Western Horseman August 2019

Bill Black Gets to the Core of Hackamores

✦

Trailer Loading Tips with Sean Patrick

SPECIAL EDITION Four Sixes Ranch:

The Brand Behind Today’s Premier Ranch Horse Program

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features

AUGUST 2019

VOLUME 84 / NUMBER 8

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In the Hands of Horsemen

Rawhide braider Bill Black applies more than 20 years of cowboying experience to his craftsmanship. Some of his best education, however, comes from the cowboys and horsemen who became his customers.

By JENNIFER DENISON

True Burson leads the Four Sixes Ranch remuda.

FOUR SIXES RANCH 62

ross hecox

Sons of Burnett

Through the twists and turns of its 100-plus years of history, the Four Sixes Ranch has thrived in the hands of its skilled cowboy crews.

By ROSS HECOX

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80

One West Texas ranching family, one herd of versatile ranch horses and one committed veterinarian have quietly impacted American Quarter Horse blood worldwide for decades.

By CHRISTINE HAMILTON

The strength of the Four Sixes ranch horses comes from its mare line, one that spans decades and traces to legendary horses and visionary breeders.

By CHRISTINE HAMILTON

Taking Guthrie Global

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Deep Bottom

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contents 12

50

14

ride west The lead horse hits a purposeful trot going across a stream at Powderhorn Ranch in Wyoming.

12 Women of the West

22 On the Road

Travel comfortably with your horses with planning and imagination.

26 Rodeo

Breakaway roping is gaining steam as a mainstream rodeo event.

Star Whitt always wanted to be a cowboy, and has achieved 30 Cowboy Tastes her dream in Montana.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake with buttercream icing brings back memories.

14 How-To Florida trainer Sean Patrick combines methods to teach a 32 Products horse to load in the trailer.

Equip your horse trailer with tools and accessories to make going down the road safe.

18 Backcountry These clever packer tricks can make wilderness adventures more enjoyable.

SPECIAL SECTION: Four Sixes Ranch 44 Opening Shot

54 Western Art

46 Ranching

60 Western Stops

Photographer Wyman Meinzer captures a group of colts under a brewing storm.

Brands identify horses and pedigrees at the Four Sixes Ranch.

48 Insights

Owner Anne Windfohr Marion’s ties run deep in Guthrie, Texas.

50 Horsemanship

Head trainer Terry Riddle substitutes a saddle horse for a cow in this drill.

The Four Sixes Ranch has inspired Western artists for decades.

The Supply House beckons travelers and locals alike with necessities and souvenirs.

94 Backward Glance

President Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to “The Big Pasture” related to the Four Sixes Ranch.

in every issue 8 Leading Off / 96 Baxter Black On The Cover: Phil Fox leads a group of young Four Sixes geldings bred and raised in Guthrie, Texas. Read more about the historic ranch beginning on page 44. Photo by Katie Frank.

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clockwise from TOP left: ROSS HECOX; JENNIFER DENISON; KATE BRADLEY BYARS

10 Opening Shot

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nline August

westernhorseman.com Publisher: Ernie King Editor in Chief: Ross Hecox Editor: Christine Hamilton Managing Editor: Susan Morrison Senior Editor: Jennifer Denison Digital Editor: Katie Frank Contributing Editor: Kate Bradley Byars Art Director: Ron Bonge Fort Worth Production Manager: Sherry Brown Production Assistant: Emily Trupiano Director of Production: Karen Fralick Production Service Manager: Cher Wheeler Digital Imaging Manager: Erik Lewis Senior Digital Strategist: Sonny Williams Marketing Manager: Lizzie Iwersen Digital Content Manager: Dani Licklider Business Manager: Tonya Ward Ambassador-at-Large: Butch Morgan Warehouse Manager: Tim Gelnaw

CIRCULATION ProCirc: 3191 Coral Way, Suite 510, Miami, FL 33145 Consumer Marketing Director, ProCirc: Kolin Rankin Circulation Coordinator, ProCirc: Mike Bernardin Retailers: To carry Western Horseman, call 646-307-7765 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES ONLY:

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HOW-TO: Four Sixes Ranch head trainer Terry Riddle gives a

play-by-play of how he schools 3-year-olds on reined cow horse maneuvers using a saddle horse instead of a cow.

Feed Manufacturers, Auto Aftermarket, Tractors, Farm & Ranch Equipment, Buildings & Barns, UTV/ATV rayanne.engel@westernhorseman.com 209-759-3395 Senior Account Manager: Kami Peterson: Western Apparel & Boots, Breed Associations, Equine Events & Rodeos, Western Lifestyle Events, Retail Stores, Food kami.peterson@westernhorseman.com 719-651-3394 Bobbie Cook: Horse Health, Breeders & Ranches, Horse Sales, Insurance, Education, Horse Expos, Grooming, Fencing bobbie.cook@westernhorseman.com 817-569-7161 Jenn Sanders: Trailers, Supplements, Western Clinicians, Trailer Aftermarket, Real Estate, Automotive, Packing & Camping, Dude Ranches, Horse Health jennifer.sanders@westernhorseman.com 940-627-3399 Kathryn Barkey: Art & Museums, Travel & Destinations kathryn.barkey@cowboypublishing.com 970-554-2032

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RANCHING: Ride along with

Four Sixes “Mare Man” Phil Fox as he gathers and sorts mares and foals for the ranch.

HORSEMANSHIP: Keep

your horse trailer stocked with a roadside emergency kit and have peace of mind.

Photos: View exclusive Western Horseman images.

Newsletter: Sign up to get a first look at the latest

posts on the Western Horseman website.

Road Stories Find the latest stories from Western Horseman staff as they travel on assignment.

Win Prizes: Go to westernhorseman.com for a chance to win “It’s Cool to be Cowboy” hats, T-shirts, stickers and more.

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VOLUME 84 / NUMBER 8 Western Horseman (ISSN 0043-3837) is published monthly by MCC Magazines, LLC, 735 Broad St, Augusta, GA 30901. Subscription rate is $24 for one year, $46 for two years. Canadian subscriptions add $20 per year (U.S. funds only). All other foreign subscriptions add $40 per year (U.S. funds only). Editorial and Advertising Main Offices: 2112 Montgomery St., Fort Worth, TX 76107. Periodicals Postage paid at Augusta, GA, and additional offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Western Horseman, PO Box 433237, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9616.

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leading off

Six Days on the Sixes

I

peered over the arena fence and watched Terry Riddle at work, riding his 2-yearold show prospects under the blazing West Texas sun. The surrounding landscape, with its red dirt, native grasses and intermittent stands of mesquite brush, stretched out flat for miles to the north, south and west. Behind me and to the east sat the tiny town of Guthrie and the Four Sixes Ranch headquarters, with its numerous stall barns, mare pens, equine reproduction clinic, main house and the iconic red L Barn.

While watching Riddle patiently work with a roan filly, I reflected on six days of gathering photos, video and interviews on the iconic ranch.

For three days of the previous week, I was joined by Western Horseman Editor Christine Hamilton, Digital Editor Katie Frank and Marketing Manager Lizzie Iwersen. We divvied up duties of interviewing key Four Sixes staff members, photo-

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graphing mares, foals and stallions, recording videos of unique training and management methods, and observing the ranch crew perform its tasks in the clinic, around the barns and out in the vast pastures.

The following week, I traveled to the ranch’s Dixon Creek division to capture the cowboy crew staying out on the wagon for spring works. All of the romance of the West was on display, with scenes of cowpunchers roping their saddle horses at daylight, gathering remote pastures, dragging calves to the fire and sleeping in their cowboy teepees.

On my way home, I stopped by headquarters to gather a few more photos, and that led me to Riddle’s outdoor arena. It struck me that on one ranch we had seen everything that any Western stock horse fanatic would admire—leading sires, pedigreed mares, striking foals, a state-of-the-art breeding facility, seasoned ranch horses and champion show horses.

It speaks to the all-around ability of the Four Sixes horses.

That should come as no surprise, as versatility is a critical trait of any successful working ranch— whether it applies to resource management, operational procedures or the skills of its cowboy crew.

In six days, our staff was also fortunate to interview some of the industry’s most decorated horsemen and cowboys, from Boots O’Neal (Chester Reynolds Award, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum) to Glenn Blodgett, DVM (Golden

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Check out a gallery of photos by Ross Hecox at westernhorseman.com.

ross hecox

Four Sixes Ranch cowboys bring the remuda home after spring works.

Spur Award, National Ranching Heritage Center), and from Stoney Jones (two-time Top Hand, World Championship Ranch Rodeo) to Dusty Burson (Open Versatility Ranch Horse World Champion, American Quarter Horse Association).

That’s barely scratching the surface of all of the titles and honors that the Four Sixes staff has accumulated. And if you met these folks, their many accomplishments would be the last thing you learned about them.

“I’ve helped a lot of big ranches,” says Kyle Longfellow, who was day-working at Dixon Creek when I was there. “The Sixes is the best place I’ve ever worked at, and these are the best guys I’ve worked with.

They’re good people and very good cowboys. They treat everybody the same. Nobody here acts better than anybody else, and that means a lot to a day worker.”

Our special spotlight on the Four Sixes begins on page 44, and it discusses how hardworking and forward-thinking men and women built this world-famous ranch and horse operation. After getting to know its current staff, it’s safe to say the ranch’s legacy is secure.

—Ross Hecox, editor in chief

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OPENING SHOT

Full Stream Ahead

BALANCED ON TWO ROCKS to get the shot, photographer Pam Gabriel remembers being struck by the quality of horses as they hit a brisk trot to cross the creek at Powderhorn Ranch in Douglas, Wyoming.

“The crew at the ranch spends a lot of time getting these horses riding well under saddle so they’re ready to go off and do a job for someone else,” she says. “There were several I would have liked to have taken back to Minnesota with me!”

Powderhorn Ranch, owned by the Diemer True family, is a fourth-generation ranch in the LaPrele Valley. The family has a cow-calf and Quarter Horse breeding program known as Diamond Land & Livestock, and hosts the annual Diamond-McNabb sale with Ken McNabb each June.

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RIDE WEST

WOMEN OF THE WEST

Star Whitt

Training horses, tending cattle and competing in ranch rodeos makes this Montana cowboy a versatile hand.

Interview and photography by JENNIFER DENSION WHEN STAR WHITT was a little girl and people asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she always answered “a cowboy.” Her reply received smirks and strange looks because it wasn’t considered a traditional trade for women, but she didn’t care.

Named after the notorious frontier outlaw Belle Starr, Star was raised with her younger brother, Hawk, on their family’s ranch in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

She showed horses and livestock in 4-H and FFA, and was the local rodeo queen in Thermopolis and Ten Sleep, Wyoming.

After graduating from high school in 2007, she attended two semesters at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, before transferring to Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming, where she received an associate’s degree in agricultural business. Despite her degree, she still wanted to cowboy and started dayworking on ranches, riding for Worland Livestock Auction in Worland, Wyoming, and saddling horses at rodeos for Sankey Pro Rodeo one summer.

Today, the 30-year-old is living her dream cowboying for the Circle B Ranch in

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eastern Montana. For the past six years, she has lived in a camp nestled in the rolling, grassy range of Forsyth, Montana. She tends 600 cow-calf pairs from March to October, and spends the winter riding pens and doctoring cattle at the ranch’s feedlot in Hysham, Montana. She stays well rounded by fencing, haying and pregnancy-checking cows. She also competes in women’s ranch rodeos, and does leather- and beadwork.

I turned 1 year old riding in a covered wagon with my parents on the Wyoming Centennial Wagon Train from Casper to Cody, Wyoming, in 1990. I think it’s pretty neat they did that and took me along.

I remember begging and pleading to my dad to take me out of school so I could help trail the cattle to summer pasture. There was a bridge that crossed the river, but we would swim our horses across the river behind the cattle because that was the cowboy way.

My dad raised Longhorns, goats, sheep, bucking horses—a little bit of everything—and still does. Being the oldest kid, he expected

quite a bit from me, but it made me tough.

We grew up poor, but I really didn’t know it or even care. I learned from an early age to be thrifty and to save my money. I’m blessed that I was raised to not expect things or think I deserve them. I’ve worked hard for everything I have and I’m proud of that.

I started riding my horses in a war bridle when I was in high school. I always admired how Native American horsemen could be so connected with their horses that they could ride them with just a string around the horse’s lower lip. I ride my horse “Gray” [pictured] in one on the ranch and at ranch rodeos. He’s more comfortable with it than a bit.

I had an office job as a temp secretary for two months and I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to be outside with my horses.

Brent Morrison, the general manager of the Circle B, helps me out when I need it. But most of the time he considers me just one of the cowboy crew. He expects me to work just as hard as the guys and

“It’s tough being a girl in a cowboy’s world, but if you try hard, stay humble and make a hand you earn respect.”

The worst wreck I had [on a colt] was on a Thoroughbred gelding my dad bought at a sale and gave to me when I was 14. I rode that horse for two years and showed him in 4-H. I was riding him bareback with a halter one day and he spooked and ran off.

The last thing I remember seeing is a big badger hole and thinking, “This is going to hurt.” Four hours later, I woke up in the hospital with a severe concussion. I was angry [the doctor] wouldn’t let me ride for a couple of weeks.

Horses are my lifeblood. I couldn’t imagine a world without them.

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do what they do, and I appreciate that. I don’t want special treatment because I’m a girl.

My dad, Ash Whitt, and grandfather, Slim Whitt, had the biggest influence on me wanting to be a cowboy.

They taught me most of what I know about horses and cattle. My grandfather had so many good stories, and he wrote them down and published them in a book.

He was day-working on ranches and at the sale barn in Worland until he died five years ago at 84 years old. He is buried in Ten Sleep and on his headstone it says, “He was a cowboy.” That’s how I want people to remember me.

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RIDE WEST

Before attempting to load a horse onto a trailer, Sean Patrick establishes control over the horse’s movement using groundwork.

HOW-TO

Touchy at the Trailer

Sean Patrick doesn’t force one methodology on every horse he teaches to load in the trailer. Rather, he teaches the horse to trust and respect him through groundwork exercises.

Story and photography by KATE BRADLEY BYARS

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T

HE FLAT LOWLANDS OF FLORIDA are a far cry from the British Columbia backcountry where Sean Patrick first realized many of his horse-centered dreams. Originally from Ontario, Canada, Patrick grew up near horses belonging to his family members’ farms. In his teenage years, he managed a barn at Maple Creek Ranch, a Christian camp in Ontario, before working for the McLean family’s Tsylos Park Lodge in British Columbia. There, his horsemanship skills weren’t so much developed as discovered when he and other cowboys solved problems in the backcountry.

Today, he employs his skills at Pioneer Trail Reserve in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, working with a range of clients, from dressage riders and barrel racers to reiners and recreational riders.

While he’s traded mountain trails for sandy arenas, Patrick’s skills still show his early packing influence. After working for the McLeans, Patrick sought to expand his foundational training knowledge and joined the John Lyons Certification Program in Colorado. From there, he moved to Texas to focus on performance horses, and finally settled in Florida.

“I didn’t understand basic learning theory with an animal until I watched videos with John Lyons or Ray Hunt. I had an ‘aha’ moment every time I started a horse,” he says. “I did routinely manage 30 horses in an alpine camp without feed or fences for weeks on end, and we did stuff I wouldn’t think of doing it today. I didn’t know how handy we were [without formal horsemanship training] and how much we got done until I moved away. How I handle these horses nowadays is quite different than what I did years ago because I went out to find mentors.”

Because Patrick learned how to get along with a horse in adverse conditions, like a rocky, mountainous trail when laden with supplies, he approaches many situations with an open mind to accomplish the task in a manner that leaves the horse with a positive memory. For him, there isn’t only one way to the finish line.

