Baby Doll Combs - Life

Life

Foaled in 1947, Baby Doll Combs was bred by H. M. Boetick of Bloomfield, Iowa and registered with the American Quarter Horse Association, or AQHA, as registration number 81,497. At the time of registration, she was owned by Willard Combs, a steer wrestler or bulldoger who competed in the rodeo circuit in the 1950s. Combs had purchased her from Bill Oduum of Pryor, Oklahoma in 1955, paying $3200 for her. Combs not only rode Baby Doll himself, but also allowed other wrestlers to ride her in return for a cut of the prize money. Combs won the Rodeo Cowboy's Association – a precursor organization to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (or PRCA) – World Champion Steer Wrestler title in 1957 with Baby Doll. Her one and only foal was Checotah Star, a result of an accidental breeding in 1957. Between 1953 and her death in 1960 she earned over $400,000 ($3,142,407 in current dollars) in prize money, and in 1957 when she won the title for Combs, she also carried the riders who finished second, third, fourth and fifth in the standings. Bill Linderman, a famous rodeo cowboy, once said that "Baby Doll knew bulldogging better than some of the guys who rode her."

When mature, Baby Doll Combs was bay mare who weighed about 1030 pounds and stood about 14.1 hands high. She had a blaze and a left hind sock as the only white on her. A short horse is an advantage to a steer wrestler, as it's closer to the steer.

Baby Doll Combs died of a ruptured intestine in 1960. She died at a Kansas rodeo, but her owner had her returned to Checotah, Oklahoma where he lived so that she could be buried on his ranch. Many of the cowboys who had earned money off her were present at the ceremony, and a photograph of them at the graveside appeared in Life Magazine.

She was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2004. The PRCA honored her in 1979 by inducting her into their Hall of Fame in the first group of inductees.