Click on the bow to see the gift of our Medicine Hat's, after reading the story below you will understand why we used a bow.

Badger's Bar Mesa - "Iron Eyes"

This horse is a story of miracles.  When breeding Mesa, Iron Eyes' Dam, Ed realized he had miscounted when her due date would be.  He was fearful the foal would be born in December making him to early to be counted as a young foal of 1996.  Iron Eyes held on and he wasn't born until January 4, 1996.  Ed was going through a very difficult time in his life and had recently turned his life over to God.  In the innocence of his new faith he asked God if he was finally on the right track would this new foal from his solid black AQHA mare bred to Jake have color, even just one spot.  Boy, did God answer his prayer...Iron Eyes was born a perfect black and white Medicine Hat...a one in 10,000 horse.

Medicine Hat Paints are very particular in the marking.  They have the "war bonnet" (which if only the war bonnet it would be even rarer) on the head with a break of white between it and any coloring on the face. In addition a shield on the chest and color on the back with no break in color on the back, color on the flanks and the tail has color.  Medicine Hat Paint Horse markings had once been highly-prized by certain Native American cultures. These horses were believed to possess certain powers that would render their riders invincible in battle.   Because of Ed's own Native American heritage God's answer to a prayer through Iron Eyes brought even more of a significant meaning to him.

The challenge of naming this special horse was an easy one for Ed.  He named him after his friend Iron Eyes Cody who had helped Ed in several of the classes Ed was teaching school age children at the Indian Reservations. Iron Eyes Cody and Ed had also ridden in a parade in Valley Center together.  Iron Eyes was the Grand Marshall and Ed rode Jake.   The interesting thing is that both of these Iron Eye's share the same birthday, January 4th and they both passed away in the same year...1998.  Iron Eyes Cody from natural causes, "Iron Eyes" - Badgers Bar Mesa from an injury.

Iron Eyes Cody's most memorable part came in the early 1970s, in the ever-famous commercial for the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign, in which he was seen as the Indian with a tear running down his cheek.  Says long time friend and manager, Kenn E. Kingsbury, Jr., "Iron Eyes was a giving person. He loved children. He especially had a tender spot for kids with disabilities. Whenever he was asked to do charity work for them, he would always say, 'I will be there.' He was a good man." Cody died in his Los Angeles home at the age of 92.

Iron Eyes Cody appeared in over 100 films.  His' career started in the silent era. He appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's first independent film, The Road to Yesterday (1925). Iron Eyes appeared in Whistling Dan (1932), King of the Stallions (1942), Under the Nevada Skies (1946), and even teamed with the Bowery Boys in the 1947 farce, Bowery Buckaroos. Stereotypically typecast as an Indian, Iron Eyes mostly worked in Westerns (either as a one-liner man or a backdrop), such as Broken Arrow (1950), Son of Paleface (1952), Sitting Bull (1954), and A Man Called Horse (1970).