Sod Williams of Arbon and his quarter horses, 1956–1966

For ten years, from 1956 to 1966, the horse-show results in the Utah papers kept turning up a cattle rancher from Arbon, in Power County, Idaho: Donald T. "Sod" Williams. The papers followed his quarter horses, the western stock-horse breed, through the show ring at Ogden, Tremonton and Salt Lake City, and followed Sod onto the board of the Intermountain Quarter Horse Association and onto the programs of its clinics.

This site already knows Donald Thayne "Sod" Williams as the mail carrier who delivered the Arbon mail on horseback in the winter of 1948–49. His wife Nelda was a daughter of Elmer and Susan Ward of the Ward family. In March 1961 the Deseret News livestock columnist, who called Sod and Nelda friends, wrote that their main interests were breeding and training quarter horses on their Arbon cattle ranch.

Poco Star

The first of Sod's horses the papers name is Poco Star. In November 1956 the association held its show as part of the 38th annual Golden Spike National Livestock Show at Ogden, and the Salt Lake Tribune listed Poco Star, owned by Donald T. Williams of Arbon, second in working cow horse, a class that judges a horse's work with cattle.

At the association's show in Tremonton, Utah, on May 23 and 24, 1958, Poco Star won the working cow horse and the reining classes; in reining the rider guides the horse through a set pattern of circles, spins and stops. The Tremonton Leader lists the owner as D. T. Williams of Arbon, and in the stallion race, where Poco Star ran third, as Sod Williams. On the evening of November 20, 1959, at the association's annual fall show, reported the next day in the Ogden Standard-Examiner, Poco Star finished first in the working cow horse class, ahead of horses from Payson and Bluebell, Utah.

Nelda rode as well. At the 1960 Labor Day rodeo at Plymouth, Utah, reported in the Tremonton Leader on September 8, she won the barrel racing and Sod placed fourth in the bell roping.

On the board

That November the association's show at the Golden Spike Coliseum in Ogden drew 380 or more horses from nine states, and its officials said it might be the biggest quarter horse show in the country that year. Sod rode a horse called Poco's Herfie, which the Tribune placed second in working cow horse and third in reining. At the association's annual meeting after the performances on Saturday night, November 12, Donald T. Williams of Arbon was elected to the board. When the directors met in Salt Lake City in January to plan the year, he was among them; the association then had members in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and Oregon.

As a director he was also billed to teach. The first of the association's spring clinics was set for Blackfoot, Idaho, on March 29 and 30, 1961, and the notice promised demonstrations by three directors: Roy Corbett of Grace on cow cutting, Oren Morrison of Arimo on judging, and D. T. "Sod" Williams of Arbon, who "will show proper reining methods."

At the Golden Spike show in November 1961 Sod and Nelda's son Barry was among the winners, riding Poco's Herfie in junior calf roping, and after the final performance on November 19 he was given the youth performance trophy. The show's manager said the crowds and entries made it probably the largest quarter horse show yet held west of the Rockies.

A clinic and a gelding

At the Utah State Fair in September 1963, Donald T. Williams of Arbon apparently showed the reserve champion quarter horse stallion; the jumbled results do not name the horse. That November his entry won junior reining at the Golden Spike show, and for the association's convention in Salt Lake City in December he was named with William F. Greene to head the committee on show and contest.

For March 21, 1964, the association announced a free clinic at Brigham Young University in Provo, and the notice in the Lehi Free Press made his part the planned highlight: a discussion of four performance classes, western pleasure, western riding, working cow horse and reining, under the direction of D. T. "Sod" Williams of Arbon. He was to use green, or little-trained, horses "so that the maximum in riding, training and showing error will be apparent," and the audience was to be invited to put questions to him at a microphone.

That year the papers name a gelding of his called Ches A Luck. At the State Fair in September it was reserve champion gelding and won the working cow horse class. At the association's three-day fall show at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum, which ended on October 10, it won junior registered reining and was second in junior registered western pleasure; the Tribune printed its name as "Charles A Luck," probably the same horse. The Deseret News report of that show is jumbled in the scan, but it appears to say that Sod Williams of Arbon was given an award named for Laurel J. Brown, for youth work, outstanding contributions to the horse business and one more quality whose name the scan cuts off, and that his horse was named performance horse and junior horse of the show. Laurel J. Brown of West Jordan, elected the association's president in 1960 and again in 1961, had died by then.

In November 1964, at the 46th Golden Spike show, Ches A Luck won junior reining again and was second in working cow horse, and Nelda rode it to a second place in a class whose name the scan does not show.

Reining and bitting

The last item found is from April 1966. At a quarter horse clinic at Utah State University in Logan on Saturday, April 9, horse fanciers from Utah, Idaho and neighboring states were to hear trainers in the George Nelson Field House, and one of the afternoon demonstrations listed was "Reining and Bitting" by D. T. (Sod) Williams of Arbon Valley.

Many of these pages were scanned with their columns run together, so some classes and horse names cannot be read. The clinics are known only from notices printed beforehand. The papers do not say whether these horses were bred on the Williams ranch or what became of Poco Star, and the 1964 award rests on a single garbled report that only the page image could settle.

The story as reported

Salt Lake Tribune, November 19, 1956, page 22. The original article is under copyright; this is our own report of what it said.

OGDEN, Utah — On Sunday, November 18, day three of the Golden Spike National Livestock Show, now in its 38th year, the Intermountain Quarter Horse Association held its horse show finals, the day's main event. Entries had arrived from several states across the West.

By Sunday the quarter horse exhibition was two days old. Its opening session on Saturday night had lasted into the small hours of Sunday.

An Arbon Valley horse placed in the working cow horse class. Marlowe Cropper of Deseret, Utah, won that event with Angus Joe, and Donald T. Williams of Arbon, Idaho, took the next spot with Poco Star.

The top halter honors went to horses from farther away. Jay Parsons and his wife, of Cody, Wyoming, had the grand champion stallion, J B King. Grand champion honors among the mares went to L M She'll Do, which Noyes Evans showed for its owner, Mr. Davidson of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Volney O. Hildreth of Aledo, Texas, judged the horse events.

Archie Anderson of Ogden took contest roping with Dick, and Mr. Jones of Salt Lake City took western pleasure with Little Penny. First place in the colt class went to a Soda Springs, Idaho, colt belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Milton Bowman.

Idaho exhibitors also did well in the cattle and sheep barns. Von Robbins of King Hill had the grand champion female of the purebred Aberdeen Angus, while the reserve champion Hampshire ram belonged to Matthews Brothers of Ovid. Chadwick Guernsey Farm of Ogden took the top Guernsey awards.

Out in the coliseum's exhibit area, hundreds of visitors looked over the cattle, sheep and hogs while the horses were judged, and the outdoor pens were full too. Sunday's cold, windy weather cost the show a good many visitors, yet show president Rulon P. Peterson and secretary-manager Rudy Van Kampen said the turnout had been "highly gratifying." Auction sales were expected to be the main draw from Sunday until the show closed on Wednesday.

On this site: Nelda Williams's own account of the winter of 1948–49, the history of her parents Elmer and Susan Ward, and the 1965 drive for dial telephones, in which Sod Williams raised subscriptions.