War Paint.....

THE LEGENDARY WAR PAINT - Shown here with Hank & Bobby Christensen Sr., owners of Christensen Brothers Rodeo Company - 'War Paint,' the product of a registered Quarter Horse stud and a wild pinto mare, was raised by Orie Summers on the Klamath Indian reservation and became the greatest saddle bronc horse of his generation. As part of the Christensen Brothers string, 'War Paint' was voted the RCA Bucking Horse of the Year in each of the first three years the honor was bestowed. He won it outright in 1956 and 1957 and shared the award with Harry Knight’s 'Joker' in 1958. In his one appearance at the 1959 National Finals Rodeo in Dallas, 'War Paint' bucked off Les Johnson and took Jim Tescher to a second-place finish in Round 7. Over the course of a career that lasted nearly two decades into the late 1960s, 'War Paint' had nearly a 90-percent buck-off rate. He died in October 1975. “War Paint usually had guys bucked off on his first three jumps out of the chute because he was so strong,” said Bobby Christensen Jr., son of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame stock contractor of the same name. “They had us bring him out to Denver those years (1956, 1957 and 1958) when he was Bucking Horse of the Year, to match up with the saddle bronc riding champion. I remember Alvin Nelson getting on him there (in 1958) and getting his head stuck in the ground.”

 — with Wayne Alan Dennis.