Excerpt from . . .

"Born to Buck"

by Gavin Ehringer
Western Horseman, February 2004

. . . "But the greatest and purist repository of Tooke blood resides in the herd of Ike Sankey, a Montana stock contractor whose horses, as a group, are widely regarded as the best in the business.

"Right now, Ike Sankey is in a class by himself," Growney says.  "The Tooke horses were wild and they sure bucked, but they were ugly and unbalanced, with big front ends and narrow butts.  Sankey has improved the bloodlines.  He's producing horses that look like you could take 'em to a horse show.  And they all buck."

"The foundation of the Sankey herd was Custer, a stallion who also sired many of the great bucking horses of Harry Vold, the preeminent Colorado stock contractors . . .  Custer's father was General Custer, regarded by many as the greatest sire of bucking horses.  General Custer was owned by the Tookes and sired by Prince.

"As the heir to the Tooke breeding legacy, Sankey's breeding program has resulted in numerous PRCA awards of late.  Producing winning livestock is a numbers game.  Most stock contractors consider themselves lucky to get four or five bucking horses out of every 10 colts; Sankey says that when he was breeding Custer, he could count on 85 to 90 percent of his foal crop to turn into usable buckers.