Beamon Ashley, Dallas, TX, a member of the the National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame, passed away on Sunday, August 22.

Born and raised on a ranch in Huntsville, TX, Ashley moved to Dallas in the 1950s, where he met rancher and cutting horse trainer George Glascock. Ashley trained roping horses and had gone to watch the horse show at the 1956 State Fair in Dallas, where Glascock, the first NCHA world champion, supplied the cattle.

“I heard a bunch of boys there say they were going to rob Mr. Glascock and take his money,” Ashley told me in a 1991 interview. “I told them to hit the fence and when Mr. Glascock heard about it, he said he wanted me to come to Dallas the next year and start working for him, and that’s what I did.”

Ashley also worked for NCHA at Will Rogers Coliseum, during the NCHA Triple Crown events in Fort Worth.

“Mr. George (Glascock) was a great horseman, cowman and all-around man,” said Ashley. “In my opinion, he was the best.

“Next to him was Mr. Buster Welch. That man has more going for him with a horse than any human being I’ve ever seen. He’ll do things different than anyone you’ll ever see. He never stops his cow in the herd. He just drives it out.

“One time he showed a horse called Rey Jay’s Pete. I called him a saddle horse, a Tennessee Walker, but (I know that wasn’t right [Rey Jay’s Pete was out of a Thoroughbred mare]. In the back of my mind, I said, can a saddle horse do this kind of stuff? But he did it and he won the Futurity.

“I call (Buster Welch) my champion. He’s a man I really admire and I love to watch him. In my estimation, he is in a class by himself.”

Ashley’s all-time favorite horse was Sugar Vaquero, the 1973 NCHA world champion under Bobby Sikes.

“That horse could make mistakes and cover them so quick, you couldn’t penalize him,” Ashley recalled. “If you’ve ever seen the monkey [Whiplash] that rides the border collie dog, that’s what Bobby looked like when he was riding Sugar Vaquero. He was a big stout horse, but so quick. I used to love to watch him.”

Funeral services for Beamon Ashley will be held on Monday, August 30 at 11 a.m.,  St. Paul Baptist Church, 1600 Pear Street, Dallas, TX. For phone numbers and map: http://prosites-spbc.homestead.com/.