Brownie has been called “one of the greatest roping horses that ever lived.” Ray Wharton, the 1956 World Calf Roping Champion, bought him in 1951 when he was a three-year-old stud. Ray and many other 1950s- and 1960s-era cowboys rode Brownie into rodeo history, including several Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees. In a June 1956 article for The Cattleman, William Porter described Brownie: “He’s so tough and … sort of small … but … he makes up for this with guts and spirit and heart and the desire to win.” At Madison Square Garden in 1956, eleven cowboys rode Brownie, six of them to the top ten.