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That definitely applies to trailer loading, which sometimes can be problematic.

“There are three ways people get horses in the trailer: positive reinforcement through treats and grain; the horse works very, very hard outside the trailer then rests in the trailer; and the last is to train a horse to go forward on cue so you can manipulate the horse’s feet into the trailer,” Patrick explains. “I don’t think any one is great; I think you should combine all three.”

He has no problem coaxing a young horse onto the trailer for the first time using feed in the manger, but he isn’t going to rely on that method every time. Before attempting to load a horse, Patrick uses groundwork techniques to gain control of the horse’s forward motion and be able to move the hind- and forequarters. Here, he outlines the work he does to prepare a horse to load.

1

CONTROL MOVEMENT Before attempting to load a horse, Patrick first gains the horse’s trust and respect while establishing a connection with groundwork.

“I ask the horse to do ‘go-forward’ work, which is my version of groundwork. My way is to use a light whip and halter, teach the horse to go forward and to listen to the [pull] on the halter to disengage the hindquarters, and to yield the forequarters to me as I step into them. I also work on how to back away and come forward,” he says.

Patrick begins with the more difficult of the maneuvers, going forward. He says that a horse would rather escape by going right, left or back than going forward. Starting by standing at the horse’s shoulder or rib cage, Patrick holds a short lead line to keep the horse in close contact, and begins to ask for forward motion

by tapping the hindquarters with a whip. He wants the horse to walk forward, away from him. He prefers a whip to a flag because the flag is used differently in his training program.

“With groundwork I ask, receive, reward. After the horse goes into the direction I want, I reward it,” Patrick explains. “I ask by tapping the hind end with the whip. What I receive is stepping forward with the front feet, and to reward the horse, I cease tapping with the whip.”

He moves on to controlling the forequarters and hindquarters by asking the horse to disengage either end. There are three ways Patrick asks for the horse to disengage: by pulling the lead rope toward him and stepping to the hindquarter, by using the whip to create pressure to step away while pulling on the nose, or by only using his body language.

“If you don’t have a handle on the horse at the trailer, it doesn’t turn out well for anybody. With a horse that needs more control, 10 to 20 minutes of groundwork can save you two hours of trying to load,” he says. “The No. 1 trap we put a horse into is pulling on the halter. Horses freak out because they’re not relaxed and they’re not familiar with the pull. It is the top culprit of a horse not loading. They tend to fight back. The most important, I believe, is to train a horse to respond to a clear go-forward cue.

That can take some time.”

2

SET UP THE TRAILER When a horse consistently gives to pressure on the nose, disengages its hindquarters and forequarters on command, and will willingly move forward or back away from Patrick, he then moves to the trailer. No matter the trailer’s size, Patrick is sure to open windows and escape doors to have as much light as possible in the trailer.

A horse that doesn’t respond to Patrick pulling on its nose will more than likely fight back at the trailer. Patrick wants the horse to willingly come to pressure.

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“We teach horses to handle small ‘traps,’ small areas. A horse is trapped with the restraint of a halter; a minimal trap is asking the horse to trot on a loose rein. A trailer is a big trap,” Patrick says. “A horse that responds to a minimal trap, like what we do in groundwork, [means] you can start to increase your traps, like loading into a horse trailer.”

To make the trap more inviting, open the trailer to make it appear less dark, he says. Additionally, Patrick will leave hay in

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the manger compartment as a reward for when the horse loads.

He begins at the trailer by asking the horse to go forward as he did in the first exercise.

“When I am working at the trailer, after the groundwork, if things come up that need fixing then I can go back to the groundwork to regain control,” he says. “It is like working on a [reining] spin.

Trouble in the spin can mean you go back to the sidepass or the forward motion, and then once that is fixed, you start the

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spin again. When the horse is struggling with one part of it, go back to the individual parts and then work on the whole again.”

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CLEAR A PATH At the trailer, Patrick draws clear parameters—the horse cannot go left or right. He wants forward motion but will allow the horse to back up if it needs to escape.

“The horse cannot crowd us between itself and the trailer, or break our arm when it tries to escape. Every horse has an escape route. We tell the horse it can go forward or back, but not right or left,” says Patrick. “We take away the escape route by making a wall, using our body or our presence. You use your body position to control the horse’s shoulders.”

For safety, Patrick says the most important thing is that the horse respects your space. If the horse didn’t willingly back away from you at groundwork, you may have a safety issue at the trailer.

Patrick proceeds by asking the horse to go forward in the same stance he did on groundwork. He asks, and stops tapping when he receives a few steps. If the horse hesitates, he starts again. There is no timetable to loading a horse as long as it has a good experience with the trailer.

If the horse begins to panic, Patrick doesn’t hesitate to go back to groundwork and re-establish his trust and communication.

“Taking a step back, I think, helps you get ahead. If a horse needs you to help him, take a minute to help him,” he says.

“Step away from the trailer, get some respect and control, and then when you approach the trailer you have a fighting chance it will work well.”

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RIDE WEST

BACKCOUNTRY

Horsepacking means you need gear and supplies, making a good packsaddle necessary.

Other essential gear includes hobbles, fencing and long lash ropes.

Stick Twists

These clever packer tricks can make wilderness adventures more enjoyable.

Story and photography by MELISSA HEMKEN

E

VERY PACKER ADHERES TO A STYLE. There’s the traditional approach, characterized by cast-iron Dutch ovens and wall tents. On the other end of the spectrum is the ultra-lightweight system that eliminates so much gear you shiver and starve while your horses gallop out of camp. There is also a high-tech approach that incorporates the latest, greatest modern innovations.

Through the years, I’ve learned to combine elements of all.

My friend Shari taught me practical tricks from the traditional camp, such as her bell keeper and “stick twist” (see

below). Packing for an outdoor school gave me the idea of using an extension cord reel for storing and rolling out fence tape. My pack partner, Perry, won me over to luxurious lightweight chairs after she brought one on a trip. I still refuse to incorporate her battery-powered air compressor that inflates her sleeping pad, although I gladly copied her jeans pant leg case for fence poles and her soft-sided cooler to carry fence chargers.

Of all the packer tricks and systems I’ve learned from others, here are a few of my favorites.

CAMP CONTAINMENT There are several options for horse containment in the backcountry. My system combines grazing hobbles and an electric fence. I use fiberglass fence poles, electric fence tape wound onto an extension cord reel, and a battery-powered fence charger. The poles are packaged for a pack load inside of a sheath sewn from jean pant legs. For a pack load, the horse fence charger and bear fence charger stow inside a soft-sided cooler that provides padding.

To create a fence gate that can be opened when the fence is electrified, I set two posts at an upside-down V-angle. The beginning of the fence tape is tied to the gate posts. After I thread the tape around the perimeter posts, I clove-hitch the tape to the cord reel handle. The reel is placed on the angled

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gate posts to close the pasture fence. To open the fence gate, I simply lift the reel off the gate posts.

When horses are picketed for containment, it’s easy to pound pickets into the soil, and when I return later with horses, forget where the pickets are located in the tall grass. To thwart this, I use tree branch markers. I insert the tree branches upright between the picket ropes and the picket pins. Later, when I lead out horses, I can see the pickets’ tree branches above the grass. To package pickets for pack loads, I wrap them in an empty grain bag. This bundles the pickets and pads their metal edges, which can damage other gear in the panniers. My 30-foot picket rope is thick and soft to lessen rope burn on horse fetlocks.

accidentally slide off the strap and become swallowed by grass. To avoid this, I cut a rectangular leather “keeper” with two slots. I thread the bell strap through the keeper, the bell ring, and back through the keeper. The friction of the keeper holds the bell on the strap.

Hobbles are another item that tall grass obscures. After I halter horses and remove the hobbles from their legs, I buckle the hobbles around the horses’ bell straps. This hampers me from setting the hobbles down in the grass. It also frees my hands to lead multiple horses.

were slick, or unmarked by brands.

For these reasons I bought a brand: the broken M quarter circle (which I later realized resembles a frown emoticon).

If I lose my horses in the mountains, the registered brand identification substantially increases the likelihood of their return.

Stick Twist

Handcuffs and ID

Bells and Buckles

My mountain music is the tinkle of bells as horses graze an alpine meadow.

The less-soothing bell clangs will jar me awake at night if the horses become scared. I “bell” horses by buckling bells around their necks. When unbuckling the bell from the horses’ necks before riding out of camp, the bell can

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I use chain-style grazing hobbles with leather cuffs. This type of hobbles allows horses to graze and move around, but not very quickly. I like this style because it’s easy to set new rivets in the leather cuffs if they pop out. In case a chain link breaks, I carry a chain quick link to re-connect hobbles. I bring a pair of grazing hobbles for each horse. These travel inside the pack load when on the trail. For use on the trail, I carry a pair of figure-eight hobbles on my ride saddle.

On extended pack trips, I also bring an extra pair of grazing hobbles in case a set breaks beyond field repair.

My personal horses are nondescript bays, and when I purchased them, they

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During travel a lash rope often loosens, which causes the lash cinch to sag. To tighten without re-throwing the whole hitch, take a stout stick and slide it under the rope connected to the lash cinch. Turn the stick to twist the lash rope around itself until the lash cinch tightens. Then secure the stick under a perpendicular portion of the hitch.

Pack horses that hold their air when you tighten the cinch are especially prone to droopy lash cinches. The lash cinch is often the first portion of a hitch tightened. This is why, before I finish a hitch, I use my lash rope’s working end to again hitch around the lash cinch hook to pull out slack. I favor 9-millimeter dynamic climbing rope as lash ropes for its slim pliability. Because bulky pack loads demand a long lash rope, and someday I might need to cut a section off for another use, my lash rope measures 50 feet. I’ve yet to regret the length.

MELISSA HEMKEN is a Wyoming-based freelance writer and photographer. She has logged countless miles packing into wilderness areas.

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RIDE WEST

Amateur competitor Carisa Kimbro has savvy tips for making life easy when hauling with your horse.

ON THE ROAD

Haul Your Home

With planning and imagination, a road trip in a living-quarters horse trailer can be as comfortable as being in your own house.

Story by KATE BRADLEY BYARS Photography by CHRISTINE HAMILTON

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A

HORSE SHOW “WEEKEND WARRIOR,” Carisa Kimbro of Burleson, Texas, hits the highways across the West with trailer and horses in tow once, twice or even three weekends a month, headed to stock horse or reined cow horse shows or to help at friends’ brandings.

Kimbro has learned that bringing along the comforts of home makes for a more enjoyable experience.

Growing up showing in 4-H and breed shows as a youth, Kimbro bought her first living-quarters trailer in 2013.

She thought the 7-foot-wide trailer would have plenty of room, but found it lacking storage and living space.

“I didn’t have mangers [with storage space below them], so I used the front stall with a stud wall for storage,” she explains. “At the time, I didn’t realize how much [in supplies] I needed to haul to be comfortable or for contingencies.”

Today, Kimbro hauls an 8-foot-wide, three-horse living-quarters with a dually, taking along Quarter Horse TS

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Paddy Shota Spark and two Jack Russell Terriers. She usually hauls solo, so Kimbro plans how she can pack, unpack and set up all of her items by herself. Her goal is to set up at a horse show or a friend’s branding for a weekend, and not have to leave until she’s ready to head home.

A commercial spares manager at Bell Helicopter in Hurst, Texas, during the week, Kimbro also pilots Chinook helicopters for the Texas Army National Guard. Showing horses is her choice of recreation.

“It is the difference between ‘have to have’ and ‘like to have,’ ” Kimbro says.

“My ‘like to have’ list is a lot bigger, and I found that out from that first trailer. It is also the difference between hauling for a job or recreation. I want to enjoy myself. Having enough counter space for a coffee pot, or having extra storage for things like my guitar or a grill is important.”

Here are some of her savvy tips for choosing options and making life with your horse on the road easier.

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A coffee pot and other items are labeled for the trailer and stay packed. Kimbro keeps trailer linens in one color theme to make them easy to sort after washing.

1

MAKE A LIST Before setting foot on a trailer sales lot or launching an online search, consider your perfect trailer, as Kimbro did.

“You have to make a list of ‘got to have,’ and then also the ‘need to have’ items,” she advises.

Kimbro wanted more living space room and friends suggested she get a slide-out.

But she found the 8-foot trailer gave enough room for two people to sit comfortably. Instead of the slide-out, she chose to work a generator into her budget.

She wanted a separate shower and toilet. With her first trailer, she found that neighbors sometimes asked to use her shower even if there was a facility on the grounds, and having a separate toilet made that more convenient. She also wanted a separate refrigerator and freezer, which operated more efficiently and gave her more freezer space.

Additionally, experience parked on a flat spot in windy South Dakota taught Kimbro that a single-jack trailer will sway.

She added dual jacks to her wish list.

Next, she wanted more storage, so her new trailer would need built-in mangers with storage space underneath and a hay pod on the roof. Accessible from the

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Use heavy paper secured with duct tape as a table cloth. It protects the table and provides a perfect spot when horse-show friends drop by for dinner.

outside, the manger storage is ideal for water hoses, extension cords and tools.

Another must-have was a connecting door from the stalls to the living space.

That lets the stall area act as a mudroom for the living area.

2

MAKE IT A HOME The fun of a living-quarters trailer comes in customizing it. Kimbro’s time spent deployed taught her that a good night’s sleep is mandatory, so she immediately traded out the trailer’s mattress with a memory foam mattress.

“I also have a coffee pot. That is a musthave,” she says.

Inside the kitchen and the bathroom, she uses hooks backed with hook-andloop tape as towel hangers, key hangers or to add wall decoration.

Kimbro set up the front horse stall for horse-related equipment storage, such as her tack box.

“I added rings to the inside front wall to hang cords or rope bags for things like my buckets,” she says. “I attached them to the wall studs on that front wall.”

In the rear tack room, she added hooks to the back of the saddle rack wall so she could hang horse blankets or a broom.

W EST ER N H O R S EM A N

Hook-and-loop tape is an easy way to mount hooks to inside walls to hang towels and keys. The tape also come in handy for hanging decorative items.

3

PACK WISELY A master packer, Kimbro maintains a running list of everything she, her horse and dogs will need for a weekend away. She keeps the packing list handy on a clipboard in the trailer, and shares it with whoever asks.

To help ensure that necessary items never go missing, she bought items to be used only for travel and labeled them for the trailer. They also stay packed.

“I carry a plastic folding table, a roaster, all of the utensils, chairs and other things,” she says. “All of my stuff stays in the trailer. I label it all so when I do take it home to wash it, I know what goes back to the trailer.”

Kimbro stores items she might not use on every trip in the hay pod, such as an extra water hose, a woven mat to put down in a tack stall, extra chairs and saddle racks.

“I pack by myself, so if I am not comfortable hauling it up and down the ladder myself, I put a rope on it and pull it up,” she says.

She also packs items that can help in a bind.

“I travel by myself and am a big proponent of being able to do easy fixes

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ABOVE: Kimbro uses the front trailer stall for horse equipment storage, hanging items from rings mounted to the front wall studs. The connecting door lets it also serve as a mudroom.

RIgHT: Hooks over the rear tack room wall provide extra hanging space for blankets and sheets.

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by myself,” she says. “I always carry a full set of tools to change a tire or fix something else.”

Kimbro suggests packing an impact wrench, drive-up ramp to change a tire without a jack, and a full set of sockets, screwdrivers and wrenches. Because you’re hauling your home, minor things happen. Have a set of channel locks, vise grips and other items to help with issues you might encounter, she advises.

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SET UP SHOP Before she leaves the driveway, Kimbro kicks on her generator to get the living-quarters’ air conditioning and refrigerator started on cooling down.

