Tom Burnett called him the greatest Quarter horse that ever lived!!

Bob Denhardt has said that one of the biggest mistakes that the fledgling AQHA ever made, was not giving Joe Hancock one of the first permanent numbers, and recognizing him as one of the premier foundation stallions of the day. This was Joe Hancock P-455, he was quite a horse!!

Joe Hancocks year of birth varies, depending with whom you are talking. Some say 1923, others 1924, and a few claim it was really 1924. Whatever the true date of birth really is, it was still almost twenty years before the AQHA was officially formed.

The fame of this dark brown stallion, son of John Wilkens by Peter McCue, and out of a half percheron mare, grew at first because of his blazing speed at the racetrack, and later mushroomed to what it is today, when it became known that as a breeding horse, he consistantly passed on to his get, the qualities that made him so special.

Tom Hancock, of Nocona Texas, son of the Joe Hancock that the horse was named after, remembers the old horse as being 15.2 or 3, weighing about 1250 pounds, and being gentle as a dog to be around. Tom tells a story that claims Joe Hancock was also registered as a thoroughbred, when he ran out of takers at quarter horse distances. According to Tom, his thoroughbred name was Brown Wool, and he ran successfully until reaching maturity, when he could no longer claim to be a thoroughbred.

Some of his most famous sons were War Chief, Little Joe The Wrangler, Red Man, Joe Tom, and Little Black Joe, all of whom became quite well known in their own right, and all of whom passed on the good bone, great dispositions and speed, that they in turn inherited from their famous father.

Joe Hancock died in 1943, when he was put down after foundering because of a severe infection in his left front foot, leaving a legacy that no other quarter horse sire can match, as a producer of top caliber ranch and rodeo horses.