Taproot of the Family Tree
Some of Michael’s earliest stallions entered the world with fanfare—six-figure price tags, glittering reputations, and million-dollar careers that seemed destined from the start. Charlie Degas was not one of them.
Foaled in 1973, this purebred Percheron would become the quiet cornerstone of the Stonewall Studbook and a defining influence on the Stonewall Sporthorse—but his journey there was anything but grand.
Charlie Degas (b.1973), champion Percheron stallion and sire. An important influence in the development of the Stonewall Sporthorse.
Bred in Ohio from a respected Percheron program with strong Canadian roots, Charlie Degas began life with promise. As a weanling he was sold and sent south, where he proved his quality in the show ring, earning Grand Champion in hand and beginning a successful early career as a breeding stallion. But time and circumstance are not always kind. Over the years, Charlie changed hands repeatedly. He drifted west, and with each move his fortunes faded.
By the fall of 1989, at sixteen years old, Charlie Degas arrived at an auction a shadow of his former self—his coat dull, ribs showing, mane and tail tattered, his spirit worn thin by neglect. Brought in by a disreputable trader, he stood unnoticed among the other horses, invisible to nearly everyone who passed.
Michael was not shopping for a stallion that day. And yet, he found himself drawn back again and again to this battered black horse. There was something there—something that spoke quietly but insistently of dignity, of a noble past waiting to be remembered. If one could look beyond the weariness, the quality was unmistakable.
The bidding reflected the crowd’s indifference. The only interest came from a killer buyer, offering little more than fifty cents a pound. As the moment closed in, a respected Percheron breeder leaned toward Michael and murmured, “I’ve seen you looking at that horse. I hope you know—he is a really fine stallion.”
Michael raised his hand.
With that simple gesture, Charlie Degas found his home.
The Perceron stallion, Charlie Degas, age 21, with one on Michael Muir's white boxers, Banjo.
Transported to Winters, California, Charlie began to change almost immediately. Given care, respect, and time, he blossomed—physically and in spirit. Plans were made to return him to stud, though expectations were cautious. What followed, however, exceeded anything Michael could have imagined.
Charlie Degas’s first foal crop marked the birth of the Stonewall Sporthorse. Entering the studbook as Foundation Stallion #1, his legacy took root.
Apache Double (b.1969), champion racehorse winning 18 races in 21 starts (with three second places), setting 14 new track and world records.
When bred to a daughter of the world champion and leading sire Apache Double, Charlie produced Stonewall Baby Jane.
Stonewall Rascal (b. 1996), 75% Percheron stallion; a foundation sire of the American Sugarbush Harlequin Draft Horse.
Through her came the stallion Stonewall Rascal, carrying the line forward.
Baby Jane’s full brother, Stonewall Rebel, also proved his worth as a stallion, though his career was tragically brief. His first foal, Stonewall Scarlett, carried on the promise, and his tenth—and final—foal, Stonewall Domino, closed the circle.
Stonewall Rebel (b. 1994), sired by Charlie Degas x Stonewall Dottie West by Apache Double.
Stonewall Domino (b. 1997), veteran of the 2003 Horse Drawn Journey to the Gulf, a 1,000 miles from Kentucky to Florida.
From an overlooked horse at the edge of a sale ring to the foundation of a breeding legacy, Charlie Degas’s story is one of vision, faith, and the enduring truth that greatness often arrives quietly - waiting for someone willing to see it.