“I learned to run the generator while driving down the road,” she says. “It is ventilated from the top so there is minimal concern with carbon monoxide.

“It helps with two things: The internal temperature of the living-quarters stays cool so you don’t have to play catch up when you arrive. In summer, that makes a big difference. The other thing is that it keeps the refrigerator on electric and not gas. When you run the generator, it keeps the living compart-

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

ment cooler and the refrigerator doesn’t work as hard.”

Once she’s found a parking spot, plugged in and unloaded at the show, Kimbro begins enjoying her amenities.

And she is not alone.

“At these shows, while we are there for our horses, it is a big social gathering of like-minded people,” Kimbro explains. “I have a small electric pellet grill I store in the front stall of the trailer. In the morning, I’ll put on a pork shoulder and when we finish showing in the evening, we have barbecue. People bring sides and we sit to talk about our day and eat dinner. We don’t have to drive anywhere or go to dinner, and it is a fellowship thing.”

In the morning, as she lets her dogs out and feeds her horse, Kimbro’s coffeemaker puts out a sweet aroma to help her kick-start another day. For her, and many of her weekend warrior friends, it isn’t about a giant rig with bells and whistles and satellite TV, but being comfortable doing what they love.

“Horse showing is a big part of why I go, but so is being with friends,” she says.

“It’s all about how you choose to set up for the best time with your horse.”

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RIDE WEST

RODEO

Catching On

Breakaway roping is gaining steam as a mainstream rodeo event.

B

By KYLE PARTAIN

REAKAWAY ROPER Josie Conner doesn’t have a backup plan. With continued leadership from the generation ahead and a little bit of luck, she won’t need one.

The Louisiana cowgirl is heading into her sophomore year of high school at a time when opportunities in her chosen event are exploding. While many of her fellow contestants in the National High School Rodeo Association compete in multiple events at every rodeo, Josie is focused on breakaway roping and says she believes that focus will be rewarded in the not-too-distant future.

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“My dad’s a calf roper,” says the 2018 National Junior High Finals Rodeo champion in girls’ breakaway roping. “This is what we do. We rope calves, rope the dummy and watch roping videos. I’m not really interested in other events.”

When she made her first trip to the NJHFR in 2016, breakaway roping was just starting to become a point of emphasis in the professional rodeo world outside of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association. Josie went on to qualify for the breakaway roping short round at three straight junior high finals rodeos and earned her first national title by finishing nearly a half second ahead of the field in 2018.

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

Nine months later, she was riding into the arena at The American, as the record-setting rodeo offered breakaway roping for the first time. Before she even completed her first year of high school, she was roping in her chosen event for more money than many cowgirls of the past could have even imagined. Josie thanked veteran ropers such as Jackie Crawford and Lari Dee Guy—both of whom she competed with that weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas—for pushing the sport to such heights.

While breakaway roping has always been popular at junior, high school and college rodeos, cowgirls in generations past found themselves selling off their seasoned calf horses when it came time to rodeo professionally. WPRA offered the event at its all-girl rodeos and co-approved events, but other opportunities to compete professionally were sparse.

Fans were conditioned to seeing cowgirls in just the barrel racing at mainstream rodeos, such as the ones sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Even WPRA has a spotty history with the event. Records show the association crowned a champion in breakaway roping in 1974 for the first time and again in 1975. But another champion isn’t listed until 1982 and 1983 before the event disappeared again until 1989. WPRA has recognized a champion in the event every year since then.

Maybe it was the success of all-girl team ropings in the past decade, or maybe it was generations of cowgirls who were tired of giving up on roping calves. Whatever the case, breakaway roping is likely to be on the daysheet at the next rodeo you attend. The past two years have shown that rodeo fans are excited to watch their favorite cowgirls back into the roping box, as well as run barrels.

COURTESY OF NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL RODEO ASSOCIATION

Josie Conner, shown at the 2018 National Junior High Finals Rodeo, is counting on a future in breakaway roping.

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been a dream come true for me. I’ve watched family and friends compete at my hometown rodeo in Kennewick, Washington, for forever. Ten years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that I would get to compete there someday.”

Despite breakaway roping’s long history in the lower ranks, Casey admitted there has been a learning curve while including the event at professional rodeos.

“Rodeo announcers and the barrel men have been instrumental in setting up our event for fans who haven’t seen it before,” she says. “They need to let them know ahead of time how quick the action is going to be and where it’s going to happen in the arena. But it’s been so great for the ropers to have the opportunity to share their love of the sport with rodeo fans.”

Contestants have had to do a little studying of their own, Jennifer says.

While she attended performances at many of the rodeos in the pilot

program, she’d never even thought about how to handle the arena setup and its grass surface as a competitor.

“For any roper, the setup at Pendleton is very different from what we see at most rodeos,” she says. “I love the rodeo, but it never occurred to me that I might rope there one day. So that was a tough adjustment for all of the breakaway ropers.”

The development of the World Champions Rodeo Alliance in the past year has also played a role. The organization included breakaway roping in its standard events from the get-go, providing yet another opportunity for breakaway ropers to compete professionally for previously unimaginable prize money.

“It’s just been awesome going to all of these events,” says Kelsie Chace, the reigning WPRA breakaway roping champion and WPRA breakaway roping director. She picked up a big check at The American this year,

COURTESY OF NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL RODEO ASSOCIATION

There’s no doubt that WPRA played a leading role. The association developed a pilot program to add breakaway roping to a dozen rodeos in the Columbia River Circuit two years ago, a move that put breakaway ropers in the spotlight.

“We’ve been talking forever about adding breakaway roping at the next level,” says WPRA Assistant Roping Director Jennifer Casey.

A native of the Pacific Northwest, she was happy to guide the association’s pilot program in her home circuit.

“I think it really fills a need for some of the rodeos,” she says. “We can fill a short amount of time, but offer something that fits within the demographics of the rodeo instead of bringing in a motorcycle act or something like that. I think they quickly saw the value in adding another women’s event.

“We’re fast and the event is easy to understand. Rodeo fans like that. It’s

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which counts in the WPRA standings in 2019. “I think we’ve seen a real domino effect as more rodeos are adding the event. We’ve definitely had a lot of girls interested in competing.

I’ve been riding a horse since I was 3 years old and roping since I was 5 or 6.

This is all I’ve ever wanted to do, so to have these opportunities come along has been a blessing.

“The rodeos are definitely seeing that we are showing up to compete and putting on a good show. Because of that, I think the fans have supported it.”

Breakaway roping helped California’s Nellie Miller make history earlier this year. She was recognized as the all-around champion at the Red Bluff Round-Up in April after earning more than $7,800 when she won the barrel racing and took third in breakaway roping. It was the second year the rodeo had offered breakaway roping. While the PRCA recognized Rhen Richard as its all-around cowboy, he took home just $3,672 in rodeo earnings in tie-down roping and team roping.

Which begs the question: As breakaway roping gains momentum in professional rodeo, where does the event go from here? WPRA will continue to crown a champion through its roping division, but will there be room for the fast-paced event under the bright lights of the Thomas & Mack Center someday?

“I would like to see the breakaway world champion crowned the same way as the barrel racing champion,” Casey says of adding the event to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

“We’ve got some work to do to get to that point, but I think a lot of breakaway ropers would tell you that’s where they want to see this event go.”

Josie Conner is certainly among that group. She’s betting her future on that and opportunities such as the ones offered by The American and the WCRA. But it’s up to the generations ahead to see that her gamble pays off.

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KYLE PARTAIN is a Colorado-based freelance writer who has covered rodeo for more than 20 years.

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RIDE WEST

: 10 minutes : 35 minutes : One 9-by-13inch cake or two 9-inch round cakes

“This chocolate cake bakes up moist and rich.

Top with the thick buttercream icing for a truly oldfashioned flavor.”

—KENT ROLLINS

WITH KENT & SHANNON ROLLINS

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Icing

INGREDIENTS

DIRECTIONS Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly butter and flour a 9-by-13-inch baking pan or two 9-inch round cake pans. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and baking soda, and it set aside. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, water and cocoa. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, and let it boil for 30 seconds.

Whisk the cocoa mixture into the flour mixture, and then add the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Pour the batter into the pan and place it on the center rack. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature before removing from the pan and icing.

2 cups flour 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 sticks butter, melted 1 cup water ¼ heaping cup cocoa ½ cup buttermilk 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla

Buttercream Icing

2 cups cream 5 tablespoons flour 2 sticks butter, softened 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla

In a saucepan, heat the cream and flour over medium heat, stirring constantly. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens to a paste consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. You can also place in the icebox for faster cooling. Meanwhile, in a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until smooth, and then whisk in the vanilla. Beat the flour mixture until smooth, and then beat the flour mixture into the sugar mixture on high until extremely smooth.

Cowboy cooks KENT AND SHANNON ROLLINS are based in Hollis, Oklahoma. For more information, visit kentrollins.com and enjoy their weekly cooking shows on youtube.com/CowboyKentRollins.

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ROSS HECOX

COWBOY TASTES

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RIDE RIDE WEST WEST

PRODUCTS

Roadside Rescue

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SLIME’S HEAVY-DUTY 2X PRO POWER TIRE INFLATOR (suggested retail $87.99) can fill a standard tire in two minutes. The 120-volt inflator connects to any battery-powered vehicle for maximum power, and the green coil air horse stretches up to 30 feet. The kit contains the inflator, a tire gauge, direct-connect jumpers and a storage case. slime.com QUICK FIST RATCHET CLAMP (suggested retail $19.95) is a one-piece ratchet clamp that can hold up to 2,000 pounds and features a quick one-finger release. The clamp has a 36-foot nylon web strap ideal for holding fire extinguishers, tools and other equipment. quickfist.com

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BUYER’S RECHARGEABLE LED ROAD STROBE/FLARES (suggested retail $130.95) feature nine flash patterns for high visibility and can run for up to 60 hours. The circular flares are water- and crushproof, feature a magnetic bottom and hanging loop. buyersproducts.com

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carisa kimbro

Flat-Out luck

Bad luck seems to come in threes. reined cow horse trainer Jim spence remembers being stranded in the desert with a trailer full of horses, a flat tire and no spares left. The oregon horseman was on his way to Las Vegas, Nevada, and had been on the road a couple of days when he blew not one but two tires. He changed the flats with the two spares he brought, and hit the road again. about 100 miles later in alamo, Nevada, he blew a third tire and was out of spares. “it happens to everyone, and the important thing is to keep your head and stay calm,” says spence. spence may have had a streak of bad fortune, but he wasn’t completely out of luck. Less than 100 miles away was a tire shop that was able to send someone to replace his trailer tires and get him back on the road quickly. spence says he didn’t unload his horses because the whole incident didn’t take longer than a couple of hours.

“There was very little to no shade outside,” he said, adding that they were on the side of the highway where it would have been unsafe to unload.

He had watered the horses earlier that day, so he knew they would be okay without water for the time being. When traveling, spence says, he doesn’t let his horses go longer than seven hours without offering them a drink.

“Whether there’s a tire shop down the road or a friend not far away, horse people are always willing to help,” he says. “if you prepare as much as you can with spare tires, an emergency kit, and flares, the rest will fall into place.”

WH Online Go to westernhorseman.com to find a checklist of what to pack in your trailer for on-the-road emergencies.

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In the Hands of Horsemen After more than 20 years of cowboying on Great Basin ranches, rawhide braider Bill Black applied his experience to his craftsmanship. Some of his best education, however, came from the cowboys and horsemen who became his customers.

Story by JENNIFER DENISON Photography by NICOLE MORGENTHAU

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here are only a couple of roads that lead to Plush, Oregon, home to rawhide braider and horsehair hitcher Bill Black. There isn’t a fancy sign or parking lot in front of his workshop, but the directions are simple. Take U.S. Highway 395 South from the town of Burns and turn left on a scenic shortcut known as Hogback Road. If you miss it, you’ll have to drive an hour farther to the next turnoff. The gravel road winds for more than 30 miles, out of cell phone range, through expansive, remote ranchlands and marshy wetlands. Craggy Hart Mountain towers 8,024 feet in the distance.

In Plush, near Oregon’s southern border, the rustic Hart Mountain Store is a hangout for local buckaroos and hunters, and the only stop for fuel, food and supplies for miles. If Black isn’t there visiting or ordering a hamburger, he’s likely next door in the metal-framed shop behind the pastel pink and green house on the corner. Resting against the chicken coop is a damp cowhide stretched with baling twine on a pipe frame to dry. >>

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Works of functional art, Bill Black’s hackamores are as beautiful as they are beneficial to a horse’s training.

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Perched on a stool over a spacious workbench, he concentrates on meticulously braiding strands of leather and rawhide into hackamores, quirts and reins while an old murder mystery radio show provides background noise. Through the years braiding has calloused and coarsened his hands, but they testify to the time he’s put into his craft to become one of the most reputable “rawhiders” today. His work, particularly his hackamores, hangs in the tack rooms of working cowboys, bridle horsemen, and legendary reined cow horse trainers such as Bobby Ingersoll, Ted Robinson and Dan Roeser.

Rarely is there a used hackamore he’s made for sale, and if you find one it’s likely to be well worn.

“He’s one of the best hackamore braiders there is right now,” says Ingersoll, a National Reined Cow Horse Association Hall of Famer who has won the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity three times.

One of Ingersoll’s favorite Black hackamores is 5⁄8-inch diameter and 11 inches long, with a 7-inch nose button and medium core.

“There are a lot of good braiders out there, but the cores in their hackamores don’t have life,” says Ingersoll.

“When you bend one of Bill’s hackamores it springs back and has life.

Without that life, it’s hard to get the feel of the horse’s nose.”

Hanging on the walls of Black’s shop is a collection of well-used hackamores and bridles with silver spade bits. They are a stark contrast to the old grazing bits and snaffles he used to use, and speak to his evolution as a cowboy and craftsman.

Raised on his family’s ranch in Fowler, Colorado, Black left home to cowboy a few days after he graduated from high school in 1973. He worked on small family ranches in southern Colorado and did a short stint on a ranch in the Oklahoma Panhandle before working his way out West and

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Black makes hackamores in various sizes and materials, from cotton to rawhide, leather and kangaroo.

hiring on at some of the most iconic outfits in the Great Basin, including the Spanish Ranch and Squaw Valley Ranch, both owned by the Ellison family in Elko County, Nevada, and the MC Ranch in Adel, Oregon. Along the way, he learned about riding different horses, managing a crew, and hitching horsehair and braiding rawhide.

“This is the first piece I braided,” he says, reaching for a crudely braided quirt hanging on the wall. “I made it on the TS Ranch in Battle Mountain, Nevada, from the hide of a TS cow that I skinned, washed, scraped and cut the strands, when I was 22 and worked there.”

Black’s father had the quirt in safekeeping in Colorado for decades before giving it to Black’s wife, Teresa.

“We take it to shows for people to see,” says Black. “One time Teddy Robinson even thanked me for bringing it and showing how far I’ve come [as a craftsman].”

BLACK RODE HORSES and had a fascination with cowboy gear from an early age. He and his younger brother, W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

Tim, would cut stems off cottonwood trees and make hackamores like the ones they saw in books and magazines for their toy horses. When he was 10 years old Black learned to braid four strands of sisal twine into pigging strings from his father.

He never imagined becoming a full-time braider, because he wanted to cowboy and learn to hitch horsehair.

“Howard Munsell, founder of the Colorado Saddlery Association, had a saddle shop in Las Animas County, Colorado, and he taught my brother and me how to braid seven and eight strands. He also had a [horsehair] get-down rope in there,” recalls Black. “I set a goal when I was 10 to hitch a headstall. It took me only 30 years to do it. I had guys try to teach me how to hitch, but they didn’t know much. I learned the most from Clay Christensen’s book How to Hitch Horsehair.”

