Buster Cole

Buster Cole

Buster Cole was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2002.

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Buster Cole was one of the few who witnessed the formation of the largest equine breed registry and watched it grow.

Growing up, home was the Flag Ranch in Goldsmith, Texas.  Cole ran around with four other ranch-raised boys from the Permian Basin area of Texas: Roy Parks, Jr., Billy Wyche, Jr., Marion Flynt and Clarence Scharbauer Jr.

As a teenager, Cole attended the landmark meeting at the Blackstone Hotel, where AQHA was formed.  He did not join the organization until a few years later while he was attending Texas Technical College (now Texas Tech University).

Cole’s name is often associated with a scraggly colt – Babe Mac C – he purchased from the King Ranch.  The horse went on to become an AQHA Champion and won an open Register of Merit.  The horse was by Macanudo and out of an unregistered mare by Babe Grande.  Cole showed the stallion in halter and cutting.

Cole’s other accomplished horses included Miss Babe Mac, Nelly Mac, Jim Mac Cole, Sis Poco Mac, Dodger Mac Cole, Snip Cole and Bay Mac Hill.

The rancher became an AQHA Director in 1980 and served as a member of the AQHA Show and Contest Committee from 1986 to 1990.  He also became a National Cutting Horse Association director in 1950 and held an NCHA judges card for 10 years.  Cole retired from AQHA’s board of directors in 1989 and was presented with the AQHA Honorary Vice President title in 1986.

Cole died in 2000, and was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2002.

 

Biography updated as of March 2002.