Into the Spider-verse

He doesn’t climb walls or swing from skyscrapers, but Singleton Ranches’ Thorn Doc Bar (barn name, Spider) is a superhero in the eyes of Wesley Gugdell. And now, everybody who’s watched the WRCA’s World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo knows too.

For the first time, the WRCA named the top Ranching Heritage Bred American Quarter Horse at the WCRR—and Spider won it. To be a Ranching Heritage Breeder, a ranch must be a member of the AQHA with a minimum of five AQHA-registered mares bred for the specific purpose of operating a working cattle ranch. The ranch must also have received an AQHA 10-year breeder award.

Gugdell, 21, and his father, Gregg, work for Singleton Ranches on the Trigg division, near Logan, N.M. Spider was born on the ranch in 1997 (the same year Wesley was born, incidentally) and started by Michael Lyles. When Gregg and his wife, D’aun, took the job on the ranch, Spider was put in her string.

“I’ve grown up around him all my life,” says Wesley. “I watched my mom ride him, rope on him, and ranch rodeo on him and then I watched an older cousin and an older brother rope on him in the high school rodeos. We decided we’d make him into a calf horse and I was the first one who got to rope calves on him. I also heeled on him. You can pretty much do anything on him. I’ve had the privilege of riding him for a long time and I’ve loved him from the beginning.”

In 2013, D’aun passed away at the age of 42. And while it was heartbreaking, Wesley had an everyday reminder of her.

“After she passed, Spider went straight to my string and I’ve been riding him ever since,” Wesley says. “I was very happy to get on that horse after her and do the same things that she did on him.”

That included joining the Singleton Ranches’ Ranch Rodeo team.

“I get to ride the bronc and am in pretty much every other event,” Gugdell says. “Spider is just a good all-around horse for every event. In the stray gathering, I can head or heel; in the cow milking he gives me a good shot every time; and I work the line in the sorting. He’s just dog gentle. You can climb all over him, pet all over him, and do anything you need to do with him. He’s very level headed, but he gets real excited when the fans go to screaming and clapping and that gets me excited too.”

When they qualified for the 2018 WCRR, Wesley knew Spider was on his farewell tour. In fact, after the 2019 Fort Worth Stock Show Ranch Rodeo, Wesley plans to retire the horse. And while everyone at Singleton is aware of what the horse means to Gugdells, any cowboy who is proud of his horse loves it when he’s recognized.

“It’s awesome that I got to win that,” Wesley says. “ It makes it even better that I’ve shown everybody what he can do and won something on him and everybody got to see how good he was before he’s retired.”