When he graduated from high school, Black started cowboying on family ranches in southeastern Colorado, and spent a short time on an operation in Boise City, Oklahoma, where he was on the tractor more than he was horseback. His friend Mike Martin went to work on the Spanish Ranch in Tuscarora, Nevada, and they were always hiring willing cowboys, so Black called to apply.

With a sharp mind for dates, he says he started working for cowboss Bill Kane at the Spanish Ranch on April 15, 1976. The Spanish Ranch cavvy and Kane both had reputations for being hard on cowboys. Black saw opportunities to make a hand.

“If you watched him and listened and did your job, you could learn a lot,” he recalls. “There were 11 of us on the spring wagon crew and Bill roped seven or eight horses out of the cavvy for each of our strings. Everyone said the ranch horses were rank, but they were just young horses that weren’t broke. If you’d just get along with them you could do any job on them. They were some of the best horses I rode.

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Deciding on a Hackamore

When ordering a hackamore, maker Bill Black asks his customers several questions so he can make the right hackamore for them and their horses.

How stiff do you want the core?

Do you want it made from leather, rawhide or kangaroo leather? (The latter is the most expensive.)

How long do you want the nose button, and do you want it with a swell or no swell? (The swell makes more contact with the nose.)

Do you want nerve buttons, and if so what placement of them?

What size do you want the hackamore to be?

To measure your horse’s nose, place the palm of your hand on the left side of the horse’s muzzle with the bottom of your left hand or little finger on the top of the horse’s left nostril. Go up four fingers to the top of your index finger and run a measuring tape around the horse’s face at the point. If you have small hands, add the width of your thumb to the measurement. This is also how you determine where to adjust the hackamore on the horse’s head.

Once Black has that measurement, usually around 21 or 22 inches, he takes a shaping block he made from an old hat stretcher and runs the measuring tape around it to the selected measurement, adjusting both ends of the block to the measurement.

Then he measures from the top of the block to the bottom and adds 21⁄8 of an inch to the measurement.

This formula tells him how long to make the hackamore, usually 10½ to 11 inches.

Black enjoys passing along the knowledge he’s gained, especially to his daughter, Montana.

Black shows the proper placement of a hackamore on a horse’s nose using his hand as a guide.

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“But if you picked on them they would buck, and Bill Kane didn’t want them to buck. He’d chew you out if you sat there and watched a horse buck with a guy and not do anything. He’d rope a hind leg to keep the horse from bucking.”

Despite his efforts to get along with the horses, Black can recount stories of the horses he rode and the wrecks he had. He rode most of the horses in his string with snaffle bits because they changed hands frequently, but occasionally he tried a hackamore.

“I didn’t know what I was doing in a hackamore,” he says.

“Back home [in Colorado], everyone had a hackamore in their saddle house and would put it on a horse and pull him around a little bit, but the goal was to get him in a grazing bit as quickly as you could. We rode a hackamore with a fiador and split reins. I’d have ridden a lot more horses in a hackamore if I’d known what I know now.”

After 60 days on the Spanish Ranch, Black transferred to another Ellison-owned ranch, Squaw Valley, near Midas, Nevada, where Merv Takacs was the cowboss. The horses were older and had learned to buck off cowboys, but that didn’t deter Black.

“I don’t claim to be a hackamore man,” he says, “but sometimes all it took was getting the bit out of the horse’s mouth and riding him in a hackamore to get the job done.”

IN FEBRUARY OF 1978, Black

The Blacks set up a booth at four or five trade shows each year, including Winnemucca’s Ranch Hand Rodeo in Winnemucca, Nevada; the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, Nevada; the Summer Showdown for the Northwest Reined Cow Horse Association in Powell Butte, Oregon; and Art of the Cowgirl in Phoenix, Arizona.

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showed up at the Commercial Hotel in Elko, Nevada, where buckaroos used to go to find jobs. He’d recently quit a ranch job and met fellow cowboy and Ray Hunt follower Dean Tobias, who was headed to Arizona to find work. He invited Black to load his bedroll and ride along.

“We never found any work,” says Black. “But we went to a Au g u st 2 01 9

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Black claims he’s not a hackamore man, but says he’s learned about the art of making hackamores through the advice of top horsemen.

slaughterhouse and bought two fat, greasy hides for $5 apiece, and that’s when Dean taught me to work rawhide for a couple of weeks before we went back to Nevada.”

While working his way around other northern Nevada ranches such as the IL and TS, Black continued honing his braiding skills in the bunkhouse at night with the help of other cowboys who braided.

“In the mid-1970s there were seven of us braiding in Elko County,” recalls Black, listing off names that include Bryan Neubert and Randy Stowell. “I never went into their shops, but I asked a lot of questions and they answered them.”

In Nevada he also met hackamore and bridle horsemen such as Larry Schutte and Martin Black, who tried his hackamores and reins and offered suggestions to improve their functionality.

“Bill left the IL Ranch and came over to the 25 Ranch with a couple of his buckaroos, and spent the fall helping me gather and ship 2,500 head from the Stampede Ranch,” Augus t 2019

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recalls Martin Black. “We have been friends and done business together for more than 35 years. He has a special procedure for his rawhide cores and can make them as firm or as soft as a person wants. His braiding has a look of its own, like [Luis] Ortega’s work. A trained eye can recognize it from a distance.”

In the 1980s, Black drifted to the MC Ranch, a ranching dynasty established by William Kittredge in the 1930s in Adel, Oregon. In his more than eight years working there and at the Roaring Springs Ranch, both owned by the same company, he climbed the cowboy corporate ladder from cowboy to jigger boss and eventually cowboss, a position he held until the ranch dispersed in 1992. He was a respected cowboy and cowboss, known for working beside his crew rather than from an office or pickup.

“I first met Bill in 1984 when I worked for him on the MC,” says Californio bridle horseman Bruce Sandifer of Santa Barbara, California.

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by buckaroos. I have watched him refine his braIding through the years and, as a braider myself, I really appreciate his craftsmanship.”

After leaving the MC, Black went to the Quien Sabe Ranch in San Benito County, California, and then took horse-related jobs in Idaho, all the while continuing to braid and sell his work at trade shows with his friend, chap maker Dave Hack.

By the mid-1990s, Black had quit cowboying and was supporting himself making hitched horsehair and rawhide gear. He had also purchased his house in Plush, not far from the MC headquarters. He met his wife, Teresa, in 1998 at Bishop Mule Days in Bishop, California. Her stepfather was a saddlemaker in Southern California, and she worked in his shop doing repairs and building saddles, and helped him at trade shows. The couple bonded over braiding and leatherwork for a few years before marrying in 2001.

Today, Teresa has a workbench across from her husband’s and they’re often working together in the shop.

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Their 14-year-old daughter, Montana, is starting to learn to braid and work on her own projects when she’s not in school or tending to her 4-H projects.

“She recently finished an eight-strand set of reins for a neighbor,” Black says proudly.

“The hardest thing is getting her in the shop for a while. She has so many other things going on.”

HORSEMEN OFTEN REFER

Bill has taught his wife, Teresa, and their daughter, Montana, to braid.

to feel and balance when talking about horses, but they also use those terms to describe hackamores and rawhide reins. Feel starts with the expert hands of the maker of the traditional gear and then transfers to the horseman and horse.

Up until around 2000, Black focused mostly on rawhide reins but gradually started experimenting with building more hackamores and selling them to

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working cowboys and reined cow horsemen alike. He humbly sought and accepted feedback from his customers to help refine the shape, balance and feel of his hackamores.

Legendary horsemen like Ingersoll, Robinson and the late Benny Guitron were instrumental in helping Black become the premier hackamore maker he is today.

“I’m smart enough to listen to the guys who use them,” he says, “and that’s what’s gotten me here.”

One of the best tips Ingersoll offered Black was to add “authority” to his hackamores, meaning a stiffer core.

Black has experimented with twisted rawhide cores and sewing two to four strips of rawhide together after he saw a hackamore made by braider Tom Kerr.

“I’ve known Bill for more than 10 years and in that time the biggest change I’ve seen to his hackamores is his cores,” says Ingersoll. “In the hackamore you have no leverage on a horse like you do with a bit. The

hackamore makes contact with the horse’s nose and then has a quick release. Most of the old braiders used [pieces of] old reatas for their cores, and that made their hackamores really soft and flexible.

“Today we expect so much more out of our performance horses that you need a stiffer core on their nose, because with a soft hackamore they’ll learn to run right through it. A core should have spring to it so it springs back on the horse’s nose. A soft hackamore won’t do that. If you hold pressure on the hackamore the horse’s nose will get sore and numb.”

Black prefers the hides of thin cows and Hereford bulls for cores because they are strong. “[California horseman] Pat Russell says the best rawhide cores come from the hide that lies along the backbone of a cow, 8 inches on each side and not past the hipbone,” he says.

Part of the quality that goes into Black’s rawhide gear is that he

processes his own hides, from removing them from the cow to stretching and scraping them. He removes hair and pigment from the hide with a wire-wheel brush power tool accessory instead of harsh chemicals.

“One of the things that really sets Bill’s work apart is the way he processes his hides,” says Sandifer. “He debrides them by hand and does not use lime. This makes his pieces last much longer and keep a really good feel. I have one of his bosals that I have started nearly every horse in for more than 20 years, and it still looks and feels great. I also ride a set of his romal reins that have stood the test of time.”

With measurements from great horsemen—who all have preferences when it comes to the length of the hackamore and nose button, nerve button placement and adjustment on the horse’s nose—Black started making different sizes and styles of hackamores. Through the years he has considered every piece of advice he’s

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received from horsemen using his gear, and he’s also taken their thoughts and used them as inspiration for innovation. For example, a video he posted on his Facebook page shows a rawhide-braided ring that he attached to a short piece of rope that he wraps above the heel knot like a mecate. The ring enables a rider to ride with split reins if they desire and then take off the ring and tie a mecate

on the hackamore to show in reined cow horse classes.

SINCE HE STARTED BRAIDING more than 40 years ago, Black has seen a resurgence in the craft and use of the hackamore. He has taught workshops during the Sheridan Leather Show in Sheridan, Wyoming, and aspiring braiders contact him, watch his short instructional videos

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on Facebook and visit his shop for advice. He enjoys passing along the knowledge he’s gleaned from others.

“I had guys teach me, so I have no problem helping others,” he says. “I can’t make anyone better, but I know of shortcuts to help these guys out. I’m not here to show someone how to be creative, but I can show them what works.”

If an aspring braider comes to Black’s shop, he or she is required to make three pieces. One can be taken home and two go into Black’s inventory trunk to sell. One of his Warner Valley youth braiders is only 9 years old, and on Black’s worn black felt hat is a pink paracord hatband she braided when she was 6.

Black travels to several trade shows a year and in between replenishes his stock and works on custom orders.

He estimates that he’s braided nearly 3,000 hackamores since 1997 and continues to learn subtle ways and measurements to improve their benefits to horse and rider.

“The hackamore was nearly extinct for a while, because old horsemen and craftsmen wouldn’t share their knowledge. Everything was under lock and key,” he says. “I owe a lot to [the horsemen] who used my hackamores for sharing their knowledge with me. I have a lot of respect for them. Now I have a lot of guys come into the booth and ask what I’ve learned since the last time they saw me.”

His work is an investment in time and technique, requiring hours of preparation before he even starts braiding, but it is a timeless tool and work of art brought to life in the hands of horsemen like Sandifer.

“As a professional horseman I really appreciate that Bill will listen to you and build what you want,” Sandifer says, “and always turn out a high-quality product that will, with very little care, last a lifetime.”

JENNIFER DENISON is senior editor of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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OPENING SHOT

Colts and Cold Fronts

A GROUP OF FOUR SIXES RANCH 2-year-olds greets photographer Wyman Meinzer while a thunderhead builds in the wide-ranging sky near Guthrie, Texas. This spring, the young horses saw plenty of breathtaking sights in their flat, treeless pasture, as a steady stream of cold fronts delivered wild cloud formations, streaking bolts of lightning and heavy downpours.

As a result, the grass is green, water reservoirs are full, wildlife is thriving, and horses are sporting shiny, dappled haircoats. It’s a welcome sight for Meinzer, who specializes in photographing West Texas and has contributed to several coffee table books, including 6666: Portrait of a Texas Ranch.

“I go up to the Sixes quite often,” says Meinzer, who lives in nearby Benjamin. “The land has been so well kept. With the vast landscape and all the history associated with that place, every time I go out there I get this feeling that I’m in a time warp.”

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RANCHING

Breaking Down the Brands The system may be simple, but the Four Sixes Ranch brands tell a lot about the horse that wears them.

Story by KATIE FRANK • Illustrations by RON BONGE

ABOVE: A number on the jaw indicates the line of a horse’s dam.

INSET: An “L” brand on the shoulder signifies a Four Sixes Ranch-bred horse.

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OST COWBOYS HAVE A TYPE OF HORSE they prefer to ride for ranch work. Come springtime, cowboys at the Four Sixes Ranch get to pick which 2-year-olds they want in their string.

They’ll ride those horses for years of ranch work, so it’s a weighty decision.

In most cases, a set of hot-iron brands bestowed on each horse influences the cowboys’ selection.

Unlike the ranch’s cattle, which get four “open sixes” on their left side, the horses receive different brands on several locations.

Four Sixes horses have brands on their jaws, shoulders, and one or both buttocks. By reading the combination of brands, it’s easy to immediately know details, such as a horse’s age, the mare family line its dam came from, and sometimes the horse’s sire.

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“The brands help cowboys when they go to picking their colts,” says Phil Fox, mare manager at the Four Sixes. “They may like a certain mare line and they know who the stud is by looking at the stallion brand on the colt’s hip.”

He says it also helps them quickly identify a horse when they’re out gathering horses or looking for a specific mare and foal to bring in.

RANCHES AND MARE FAMILIES

Horses on the Four Sixes are branded

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on the left jaw and left shoulder in two ways. If a horse has a triangle brand on its jaw, it will have a number on its shoulder. If it has a number on its jaw, it will have an “L” on its shoulder.

“A triangle means the horse goes back to the Triangle Ranch, which we used to own,” says Eric Van Reet, the ranch’s stallion manager.

Tom Burnett, son of Four Sixes Ranch founder Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett, owned the Triangle Ranch and started a mare herd there. In later years, the mares eventually joined the Four Sixes herd. When the Triangle was sold, the ranch kept the triangle brand and still uses the brand on horses tracing to that stock.

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The “L” brand, Van Reet adds, refers to horses that came from the Four Sixes Ranch herd. Burk Burnett purchased his first ranch horses from his father-in-law, M.B. Loyd, and continued to brand his horses with an “L” to honor him.

The numbers signify what mare family line a horse comes from. In 1935, then-Ranch Manager George Humphreys began the numbering system, assigning each broodmare a number. Every horse out of a mare is branded with her number, and her daughters pass that number on to their foals.

Some of the Triangle and L-branded mare family numbers trace back to 1935, showing just how many generations of that mare line have been raised on the ranch. When the ranch buys a mare to add to the broodmare band, she’s assigned her own number which her daughters will pass on, in turn.

Van Reet uses ranch stallion Jesses Topaz as an example of how to read and refer to the brand.

A triangle on the jaw means the horse goes back to the Triangle Ranch lines.

“Jesses Topaz carries the Triangle brand on his jaw,” he says. “And he has a 94 on his shoulder. So you’d say ‘He’s a Triangle 94.’ ”

Buttock Brands

All horses on the ranch have a brand on their left buttocks. It signifies the year they were born.

