July 10, 2009 - Spencer L. Childers, who owned Quarter Horses before AQHA was founded in 1940 and has bred American Quarter Horses every year since 1949, died July 9 at age 97.
A longtime resident of Fresno, California, where he and his late wife, Florence, maintained their breeding farm, Childers is the fifth-all-time leading breeder of racing Quarter Horses. Childers began breeding racehorses with his purchase in 1957 of champion Black Easter Bunny. In his own name, Childers bred 899 Quarter Horses, including 654 starters, of which 469 are winners. Among them are 45 stakes winners, 36 stakes placers and the earners to date of $11,767,903. Childers bred and raced 2004 world champion Be A Bono ($1,313,347, a gelding by Childers’ homebred stallion Bono Jazz), and other champions Black Sable, Blobby Charger, Bunny’s Bar Maid, Jet View and Uncas.
Childers was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2002. His biography is here.
“Spencer had a huge influence on me and a lot of people,” said Dr. Ed Allred, owner and CEO of Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, California. “Spencer was one of a group of marvelous men who developed and led the sport in California. Those men included Z. Wayne Griffin, Bob Boniface and Pat Hyland. It’s amazing to me that people such as them would gravitate to such a small sport as Quarter Horse racing was in the 1960s and '70s. Without them, I can tell you, nothing would have happened and Quarter Horse racing would not be anywhere close to what it is today. They mentored me. Among many other things, they taught me how important it is to be an ethical person. I was so fortunate to get to know them and be around them. I learned at their feet.”
A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. on July 18 at Sunnyside Country Club, 5704 E. Butler Ave., Fresno, CA 93727.
