum to present the papers.

Although Mike is serving as the spokesman for the group in this case, he’s adamant that this entire ordeal isn’t about one single person; it’s about the entire group. He would like to extend a special thanks to Kim Walton, Niki Walden, Cindy Buchanan, and JD Folbre III. This is a group of people who came together to “do something right for all the right reasons.”

The list of donators is long and contains almost 100 names. Just a few that appear on the list are Steve Heckaman, Betty Wells, Sandy Ellis, Kenny and Ginny Chandler, and Lee Elbell. There are even some donators on the list from Canada, Germany, and Australia.

We will continue to follow this story as Wimpy’s papers head down to Amarillo to be donated to the AQHA Museum.