“On Jesses Topaz’s backside, he has a ‘1’ so he was born in 2011,” says Van Reet. “On his right he has a ‘7.’ Every stud we use out here is assigned his own number. A ‘7’ means it’s by Mr Jess Perry.”

Sometimes the ranch breeds mares to outside stallions that don’t stand at the ranch. In that case the stallion brand is left off the horse, so the right buttock is unbranded.

The brand on the left buttock signifies the year a horse was foaled. The right-side brand indicates the sire.

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INSIGHTS

Anne W. Marion

Ranching is in the blood for the Four Sixes Ranch owner, who has overseen the family business for four decades.

Interview by SUSAN MORRISON • Photography by WYMAN MEINZER

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IKE THE AMERICAN QUARTER HORSES that roam the pastures of the Four Sixes Ranch, Anne Burnett Windfohr Marion’s family history runs deep in Guthrie, Texas. Her great-grandfather, Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett, founded the ranch. As president of Burnett Ranches, Marion is more than a manager and figurehead. Since she was a girl fondly known on the ranch as “Little Anne” (her mother, Anne Valliant Burnett Tandy, was “Miss Anne”), she has taken a strong interest in the day-to-day activities on the ranch.

Born in 1938, Marion grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and was educated at The Hockaday School in Dallas, Briarcliff College in New York, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Her philanthropic efforts have included the founding of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and she has served on boards of institutions as diverse as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Kimbell Art Museum and Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

When she took over management of the ranch in 1980, her business experience and education provided the savvy needed to keep it solvent and successful during challenging economic times. And the personal connections she established in childhood still help guide her and give her a deep understanding of the daily workings of the ranch. Marion might be equally comfortable in the city or in the saddle. But the expansive Four Sixes always felt like home, and her heart is with the land, horses and cattle, and the people who care for them.

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What are your fondest memories of growing up as part of the Four Sixes Ranch family?

The time that I spent at the 6666 Ranch as a child and young girl is high on my list as one of the most important and life-forming periods of my life. I have often said that I was raised by the cowboys. They and their families are really the ones who instilled in me a way of life and set of values, as well as how to raise livestock. They never hesitated to correct me when I was wrong or misbehaved, even as far as washing my mouth out with soap because I was cussing, to spanking me with a rope and sending me to the house. I know that it was well deserved, and those early years have lasted a lifetime.

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How did that hands-on experience impact the way you manage the ranch?

When I was young, I learned all phases of ranch life. I gathered eggs, milked cows, churned butter and ice cream. When I wasn’t riding and working cattle with the cowboys I was in the kitchen. I have been involved in all aspects of the ranch’s operation from a very early age, which is the best experience one can have.

In managing the ranch, I try to hire the best and most qualified people I can. I give them a general idea of what I want to accomplish and then give them the freedom to do what they do best. I am not a micromanager. I learned that hardships and disasters will happen. Disasters should not be a surprise. Instead, the goal is to prepare for them.

What have been the biggest changes in ranching in the past decade?

The biggest changes in the past few years in ranching have had to do with science, technology and genetics which have been embraced in our breeding operations, both with horses and cattle. The constant improvements in machinery and communications, of course, are invaluable.

Cowboys on many ranches don’t stay for long, but Four Sixes cowboys often are longtime employees.

What do you think makes them stay so long, and how does that impact the ranch’s legacy?

We have had employees that have been with us for 50 or more years. I think the reason they stay is because we give them the best lifestyle we can. Next to the land they are our most important assets, and I have always believed if you treat people right, they will in turn treat you right. I pay close attention not only to their compensation, including benefits, but I try to provide them with a good place to live and a good work environment.

I think this is helpful in the fact that the employees seem to have a good sense of continuity and seem to enjoy their jobs.

When you took over the ranch management in 1980 and hired Glenn Blodgett, DVM, what were your goals for the horse program?

Responsible stewardship of the land seems to be at the forefront of your oversight of the ranch. Why is that so important?

I had to find a veterinarian and talked to a lot of people about recommendations. Jerry Rheudasil [DVM, a racehorse breeder and longtime veterinarian at Phillips Ranch] encouraged me to interview Glenn. I was only looking for someone who would take the existing breeding stock we had and would turn it in to one of the top Quarter Horse producing ranches in the country. I thought Glenn was my guy. Have we achieved that goal? I’d like to think we have.

In any agricultural business the land is the most important asset you have, and if you don’t take care of it you have nothing. The land needs constant attention and we have a year-round program for mesquite control and water retention.

You’ve been part of the lives of some outstanding horses, including legendary Quarter Horse racing sire Dash For Cash. What horses stand out most to you?

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“ We have been blessed with many fine horses, including Streakin Six, One Famous Eagle and Mr Jess Perry. However, Dash For Cash was a big part of my life and has had a tremendous impact on the Quarter Horse industry.”

As soon as I turned my paint pony out in the horse pasture, I started riding Hollywood Gold horses. They were easy to break and train, and he sired many good cutting horses.

Hollywood would have to be one of my very favorite sires. I have heard many people say he made more cowboys than they made horses.

We have been blessed with many fine horses, including Streakin Six, One Famous Eagle and Mr Jess Perry.

However, Dash For Cash was a big part of my life and has had a tremendous impact on the Quarter Horse industry. I was there when he was born and named him, as well as being a part of his racing career and early breeding years. Ultimately he died at the 6666’s.

What does the Four Sixes brand mean to you?

It means history—the history of my family and who I am.

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Once his horse is comfortable rating a saddle horse ridden by his wife, Sara, around the arena wall, Terry Riddle will increase the level of difficulty by circling up.

HORSEMANSHIP

It Takes Two

Four Sixes Ranch head trainer Terry Riddle substitutes a saddle horse for a cow in this drill.

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Story by KATIE FRANK • Photography by ROSS HECOX

O TERRY RIDDLE, introductions are everything. As head trainer at the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, for the past three years, he wants to make sure that his 3-year-old colts are worked on cattle in a way that fosters confidence and prepares them to go down the fence.

To do that, Riddle makes sure that a young horse’s first interaction with a “cow” in preparation to go down the fence is actually with a horse instead— a saddle horse.

“I think it helps a young horse prepare to run hard and fast down the fence without taking a week or 10 days to get used to a cow,” he says.

Instead of a colt going down the fence for the first time with a cow, Riddle

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teaches the horse to rate using a saddle horse, typically ridden by his wife, Sara.

He calls instructions out to her, whether it’s to slow down, speed up or stop, and trains his horse to react appropriately.

He compares it to the way a cutter works a flag or a roping horse is ridden behind a dummy. It’s a controlled training environment that imitates real scenarios in the show pen.

This is the first year Riddle is using the exercise at home on his 3-year-olds.

Previously he used the drill only while tuning his horses at shows. Riddle and Todd Bergen, the accomplished cow horse trainer he was working for at the time, tried the exercise in Reno, Nevada, at the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity.

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

“We used a turnback horse at the show instead of going to the practice pen to go down the fence [using practice cattle],” he recalls, adding that he always takes a seasoned turnback horse to use during the herd work portion of a competition.

“One night we ended up going into the main arena and using our turnback horse,” he explains. “We really liked the way it worked on our horses. The next day, all the horses went down the fence really well.”

He says using a saddle horse gives him more control than working an unpredictable cow.

“You may draw a cow in the practice pen that’s going to run real hard, and for me, I don’t want something that’s going to make my horse think about running harder than I want him to,” he says. “I want to keep practice a little bit controlled. The likelihood of getting the ideal cow is rare.”

Since incorporating this exercise into his training program, Riddle now uses it every few days to gauge gaps in a horse’s training. He’s found his colts are ready to handle a cow after about

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Join the

Fun!

Riddle rides with a healthy space between his horse and the an older bridle horse to let them get used to “working” each other.

Before putting them on a cow, Riddle uses a saddle horse to teach his horses to rate.

seven to 10 practices with a seasoned bridle horse.

The exercise

To start the exercise, Riddle boxes the saddle horse at a slow pace. Later, he graduates to long-trotting next to the horse for a couple of laps around the pen. This allows both horses to get comfortable being next to each other, he says. Once the horses begin to long-trot in a relaxed manner, he’ll ask for a slow lope.

Riddle expects his horse to rate the saddle horse and position itself as close as possible.

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“My ultimate goal is to bury my foot in the cow’s tail. I want my horse right up against it so that cow has no option to come off that fence,” he says. “That exact position is not entirely possible with a horse, but I want to get as close as I can.

“If everything is going well, stride for stride, I’ll tell the [rider of the] bridle horse to speed up [to increase the level of difficulty].”

Next, Riddle will test his horse’s ability to rate.

“Sometimes I’ll draw my horse into the ground to let the saddle horse get away from me,” he explains. “Then I’ll

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Riddle wants his horses to stop soft and square before turning into the fence.

run to her and see if my horse will get there and rate, or see if he ducks off or runs by.”

If the horse takes the bit and runs too hard or gets out of position, Riddle draws

the horse into the ground, ensuring a soft, square stop.

“Because at the end of day, when I run, even with a cow, I want to be able to frame my horse up. Basically I want him to do

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whatever I want him to do. If I want to pick him up and scoot him over, even running that hard, I want him to be listening to me.

It helps keep me out of a wreck.”

The exercise works well for introducing a horse to circling a cow, he adds.

“A lot of times when you circle, a horse is going to drift off and away from the cow,” he says. “With me being right next to the other rider, I talk to her the entire time, asking her to speed up, slow down, come into me, go away from me.”

Calling the shots to the rider of the other horse allows Riddle to work on specific maneuvers like circling a cow.

“I’m going to encourage my horse to stay with the saddle horse, but if he continually leans out there and doesn’t get up against that horse, I’m going to aim for the hip of the saddle horse, ride by and switch sides [ from behind]. Then I’ll try and circle that way. If they bow out, I’ll switch sides again. I’ll keep riding my horse back and forth across the hip of the other horse until eventually they’ll figure

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out to stay close to the horse. If they want to get out there away from the using horse, the work and effort to get back to it becomes a self-taught deal.”

Added Benefits

Not only does this exercise work well for horses new to cattle, but it’s a fun, effective way for riders who don’t have access to cattle to practice working cow horse maneuvers.

“This would be a great exercise for non-pros because it can teach them proper position at a slow pace,” Riddle says, and advises using a seasoned mount as the saddle horse to keep things safe. And while he’s never had a horse kick out, he urges caution during the entirety of the practice session.

He’s also used it on experienced show horses that have developed improper habits, like anticipating the turn and not going to the ground before the turn.

“Horses that have gone down the fence several times sometimes start

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diving with their shoulder and don’t go into the ground strong before turning the cow,” he explains. “To fix that, I’ll run up beside the [saddle horse] and draw him into the ground without turning him. I’ll do that a few times and give the horse the opportunity to go into the ground himself before I help him by drawing [the reins].

“If he’s real bad about leaning, I’ll turn him 360 degrees away from the [saddle horse] after I stop him. This helps him stay pure and honest down the fence.”

The exercises also gives the horses a challenge.

“We’re always switching things up and it’s never the same,” Sara says. “We have to stop in the arena at different places, turn both directions, and do everything at the whim of the other rider.”

Riddle says he’s excited to see the progress his Four Sixes horses make by using the exercise at home and not just when they go to town. He hopes it establishes form first in his horses.

W EstER N H O R sEM A N

“It always seems like there’s a week or 10-day period during which the colt gets rattled seeing the cattle run so hard, especially in our big pen outside—it’s like 200 by 400 feet. I found cattle will run too hard for young horses, even the burnedout cutting calves,” he says.

“This transition into working cattle using a saddle horse first gives horses confidence faster.”

OUR EXPERT Terry riddle has been the head trainer at the Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, since 2016. He starts and trains horses exclusively for the ranch. Riddle has had much success in the show pen and won the 2018 American Quarter Horse Association Ranching Heritage Challenge open 4-year-old and 5- and 6-yearold working ranch horse classes in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition, he has been a finalist in the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity open and limited classes.

Before moving to Guthrie with his wife, Sara, Riddle worked for million-dollar riders such as cutting horse trainer Eddie Flynn and reined cow horse trainer Todd Bergen.

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WESTERN ART

TOP: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF WAYNE BAIZE

Tom Ryan submitted the painting Sharing An Apple for use in a Western art calendar in the mid-1960s and to sell at his first Cowboy Artists of America Sale and Exhibition in 1967.

Featuring Four Sixes cowboy Sheep Marrow, the painting became one of Ryan’s most famous works.

Ranch Life Representations

Steeped in stories and scenes of working cowboys, the Four Sixes Ranch has become a favorite place for Western artists to paint.

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URROUNDED BY SPACIOUS skies, vast pastures, goodlooking horses and hard-working cowboys who hold onto tradition, the Four Sixes Ranch has all of the elements of an epic Western painting.

Through the years, its mystique has drawn the most prestigious Western artists of all mediums to portray slices of everyday life on the ranch. There’s no mistaking the iconic barn or green wagon with the ranch brand painted on it in the background of a painting, or some of the most storied cowboys in Texas as subjects in art.

Painter Tom Ryan, who was from Illinois and attended art school at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and then the Art Students League in New York City, first visited the ranch in 1963, and it became a pivotal point in shaping his professional career as a Western artist. Prior to that

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By JENNIFER DENISON

time, he painted primarily historical themes but also created more than 300 Western book covers and illustrations in the 1950s and early ’60s. But after spending three weeks on the ranch that year, he became engrossed in depicting contemporary cowboy life, particularly the life of working cowboys on the Four Sixes Ranch.

He spent three to four months a year on the ranch during the next several decades, taking black-and-white photographs for reference material, and sketching and painting from life.

Ryan submitted his early works—including his most recognizable painting, Sharing An Apple—to Brown & Bigelow to be used in the company’s Western art calendar in the mid-1960s. In 1967, the artist became a member of the Cowboy Artists of America and moved from Springfield, Illinois, to Lubbock, Texas, to be closer to the ranch.

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

“Tom invited me to the CA show that year [1967], and he had entered Sharing An Apple,” recalls Wayne Baize, a CA artist

Ryan was an avid painter of the Four Sixes Ranch for more than 40 years and set the standard for other artists painting scenes from the ranch.

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latter was based on a retrospective exhibition of Ryan’s work at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in the fall of 2001.

Ryan opened the gate for his fellow CA artists to have an opportunity to experience life on the ranch and paint there.

Through the years, the CA has held its annual trail ride on the ranch several times, and artists such as Baize, Tim Cox, the late Bill Owen, Bruce Green and Jason Rich have created paintings focused on the ranch’s cowboys and horses. The ranch commissioned CA member Mikel Donahue of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to

TOP LEFT: During his visits to the Four Sixes, Ryan took many black-and-white photographs. This one of Bobby Thompson was used as reference for the painting Noon Break. TOP: Ryan’s painting Sixty Years in the Saddle depicts longtime Four Sixes cowboy Porter Myers driving a herd of Herefords.

paint some of its top racehorse stallions, including Streakin Six and Mr Jess Perry.

“The first time I went out there for round-up was in 1968, but I’d gone to some colt brandings there before that,” says Baize. “I grew up close to the Swenson Ranch near Stamford, Texas,

TOP PHOTOS: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM; BOTTOM LEFT AND RIGHT: COURTESY OF BRUCE GREEN

from Fort Davis, Texas. “Back then the show was at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma [now the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum]. I’d been to his house prior to the show and Sharing An Apple was on his easel. I couldn’t believe someone could paint so well.”

The majority of Ryan’s body of work was based on the Four Sixes Ranch and became the subject of the books Tom Ryan: A Painter in Four Sixes Country, by Dean Krakel, and The Brotherhood of Man: Tom Ryan and the Cowboys of the 6666 Ranch, by Susan Hallsten McGarry. The

LEFT: Winds of Promise, by Bruce Green, will be featured in the CA’s 54th Annual Sale and Exhibition in Fort Worth, Texas, the first weekend in November.

