Jim Scarbrough

Jim Scarbrough, was born March 14, 1934 and lives in Heavener, Oklahoma with his wife of 52 years, Billye. The Scarbroughs have three children, daughter Ellen, and sons Carl and Dean.

Were it not for people like Jim Scarbrough, who volunteered their time and talent in the days when the Association was still in its infancy and money in short supply, there might not be the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association as we know it today.

Jim was Secretary, Treasurer of the Association in the 1950’s. He edited, wrote stories for and helped Andy Kinkead put out the monthly newsletter from 1960 through 1966. During that same time he was also the racing Secretary and managed the annual race meet at Enid, Oklahoma. The meet ran six weekends and culminated in the running of the OQHA Oklahoma Futurity.

Jim also served as the secretary for the Southeastern Oklahoma race meet and futurity in Hartshorne, Oklahoma, and also helped set up and was the racing secretary at Midway Downs in Stroud, Oklahoma.

Jim says he bought his first Quarter Horse from Orlando George of Canadian, Oklahoma – a yearling gelding by Star Money by Oklahoma Star, Jr. and out of a Bill Cody mare. He showed him in quite a few cuttings and won the newly formed Central Oklahoma Association Horse of the Year award in 1966.

Jim was the foreman and stallion manager for Walter Merrick from 1966 through 1969. He handled the breeding of Three Bars and Jet Smooth as well as Riches and Honors (TB) and King Kameah (TB)

After the breeding season in 1960 Jim went to work for the Quarter Horse Journal as Assistant Editor and feature writer. This afforded him the opportunity to visit with and write stories about many great horsemen and their horses. Most of the material used in the biography of Monte Reger when he was inducted into the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Hall of Fame came from a two-part story written by Jim Scarbrough and published in the Quarter Horse Journal.

Jim moved to Carrollton, Kentucky in 1973 as managing partner of Tucky Farms, where they raised and sold Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. He sold a cutting horse stallion to Bill Frith of Tenderten, Kent, England who sired a number of quality horses in England in the formative years of the American Quarter Horse Association in the UK.

In 1974, while in Kentucky, the Governor appointed Jim to the Quarter Horse Racing Commission, and in the fall of 1978 Jim served as Assistant Racing Secretary and placing judge at the first all Quarter Horse race meet at Commonwealth Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Scarbroughs moved back to southeastern Oklahoma in 1978, where they still live east of Heavener. They cut the timber off the land, sawed it at a county sawmill and built the house and all of the improvements themselves. Jim says that it was a 25-year project, but a labor of love.

Jim still has registered Quarter horses, which he uses to work cattle in the mountains around Heavener. He also sorts and pens cattle weekly at a nearby cattle auction.

A truly amazing life – one which enriches ours and makes it a pleasure to induct Jim Scarbrough into the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Hall of Fame.