RIGHT: Green painted Tied Hard to Tradition after branding cattle in a box canyon on the Four Sixes Ranch.

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TOP TO BOTTOM: Managing Men, Land and Cattle, by Wayne Baize, shows Four Sixes Ranch manager Joe Leathers. • Springtime in West Texas, by Tyler Crow, is based on a photo Crow took of a group of Four Sixes mares. The youngest member of the CA, Crow hopes to one day carry on the tradition of painting on the Four Sixes. • This painting of the stallion Sixes Pick by the late Bill Owen belongs to the ranch.

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TOP DOWN: COURTESY OF WAYNE BAIZE; COURTESY OF TYLER CROW; ROSS HECOX

and I remember the Pitchfork and Four Sixes ranches bringing their chuckwagons down for the Texas Cowboy Reunion and parade. When you think of Texas ranches you think about the Four Sixes, the history and tradition of it. If you work for the ‘Sixes’ you’re a cowboy!”

Green, of Clifton, Texas, first visited the ranch in 1995 for the CA trail ride. He’s been back several times and is arguably a premier painter of the Four Sixes today.

“My biggest awareness of the ranch came through the legacy of Tom Ryan and seeing the work he did there, and that the [cowboys] are still out there doing it the way they always have,” says Green. “He was the first artist to do a large body of work from there and let the world know what life at the Four Sixes was like. I hope to continue that legacy. We document a lifestyle, and I don’t think people realize things are still being done the same way they were a hundred years ago. There’s a culture out there that the world isn’t aware of, and it’s purposeful for me to document that [on the Four Sixes].”

Green’s work is apparent throughout the ranch. His painting Tied Hard to Tradition hangs in the dining room where the cowboys eat. It depicts a branding scene in a box canyon on the ranch.

“During a CA trail ride we gathered some cattle into a box canyon and roped and branded them without corrals, just using the canyon to hold them,” Green remembers.

Near the Four Sixes Supply House is a metal silhouette ranch owner Anne Marion asked Green to make a couple of years ago. In return she traded a son of Royal Fletch out of a Tanquery Gin daughter, and Green still rides that horse today.

One of Green’s latest paintings, Winds of Promise, will be for sale during the CA’s 54th annual sale and exhibition, November 1-2 at the Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibit Hall in

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LEFT: COURTESY OF WAYNE BAIZE; RIGHT: COURTESY OF BRUCE GREEN

Fort Worth, Texas. It depicts Four Sixes mares and colts in a pasture.

Green’s protégé and the youngest member of the CA, Tyler Crow of Hico, Texas, says he hopes he can someday carry the torch of documenting the ranch in artwork. Some of his fondest childhood memories are visiting the ranch with his father, Rick, and younger brother, Tanner, to deliver bits and spurs built by his father for Four Sixes cowboys. Even today, when he passes through Guthrie, Texas, he still stops at the Supply House.

“I think of all the cowboys who have walked through that door and it makes me want to travel back in time to meet them,” he says. “I have so much respect for the cowboys there and how they stick to tradition, and the horses, well, they’re some of the best in the industry.”

Passing by the ranch a few years ago, Crow saw some of the ranch’s mares in a pasture and took a photo from the road.

That photo was the impetus for his painting Springtime in West Texas.

“The mares were so good looking standing there, and I couldn’t help but take a photo and do a painting of them,” he says. “I hope I did them justice.”

Rooted in tradition, the Four Sixes Ranch is Mecca for artists seeking to chronicle ranching culture. Through the work of Ryan and other artists, and those waiting for their chance, the cowboys and the beauty of the horses remain timeless.

LEFT: Baize has painted several pieces based on his decades of experiences at the Four Sixes, including The Legend Goes On, depicting a branding scene with longtime Four Sixes cowboy Boots O’Neal holding the iron.

RIGHT: The Watchin’ Grey, by Green, appeared on the cover of the August 2016 issue of Western Horseman and shows cowboy Justin Johnson roping horses from the remuda.

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WESTERN

STOPS

Four Sixes Supply House

Story and photography

by KATE BRADLEY BYARS

LOCATION: Guthrie, Texas

DON’T MISS: The giant arrow marking a stop on the 52-county Quanah Parker Trail across the plains that tells the story of the Comanche warrior, who was a friend of Four Sixes Ranch founder Burk Burnett. Find the list at quanahparkertrail.com.

ICONIC VIEW: From the parking lot, the Four Sixes’ historic “L” barn is visible atop the next hill.

STAPLES & SOUVENIRS: Fuel up and pick up snacks and other travel staples, and don’t forget to buy Four Sixes souvenirs such as ball caps, T-shirts and a coffee table book.

FUN FACT: There are original items still in the store, such as the cabinets with ornate molding, the silver cash register with the Burnett name on it, and a black iron wood stove that still warms the store.

FOR INFORMATION: 806-596-4459; 6666ranch. com/en/supplyhouse.

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ABOVE LEFT: The red painted rock walls denote the Four Sixes Supply House as an integral part of the famed ranch. ABOVE RIGHT: T-shirts and caps are among the most popular souvenirs at the store. BELOW: Cashier Jamie Green rings up sales, provides ranch information and offers driving directions.

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HERE ARE NO STOPLIGHTS in Guthrie, Texas, but the bright red sign proclaiming the Four Sixes SSupply upply House beckons travelers and locals to take a break on the porch, fuel up or grab a snack. With no other places in King County to get fuel and the closest town 30 miles down the road, the Four Sixes Supply House is a lifeline for ranch hands and visitors alike.

When Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett moved headquarters to his Four Sixes Ranch to Guthrie around 1900, he opened the supply house to provide food, clothing and services such as banking for his employees. For some time, Burnett kept an office at the store and even slept in the back room. Stocked with leather goods, tobacco, ammunition, Stetson hats Guthrie, Texas and other items, the store was a target for thieves. Today, the store is sought for candy or the top 1m souvenir purchase, a baseball cap Dallas, TX 24 bearing the ranch’s famous brand.

Tulsa, OK 360 The Supply House functions as a m meeting place, grocery, souvenir 8m shop and much more for the Denver, CO 60 community.

“I’ve worked here about 10 years Albuquerque, NM 415m off and on. The locals come in at W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: The Supply House sells staples needed for everyday living in King County and souvenirs for ranch visitors. • The three small shopping carts in the store are well used by locals who make weekly shopping runs down the single aisle of food items. Along the back wall are coolers for items that need to be frozen or refrigerated. • Visitors can take a trip down memory lane with the original silver-plated cash register from the early 1900s.

the last minute for hamburger buns or some quick items. I know most everyone, especially the kids,” says cashier Jamie Green. “After school, the kids come in for their snacks. Some kids have limits on what they can get, such as one drink or snack, and we charge it to their parents.”

While many locals still have charge accounts, Green says she sees her fair share of travelers who come for gas and a snack, but then also buy a ranch souvenir. She often fields questions about the ranch, making her an unofficial tour guide.

“The two most popular questions are how many acres [comprise the ranch, 275,000] and if [Burnett] really won the ranch with a poker hand of four sixes, AuguS T 2019

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which is a tall tale, but the poker game is interesting,” she says. “During the Return to the Remuda Sale, we see people from all over [the world].

I’ve met people from South America and England.”

When not hosting travelers from afar, the 286 residents in King County rely on the store for staples, such as milk, eggs, bread, medications, gasoline, and fruit and vegetables. The far side of the store contains hardware, with everything needed to repair tractors, trucks or homes.

Don’t blink at the intersection of Highway 83 and Highway 82 or you could miss the red-and-white sign welcoming visitors to stop for their taste of the Four Sixes Ranch lifestyle.

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Sons of Burnett

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Will Wallendorf brings in the Four Sixes remuda during branding at Dixon Creek.

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Through the twists and turns of its 100-plus years of history, the Four Sixes Ranch has thrived in the hands of its skilled cowboy crews.

By ROSS HECOX

August 2019

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who at age 30 has recently begun managing this Dixon Creek division located near Panhandle, Texas, sips another cup of coffee in silence.

The crew also includes day-workers and neighboring ranchers. Though their ages vary, the cowboys have worked at enough brandings to appreciate where they are, and understand that a chuckwagon accompanied by cowboy teepees and a large remuda has become a rare sight these days. Even the Four Sixes hasn’t always pulled out a wagon each spring.

Ranching operations have changed through time, some things for the better, some for the worse, and some for a little of both. Trucks, trailers and smartphones make cowboys more efficient, but potentially less in tune with the land and livestock. Electronic identification tags and all-natural beef programs require more procedures and data entry, but they increase the value of a calf crop. Improved genetics result in more manageable cows and more trainable horses, and no one complains about that. Market fluctuations W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

and recurring drought make raising cattle a stomach-churning business.

Through thick and thin, one of the constants on the Four Sixes has been the caliber of its cowboys and their love for the Western way of life.

“This ranch is very progressive,” says Joe Leathers, general manager of the Four Sixes. “But we’re also traditional. We do things horseback because it’s still the best way to do it.”

JONES LEADS THE CREW through a gate and six miles to the south. Riding in single-file, the cowboys trot across an open, treeless plain cut by the winding, oft-times dry East Dixon Creek. Unlike the country surrounding Guthrie, Texas—170 miles to the south and where the Sixes headquarters is located—the Dixon Creek terrain is largely devoid of trees and brush.

But for all its emptiness, the land holds a rich history. A few miles to the north, Comanche and Kiowa tribes often wintered in the Canadian River breaks. The East Dixon joins Dixon Creek on the ranch

COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

D DIM LIGHT UNDER THE CHUCKWAGON FLY reveals steam rising from an enamel coffee pot. It casts curvy shadows across wide-brimmed, sweatstained hats, and reflects off of one pair of silver spurs bearing the 6666 brand and resting on the heels of tall-top boots.

The orange glow also falls on the faces of 19 cowboys waiting for daylight. Their hushed tones after breakfast almost make this a hallowed moment, shortly before they begin saddling horses and strike out to begin another day of spring works at the Four Sixes Ranch.

Their tanned, wind-tempered faces offer details on working for one of the most storied cattle outfits in Texas. Boots O’Neal’s grin accentuates creases well earned during the 86-year-old’s sevenplus decades as a cowpuncher. Stoney Jones, the wagon boss who is about half O’Neal’s age, maintains an intense gaze and seems to be mulling the particulars of leading the day’s drive. Dusty Burson,

An undated photo captures Four Sixes cowboys roping horses out of the remuda.

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COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

Nation and grazed his herd through the winter in Indian Territory. The next year, he sold his cattle for a $10,000 profit.

During the 1880s, as the cattle drive era came to an end, North Texas rangelands became overgrazed, and drought ruined many fledgling cow-calf operations, Burnett negotiated an agreement with legendary Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, leasing 300,000 acres of grassland north of the Red River in Indian Territory. There, he ran 10,000 head of cattle and assigned his teenage son, Thomas Loyd “Tom” Burnett, to work there and in later years manage the Indian Territory unit of the Four Sixes.

At the turn of the century, federal legislation related to acquiring tribal lands for white settlement was effectively putting an end to grazing in Indian Territory, despite opposition from both Comanches and cattlemen. Burnett visited President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., and lobbied successfully for more time for him and other Texas cattlemen to find alternate grazing lands.

By 1902, he had purchased the 8 Ranch near Guthrie and the Dixon Creek Ranch near Panhandle, and the two properties, combined with later land purchases, amounted to more than 300,000 acres.

He established the Guthrie division as headquarters and in 1917 built an 11-bedroom mansion there. Built with stone quarried from the ranch, the $100,000 building was designed to house his ranch manager and entertain guests. Burnett,

Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett

1849 – Samuel “Burk” Burnett is born to Jeremiah “Jerry” and Mary Turner Burnett in Bates County, Missouri. The family eventually relocates to Denton County, Texas, where Jerry enters the cattle business.

1868* – Going into business on his own at age 19, Burk buys 100 head of cattle along with the title to the brand they wear, “6666.”

1869 – Burk marries first wife Ruth Loyd, daughter of M.B. Loyd, an influential Fort Worth, Texas, banker. They have three children; only one son lives to adulthood: Thomas “Tom” Loyd Burnett, born in 1871.

1881 – Burk establishes his ranching operation headquarters near Wichita Falls, Texas. He had purchased his original ranch horses from his father-in-law; they carried a left shoulder “L” brand, which he adopts for the Four Sixes horses.

Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and Tom Burnett

1885 – Severe drought plagues Texas, and ranchers begin seeking grazing country northward. Burk negotiates grazing leases from the Comanche in Indian Territory, a practice that continues until the turn of the century. The agreement forges a lasting friendship between the Burnett family and Comanche Chief Quanah Parker.

Boots O’Neal drags a calf to the fire.

The 86-year-old cowpuncher began working for the Four Sixes in 1990.

ross hecox

COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES ranch

COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

and near the dugout of famed buffalo hunter and scout Billy Dixon. Under siege with other hunters at the Adobe Walls trading post, built some 30 miles to the northeast, Dixon turned the tide in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874 with a 1,000-yard shot that dropped a Comanche warrior from his horse.

In 1921, oil was discovered on the Dixon Creek division of the Four Sixes, leading to a historic oil boom that lasted nearly 50 years.

The discovery no doubt added to the fortune of owner Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett.

However, at the time the noted rancher had already established a cattle empire through shrewd business dealings, innovative management practices and cowboy grit.

In 1866, at age 17, Burnett was hired to help drive a herd of cattle from Texas to markets in Kansas. When he was 19 he again pointed a herd of Longhorns north, this time as the trail boss, driving 1,200 head of his father’s cattle along the Chisholm Trail. That same year, 1868, he purchased 100 head of cattle from Frank Crowley of Denton County, Texas. He also acquired ownership of the 6666 brand they wore, and that led to the name of his ranch, the Four Sixes.

Burnett soon began purchasing land 125 miles northwest of Fort Worth, Texas, and he continued to drive cattle north and demonstrate his cattle market savvy. In 1873, he arrived in Wichita, Kansas, with another herd, only to find that the beef market had collapsed. Instead of selling for a loss, he arranged to lease land from the Osage

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1891 – Tom marries Olive “Ollie” Lake; they have one daughter, Anne Valliant, “Miss Anne,” born in 1900 and named for Tom’s sister, who died young.

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1898 – Burk begins purchasing additional grazing land, including the old 8 Ranch in King County, Texas. He eventually establishes the Four Sixes headquarters in Guthrie, the county seat.

1902 – Burk acquires the Dixon Creek Ranch, 110,000 acres in Hutchinson County in the Texas Panhandle.

1910 – Tom purchases the Triangle Ranches near Iowa Park and Paducah, Texas, and will add ranches to it in coming decades.

He raises his own herd of horses, branded with the Triangle brand.

Four Sixes main house

1917 – Burnett builds the ranch’s main house in Guthrie, spending $100,000 and using stone quarried on the ranch. The 11-bedroom home hosts visitors such as President Theodore Roosevelt and entertainer Will Rogers.

COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM

1921 – Oil is discovered at Dixon Creek, leading to a major oil boom in the Texas Panhandle. In later years, oil also comes in at the Triangle and the Four Sixes’ headquarters division in Guthrie.

Anne Burnett Tandy

1922 – Burk dies, leaving the Four Sixes in the care of trustees for his great-granddaughter, who would be born in 1938.

1932 – George Humphreys, who began working for the ranch in 1919, takes over as Four Sixes ranch manager, a position he will hold for the next 38 years.

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when visiting from his residence in Fort Worth, stayed in the back room of the rudimentary Four Sixes Supply House.

Burnett’s only surviving son, Tom, showed the same propensity for land and livestock.

In addition to proving himself at a young age as a skilled cowboy and manager on the Indian Territory unit, he began running his own cow herd on land leased from his father. In 1910 he acquired the 26,000-acre Triangle Ranch, located near Wichita Falls, Texas, about 100 miles east of Guthrie. In 1912 he inherited one fourth of the estate of his maternal grandfather, successful Fort Worth cattleman and banker Martin B. Loyd, and Tom continued to expand his holdings until he owned 100,000 acres.

In 1918 or 1919 (records vary), Tom divorced his first wife, Olive Lake, a move that displeased his father, who thought highly of Lake. Subsequently, Tom’s involvement with the Four Sixes remained at a distance for years. When Burk Burnett died in 1922, his will left his estate in a trust, and provided that it be inherited by his future great-grandchild. When Tom died in 1938, his and Lake’s only child, Anne Valliant Burnett Tandy, inherited the Triangle Ranch.

Like her father, “Miss Anne” took a keen interest in cattle and horses, and she was instrumental in the formation of the American Quarter Horse Association in 1940.

Miss Anne’s only child, Anne Windfohr Marion, was born in 1938. (Interestingly, Anne Marion also has one child, Anne “Windi” Phillips Grimes, and Windi has one child, Hallie Grimes.) As a girl, “Little Anne” spent summers on the Four Sixes. She has W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

often said that growing up on the ranch was one of the most important things that happened to her. The cowboys weren’t afraid to discipline her, and the work and experiences kept her “feet on the ground,” she once said. When her mother died in 1980, Anne Marion inherited both the Triangle Ranch and the Four Sixes. She became Burk Burnett’s first descendant involved in management of the Four Sixes, and her leadership has earned her numerous honors, including induction into the AQHA Hall of Fame, the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and the National Cowboy &Western Heritage Museum’s Hall of Great Westerners.

The cowboys appreciate her active interest in the well-being of the ranch’s horses, cattle, land and employees. Although Boots O’Neal didn’t begin working for Marion until 1990, he met her in 1956, when he was 24 and she was 18.

“I was at the rodeo in Stamford riding broncs, and one morning in the café [Four Sixes manager] George Humphreys came in with Anne and introduced us,” he recalls. “A few years ago I told her in front of a bunch of people, ‘I remember meeting you when you were 18 years old.’ And I told that story. She said, ‘Did it make your heart flutter?’ And I said, ‘It dang sure did. You was really pretty, and I had no idea you was rich.’ Two or three of the men told me afterward that I was the only man who could tell her something like that. But she just laughed.

“She loved to dance back then at rodeo dances. And I’ve danced with her a lot. I always tell her it kinda made me feel like a male Cinderella dancing with her.”

FRANK REEVES, COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST COLLECTION/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

KATIE FRANK

Legendary manager George Humphreys (standing) speaks to his men, including (from left) Dick Harper, Porter Myers, Pockets Crawford, Lathem Withers, Tobe Robertson, Seth Woods and Royce McLaury.

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FRANK REEVES, COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST COLLECTION/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

Joe Hancock

1930s* – Tom acquires quarter racing

Bawling Black Angus cows and calves approach a set of pens near East Dixon Creek. While the crew holds the herd outside of the corrals, Jones and Four Sixes camp man Cole Hatfield, Reggie’s son, slip into the black sea of cattle and start sorting out dry cows. After moving Augus t 2019

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COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

them into the corrals, they separate the calves and begin heeling and dragging them to the propane-fueled “branding fire.”

All of the cowboys—including day workers and two boys from a neighboring ranch— take turns doing the more enjoyable job of roping. Two ropers work at the same time while the rest of the crew stays busy on the ground, flanking, branding, vaccinating, castrating and deworming heavy calves.

The men don’t mind getting grass stains and mud on their jeans—it beats working in the dusty, dry conditions more typical of this climate. Both the Guthrie and Dixon Creek divisions have received record rainfall this spring, blanketing pastures in a coat of lush green grasses and filling dirt stock tanks to the brim.

“I’ve been here 20 years, and I know guys that have been here 30, and we’ve never seen this country look this good,” Leathers says.

It’s a stark contrast to how the ranch looked just five years ago. A historic drought that began in 2011 decimated ranches throughout Texas and in surrounding states. As water reservoirs dried up and pastures turned from green to brown, the Four Sixes and other area ranches began shipping brood cows to northern ranges. It was a monumental move with plenty of complications.

“Anne was heavily involved in the decisions,” Leathers recalls. “She remembered the drought of the 1950s, and at that time the Sixes got rid of a lot of cows. She thought that was a mistake. Anne felt like moving cattle up north was the option that

1938 – Tom dies, leaving the Triangle Ranch, and its cattle and horses, to Miss Anne. A daughter is born to Miss Anne and her husband, James Goodwin Hall—Anne Valliant Burnett Hall is called “Little Anne” as a child.

George Humphreys on Hollywood Gold

1939 – Triangle Lady 17 is bred to the palomino stallion Gold Rush. The next year she foals a dun colt the ranch names Hollywood Gold. Miss Anne gives him to Humphreys to use at the Four Sixes.

1940 – Miss Anne hosts a meeting of Quarter Horse breeders at her home in Fort Worth, the result of which is the official founding of the American Quarter Horse Association. Her husband, James Hall, is elected treasurer.

1949 – Breeder Walter Merrick sells his homebred racehorse Grey Badger II, by Midnight Jr, to Miss Anne, who uses him on the Triangle.

COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

O’Neal adds that under Marion’s ownership, cowboys and other employees enjoy good benefits, from updated housing to affordable health insurance and company vehicles.

“The best 30 years of my life have been here,” he says. “Of all the big bosses that I’ve worked under, Anne has been the most consistent in making sure you’re doing alright. She takes care of cowboys and their families. After Anne took over the Sixes, she really progressed things on the ranch. People who work for the ranch stay in nice houses, and the ranch has some of the best facilities—good fences and pens that work well.”

Reggie Hatfield, the wagon boss at headquarters, is in his second stint with the Four Sixes, leaving in 1999 to work for another outfit before returning in 2005.

“I was offered a ‘greener pasture deal,’ and like a dummy I took it,” he says. “It didn’t turn out too good. I was lucky enough to get to come back and take the wagon boss job.

I’ve worked at some really good ranches, but this one is just a step above, in my opinion, from the pickups to the houses, the horses and the cattle. They take care of their employees, and [Guthrie] is a good place to raise a family.”

ROSS HECOX

FRANK REEVES, COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST COLLECTION/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

Cowboys enjoy the sunset during the Four Sixes spring works in 2016.

speedster Joe Hancock to use on the Triangle Ranch broodmares. The stallion dies on the ranch in 1943.

Cee Bars

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1956 – Humphreys purchases Cee Bars, a stallion by Three Bars (TB) and out of Chicaro Annie C by Chicaro Bill. He is the only stallion the ranch manager purchases for the ranch.

ABOVE: Porter Myers and Lathem Withers hang out at the chuckwagon while cook Sprout Robison works at the chuck box.

1967 – Ranch stallion Double Devil wins a grand championship at the All American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio.

His get include ranch homebred mare Go Effortlessly, dam of champion racehorse Special Effort.

1977 – Triangle mare Miss Assured by Little Request (TB) foals a chestnut colt by ranch stallion Easy Six. Raced by Miss Anne, Streakin Six enters the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2011.

COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

1978 – Miss Anne founds the $200 million charitable Burnett Foundation.

Anne Windfohr Marion

1980 – Miss Anne dies and her daughter, Anne Windfohr Marion, assumes management of the Four Sixes and Triangle. She eventually sells the Triangle but keeps the brand, which continues to be used on the horses tracing to its herd.

1982 – Anne Marion hires Glenn Blodgett, DVM, as Four Sixes Ranch veterinarian.

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RIGHT: Joe Leathers, who joined the Four Sixes Ranch in 1998, became its sixth manager in 2008.

was best for the ranch, the environment and the employees. We talked about the financial impact, and she said, ‘Well, we’re gonna bite the bullet.’ ” The drought hit Guthrie hard. The ranch downsized its horse program significantly, selling dozens of mares in 2011, cutting expenses, and eventually reducing its broodmare band from 130 to 65 head.

Trucks continued shipping cattle north, and by 2013 the only bovine on the 160,000 acres surrounding headquarters was a lonely Angus bull. The Four Sixes leased as many as nine ranches at one time in states such as Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.

The ranch built a steel-sided, rubber-tired, street-legal gooseneck chuckwagon and sent crews north for spring and fall works.

The tricky logistics of branding and shipping calves remotely included coordinating works with brand inspectors, far-flung large-animal veterinarians, and truck drivers operating under new government restrictions. Some fences and corrals on leased properties required extensive repair.

When back home, cowboys kept busy fixing and improving facilities, cleaning out and building new stock tanks, and training horses. As rains returned in 2014 and 2015, the ranch began restocking its Texas pastures with purchased 2-year-old first-calf heifers. In the early part of 2015, cowboys were checking on 3,500 calving heifers twice a day.

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“Restocking may not seem like a big deal to a lot of people, but it is,” Reggie Hatfield says. “It’s seven days a week of prowling 3,500 head of heifers. Some heifers don’t dilate during birth as good, and some of them aren’t natural mothers, so they might have a calf and then walk off. The next year we did 2,500 heifers, last year we did about 1,500 head, and this year we did 800 to 900.”

“Twice a day we checked on them, and we couldn’t keep them in a small trap,” Burson adds. “When you have to keep them in a 9,000- or 10,000-acre pasture, it’s not like you’re just going to drive out there and look at them real quick. It was a lot of riding. But we sure made a lot of good horses doing that.”

The Four Sixes continues to run cattle on four ranches in Wyoming and on another in Nevada. However, those leases expire this fall, and at that point the ranch will bring home its best cows and liquidate the rest.

Leathers is looking forward to it.

TOP: FRANK REEVES, COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST COLLECTION/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY; BOTTOM: ROSS HECOX

Double Devil

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Cattle work that began at 5:30 this morning is completed a little before 11.

Shortly thereafter the crew gathers under the wagon fly one last time for dinner, as this is the final day of spring works.

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ROSS HECOX

With their plates cleaned and bellies full, the men break down their teepees, roll their bedrolls and pack up the chuckwagon. Next, eight of them, including Burson, Jones and O’Neal, mount up to move the remuda back to headquarters at Dixon Creek.

The 75 bays, grays, palominos, sorrels and roans filter through a rocky canyon created by the East Dixon. The beauty of the scene isn’t lost on the men, who swing their loops in the air and sit just a little straighter in the saddle.

O’Neal recalls staying out with the wagon year-round, seven days a week, in his younger days working for the historic Waggoner Ranch in Texas. Since he arrived at the Four Sixes, pulling out the wagon has been sporadic. With improved roads, smaller pastures, and better pickups and stock trailers, using a chuckwagon is no longer as necessary as it once was. Still, there have been times that camping out made sense, such as on leases in the north country.

The Four Sixes didn’t pull out a wagon at headquarters earlier this spring, but needing to hire a cook anyway helped Burson justify its use for two weeks on Dixon Creek.

“I think it’s good for the morale of the crew,” Burson says. “Otherwise, people just work and then go home, and they don’t ever just hang out. One of my main reasons was I think it brings everybody together.

“Not everyone has a bedroll and teepee, so I left staying on the wagon optional.

But most of the guys were excited about doing it. Boots was probably more excited than anybody.

“You know, you can say that it also saves tires and fuel, but I think if we’re all really honest we’d say that we just wanted to do it because that’s the way they used to do it.

We want to keep that tradition going.”

Today’s Four Sixes cowboys try to follow longstanding ranching traditions and cowboy codes. On gathers, they trot out in single-file led by the drive boss, and then line out and stay in their assigned positions while bringing in the herd. They don’t cut in front of each other. When the wagon boss is roping horses out of the remuda, no one leaves to saddle his horse until everyone’s horse is caught.

Reggie Hatfield appreciates the tradition that any horse assigned to a

The iconic L Barn

1990 – AQHA inducts Miss Anne into its Hall of Fame. Anne Marion receives that honor in 2007.

1993 –Champion racing stallions Dash For Cash and Streakin Six move to the Four Sixes, later to be joined by Special Effort. For the first time in its history, the Four Sixes breeding services are open to the public. In addition, the ranch receives the AQHA Best Remuda Award acknowledging its production of outstanding ranch horses.

1996 – After leasing the stallion for three seasons, the ranch purchases Tanquery Gin, by Doc O’Lena and out of Gin Echols by Ed Echols.

1997 - The Four Sixes holds its first Return to the Remuda Sale, partnering with neighboring ranches, Beggs Cattle Co. and Pitchfork Land & Cattle Co. 2005 – Four Sixes homebred stallion Playin Attraction, by Playin Stylish and out of Ginnin Attraction by Tanquery Gin, finishes reserve in the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity Open.

ROSS HECOX

TOP: FRANK REEVES, COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST COLLECTION/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY; BOTTOM: ROSS HECOX

“Our intent was never to go up north and stay permanently,” he says. “It was historic when we moved cattle up north because it never had been done before.

And it’s going to be historic when we come home because we’re ready to come home.

“I was asked, ‘If you went into another drought like that, would you move all those cattle again like you did?’ I would probably change the way we did it in some ways. But we were able to hold our genetics together, and hold our employees together. It was for the best of the ranch, the ranch families, and the school here in Guthrie. But we’re a lot smarter now because of the experience. I’m doing my best to prepare for another drought, because we will have another one at some point.”

The effort didn’t go unnnoticed. In 2014 the ranch received the Outstanding Rangeland Stewardship Award from the Texas Section of the Society for Rangeland Management. Leathers says the experience also spurred the ranch to adopt electronic identification (EID) tags and upgrade its tracking and verification procedures. The ranch markets all-natural and non-hormone-treated cattle (NHTC). Currently, it runs about 7,000 mother cows on its two divisions in Texas, which encompass approximately 270,000 acres. The ranch also preconditions yearlings at Dixon Creek, and utilizes another division in the Texas Panhandle to background its weaned calves before shipping them to market.

Leathers holds leadership positions with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Texas Animal Health Commission, and he says those roles fall in line with the ranch’s philosophy on contributing to the ranching community.

“This ranch is very progressive, not just in our cattle genetics and horse genetics,” he says. “We try to be progressive within the industry as a whole, because if you’re given the knowledge and ability, then I think you’re required to pass that on and make things better for the next generation. To whom much is given, much is required. That’s my outlook.”

Sixes Pick and Chance O’Neal

2008 – Ranch-raised stallion Sixes Pick,

by Tanquery Gin and out of Natural Pick by Tenino Badger, wins the first AQHA versatility ranch horse open world championship at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado.

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Dusty Burson manages the Dixon Creek division.

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“I’m the sixth manager of the ranch, which is astounding to me,” Leathers says.

Jones adds that he and other cowboys look up to those legendary men who worked on the Four Sixes in past decades.

He and O’Neal both mention Carl “Bigun” Bradley, a former wagon boss who also was a “Marlboro Man,” photographed for Marlboro cigarette ads from 1963 to 1970.

“I think about some of the old-time cowboys that I kinda wish I would have got to work with,” Jones says. “Of course, Boots is still here. I don’t think Boots will ever quit going. But working pretty much the same way they did, and making the same tracks that they did is pretty cool.”

Whether born in the 1930s or 1990s, the Four Sixes cowboys aren’t oblivious to the ranch’s roots that trace to 1868, when at age 19 Burk Burnett didn’t only purchase a herd of 6666-branded cattle, but also displayed the skill and determination to lead a cattle drive through Indian Territory and into Kansas. It established a working cowboy legacy that continues to this day, and Leathers points out that it goes beyond the ability to ride, rope and handle cattle.

“I think we’ve got one of the most talented crews in the United States, and I don’t say that arrogantly,” Leathers says.

“I’m just stating what I believe is fact. I don’t know of any other place you can go where you have as many men that are considered above average horseback.

But when I hire someone, I’m looking for character. And I’ve been very lucky that the men I work with are all men of character.”

ROSS HECOX is editor in chief of Western Horseman. Send comments on this story to edit@westernhorseman.com.

ROSS HECOX

cowboy’s string, although technically owned by the ranch, is regarded as if it is owned by that cowboy.

“That horse is yours from the time you’re here until the time you leave,” he says. “It’s just like it belongs to you.”

Each spring, Four Sixes cowboys get together and take turns selecting a ranch-raised 2-year-old to add to their strings. Managers pick first, and then the crew goes in order by seniority.

“It’s a pretty exciting day,” Jones says.

“Maybe you’ve ridden some half-brothers to one of the colts in there. Some guys have been here long enough that they know the mares they want foals out of.

And you get excited about these different crosses that ‘Doc’ [horse manager Glenn Blodgett, DVM] is making. And you might ride one horse for awhile and think, ‘Man, I wonder what would happen if he bred the mare to a different stud.’ And then the next year it might be where there is one bred that way, and you get a chance to pick him. It’s a neat deal to get another young horse and see if you can make another good one.”

The cowboys are pleased the ranch still makes versatile horses a priority. O’Neal says the horses have helped keep plenty of cowboys on the payroll.

“That horse program holds some of the men here,” O’Neal says. “They might have had a chance to go somewhere else, but they didn’t want to leave these horses.”

Long tenure seems to be typical. O’Neal and Reggie Hatfield have both worked for the ranch for nearly 30 years. Ron Lewis manned South Camp in Guthrie for 30 years. Legendary manager George Humphreys stayed for 52 years.

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My Horses Worst Nightmare Shortly after purchasing my gelding I had him checked by several vets, we took x-rays and that told the story – it was My Horses Worst Nightmare!

I tried all of the conventional treatments, but there was no improvement and was told that without surgery he would soon have to be destroyed.

ROSS HECOX

Miracles Can Happen

The Four Sixes remuda is introduced at Road to the Horse

2009 – The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum inducts Anne Marion into its Hall of Great Westerners, an honor previously awarded to her great-grandfather, Burk, her grandfather Tom, and her mother, Miss Anne.

2011 – Four Sixes Ranch begins providing the remuda of competition horses for the international colt-starting competition Road to the Horse.

2015 –Glenn Blodgett, DVM, serves as president of AQHA; in 2016 he receives a distinguished life member award from the American Association of Equine Practitioners. *Sources vary on exact date.

Feeling desperate, I took a chance on something a friend had told me about, I called TLC Animal Nutrition. I followed their program suggestions and started him on several products that offer support for horses in his situation. “Angel” has taken me to the state finals each year, very impressive for a horse that might have otherwise been destroyed.

Another Second Chance

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REFERENCES • AQHA Best Remudas by Jim Jennings, 2006, Bright Sky Press • “A History of the 6666 Ranch,” American Quarter Horse Museum exhibit text reprinted in Western Horseman, November 1997 • Burnett Oil Company, Inc., website, burnettoil.com • Four Sixes: Portrait of a Texas Ranch, by Wyman Meinzer and Henry Chappell, 2004, Texas Tech University Press • Four Sixes Ranch, Return to the Remuda, October 3, 1998, sale catalog • Four Sixes Ranch website, 6666ranch.com • George Humphreys, Cowboy & Lawman, by Peggy Walker, 1978, Eakin Publications • Legends: Outstanding Quarter Horse Stallions & Mares, Volumes 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9, Western Horseman magazine • “Mares with More: The Joe Graham Mare,” by Larry Thornton, The Working Horse, May 2006 • “Mares with More: The Ladies of the Triangle Ranch,” by Larry Thornton, The Working Horse, May 2008 • Texas State Historical Association, tshaonline.com • The Quarter Horse Breeder, by M. H. Lindeman, 1959, Quarter Horse Breeders Publishing Co. Augus t 2019

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Taking Guthrie Global

KATIE FRANK

Terry Riddle, Four Sixes Ranch resident trainer, puts a handle on ranch-raised 3-year-old Bet Hesa Ginnin, by Bet Hesa Cat, who stands at the ranch, and out of Ginnin Stoli by Stoli.

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One West Texas ranching family, one herd of ranch horses and one committed veterinarian have quietly impacted the Quarter Horse worldwide for decades.

By CHRISTINE HAMILTON

T

he most direct way to help outsiders locate Guthrie, Texas, on a map is to say it’s 116 miles west of Wichita Falls and 95 miles east of Lubbock, on U.S. Highway 82. On the route there from either direction, the horizon of mesquite brush, grass and distant arroyo breaks often runs unbroken for miles, save for fence lines along the highway.

It’s not where you’d expect to find the hub of a Quarter Horse breeding program with international scope. But when the fence becomes oilfield pipe painted rust red, you’ve hit Four Sixes Ranch country. On the west side of Guthrie—a town of little more than a school, the King County courthouse, the Four Sixes Supply House and a few homes—sits the storied cattle ranch’s headquarters and the heart of its horse program.

A bronze by Jim Reno of the legendary stallion Dash For Cash marks the horse division entrance. The 2,000-acre complex includes a covered arena, a training/yearling barn, a stallion barn and exercise area, a mare motel with accompanying pens and runs, three outdoor arenas, and a cookhouse to feed the horse crew at breakfast and noon. At its center sits the main office, equine reproduction lab (with pharmacy and walk-in freezer), a surgery room and stallion collection shed. The big broodmare pastures lie out back.

At any given time, the ranch-owned horse population ranges between 600 and 750 head, including stallions, mares, foals, yearlings, 2-year-olds, seasoned ranch geldings, show horses and recipient mares for its embryo transfer program. That number grows in breeding season, February through June, to include client horses. In the 2018 breeding season, the ranch bred a total of 1,502 mares, either on-site or via shipped semen, and looks to meet that number for 2019 at press time. The ranch has 21 resident and haul-in Western performance and racing Quarter Horse stallions, and offers 14 through frozen semen. In summer, the ranch fits a barn full of racing-bred yearlings for top fall sales from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to Ruidoso, New Mexico.

Commercially, the Four Sixes also offers semen freezing, embryo transfer and embryo freezing (vitrification) services. The lab and collection shed are officially certified by the United States Department of Agriculture to process stallion semen for international export. In addition, the Four Sixes is an affiliate of Select Breeders Services, the world’s largest network of frozen semen service providers.

It’s all in Guthrie, where the closest hotel is the Manley family’s Hunter’s Lodge, 30 miles north in Paducah. As Four Sixes Stallion Manager Eric Van Reet puts it, “We’re kind of a unique place in the middle of nowhere, but in the middle of everything.”

It didn’t always look this way. The transformation began in 1982, two years after Anne Windfohr Marion took over the ranch following the death of her mother, Anne “Miss Anne” Burnett Tandy, as the heir to the Burnett ranching legacies.

Determined to raise the world’s best ranch horses, Marion hired a veterinarian with the vision to see that through: Glenn Blodgett, DVM. “We just wanted to have a global presence with our horses,” Blodgett says.

Growing Production When Blodgett and his wife, Karen, arrived in August of 1982, the horse division had one barn and mares were pasture-bred. By the start of the 1983 breeding season, he had an office, a small lab with palpation stocks and four stalls, a connecting collection shed August 2019

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ABOVE: Glenn Blodgett, DVM, has headed the ranch’s horse division since 1982.

and, across the yard, a six-stall stallion barn. The next year, Blodgett began using embryo transfer to get foals from older broodmares; American Quarter Horse Association rules began permitting its use in 1980.

Originally from a farming and ranching family in Spearman, Texas, Blodgett received a veterinary degree from Texas A&M University, and eventually returned home to start his own practice. His ranching and veterinary background in the Texas Panhandle combined with his interest in equine reproduction and Quarter Horse breeding made him a perfect fit.

“The focus was always to raise our own horses here, to use on the ranch,” Blodgett

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says. “But Mrs. Marion wanted to access new genetics that we could disseminate over a larger number of mares through artificial insemination. She wanted to go out and get some really good stallions that we could breed more mares to.”

The efforts were rewarded in 1993, when the Four Sixes became the second recipient of the AQHA’s coveted Best Remuda Award, given to ranches raising ideal Quarter Horse working stock.

For years, Blodgett had pulled from all corners of the Quarter Horse industry to build ranch horses. As an example, the ranch’s stallion lineup at that time included Preferred Pay by champion racehorse Dash For Cash; Tenino Badger, a Buster Welch-trained cutter by Peppy W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

San Badger purchased from the King Ranch; Strait Silver, a son of Quicksil Command purchased from reining legend Bob Loomis; San Tip by Peppy San; and Tanquery Gin by Doc O’Lena.

The get by stallions such as these, produced out of broodmares tracing to ranch stallions such as Joe Hancock, Grey Badger II, Hollywood Gold and Cee Bars, deserved attention.

Significantly, that year the Four Sixes had begun to offer its stallions to the public for the first time in its history.

“We had the facilities and the core personnel we needed, and Mrs. Marion felt we might as well capitalize on that a little bit more, rather than keep everything within,” Blodgett says.

At that time, too, racing Quarter Horses returned to the ranch. Racehorses had always been a part of the Burnett breeding program, but after Miss Anne’s passing the racing stock had largely been liquidated. In 1993, the legendary Phillips Ranch in Frisco, Texas—the Quarter Horse breeding operation established by

ROSS HECOX; INSET: COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

LEFT: Legendary Four Sixes Ranch stallion Hollywood Gold cuts a cow with George Humphreys, the ranch’s longtime manager.

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TOP: CHRISTINE HAMILTON; BOTTOM: ROSS HECOX

the late B.F. Phillips, Marion’s former husband—held its final dispersal sale of horses. Marion arranged for Phillips’ prize stallion, Dash For Cash, along with his barn mate, champion sire Streakin Six, to relocate to the Four Sixes. A Burnett-homebred, Streakin Six had been raised and raced by Miss Anne. In addition, Marion purchased racing champion Special Effort and moved him to Guthrie; his dam, Go Effortlessly, was also Burnett-bred, by ranch stallion Double Devil. In one move, the ranch had added three of Quarter Horse racing’s most successful sires to its lineup—at the time their combined get earnings was more than $55 million.

Blodgett built new barns for Dash For Cash and Streakin Six to match their quarters in Frisco, as well as a new mare motel. Owners hauled mares to Guthrie, many getting exposed to the Four Sixes horses for the first time. The ranch’s program had always been recognized as an indelible part of the Quarter Horse breed and its history, but these changes catapulted the ranch into the public arena.

Access to Four Sixes stallions increased when AQHA rules changed to allow foals to be registered that were bred via cooled/ shipped semen (in 1997) and frozen semen (in 2001). With the volume of its business, the ranch started its own delivery service before finally getting overnight service in from Lubbock.

“Just as soon as it became available, we got in on offering cooled/shipped semen,” Blodgett says. “And when frozen semen was allowed we dove into that. We were among the first facilities to export qualified Quarter Horse semen for market overseas. In the early stages, it was primarily our Western performance horses that were in demand from an international export basis [primarily to Australia and South America]. The racing came later.”

In 1997, the ranch held its inaugural Return to the Remuda Sale, along with Pitchfork Land & Cattle Co. and Beggs Cattle Co. The next year, the ranch partnered with legendary horseman Ray Hunt as guest consigner; for several years the ranch had brought in Hunt to start colts and give horsemanship clinics for the ranch cowboys. Those partnerships enabled the sale to maintain consistent numbers of horses offered each year.

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TOP: A statue of racing champion Dash For Cash by sculptor Jim Reno stands at the entrance of the ranch’s horse division.

BOTTOM: Stallion Manager Eric Van Reet holds homebred Sixes Pick, by Tanquery Gin and out of Natural Pick by Tenino Badger. The stallion was the 2008 AQHA versatility ranch horse open world champion.

“We were trying to find a better way to market our excess horses,” Blodgett says.

“My original vision was to get into a regular routine of it. I didn’t want to have a sale and wait 10 years and then have another sale. I thought we’d try to do it on an every-other-year basis, initially. Mrs. Marion thought it was a good idea.”

Versatility Bred In hindsight, the ranch’s horse program W EST ER N H O R S EM A N

was primed for the onset of versatility ranch horse competition. By 2000, grassroots efforts primarily in Texas and Colorado already had competition programs going, and AQHA formally approved the multi-event class to appear in 2002. The format showcased the working ranch horse in cutting, trail courses, ranch riding, cow work (to include roping) and conformation.

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LEFT: Jesses Topaz, by Mr Jess Perry and out of Paddys Topaz by Paddys Irish Whiskey, is one of the ranch’s young homebred Western performance stallions. His oldest foals are 3-year-olds.

The new AQHA competition debuted at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas, that January. By then, Blodgett had hired horseman Joe Wolter as the ranch’s resident horse trainer.

Wolter won the inaugural event on a Four Sixes mare he started, Little Playgun, a daughter of Playgun out of Little Brim by Peppy San Badger.

“The ranch horse is our core here,” Blodgett says. “Those combined events are what our horses are designed for.

That event gave us the opportunity to showcase that.”

Even so, Four Sixes-bred horses have never been absent from high-end Western performance competition. In 1963, Ronald Sharpe showed the ranch’s Old Hollywood to sixth place at the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity; by Hollywood Gold, the horse was out of a Thoroughbred mare named Old Flower. In 1969, Matlock Rose won the NCHA Futurity with the ranch’s Cee Bars Joan, by Cee Bars and out of Holly Joanie, a fourthgeneration Burnett-bred mare by Hollywood Gold.

Through the 1970s and into the 1990s horses bred by the ranch continued to find cutting success for the ranch and people who purchased them. Horses such as Organ Grinder, Ginnin Around, Cee Bar Sug, Ginnin Baba, Docs Face Card, Tanquerys Holly and Magnificent Six earned steady checks and proved the

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depth of the ranch broodmare lines.

For the ranch, Sam Rose rode Miss Holly Tip (by San Tip and out of Miss Holly Peg by Hollywood Gold) to the finals of the 1987 NCHA Futurity and later to win the open at the NCHA Breeders Cutting.

The Four Sixes horses crossed into new territory in the 1990s. Jon Roeser rode Tenino Freckle to a tie for third place in the 1992 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity. In 1993, Clint Haverty rode Bay Brim Hat to the finals of the National Reining Horse Association Futurity, and Ron Emmons rode Miss Tivio Silver to 10th in the 1995 NRHA Futurity. And cutting pen success remained: Wolter showed Sixes Dual to third in the limited open at the 2003 NCHA Futurity, and in 2005, Boyd Rice showed First Fletch to the NCHA Futurity finals.

By 2008, versatility ranch horse had grown to the point that AQHA held a stand-alone world championship show for the event at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado. One of the ranch 2-year-olds Wolter started in 2000 was a Tanquery Gin colt out of Natural Pick, a Tenino Badger daughter out of one of the ranch’s top broodmares, Natural.

Named Sixes Pick, the stallion won the first AQHA Versatility Ranch Horse World Championship open title, ridden by then resident trainer Chance O’Neal.

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The success of ranch versatility competition formats have also opened up opportunities for ranch cowboys to show horses that are in their working strings.

“In some of the earlier days, most of the showing was done on a real local basis,” Blodgett says. “And there weren’t as many opportunities as there are today, either.

Besides the AQHA, the Ranch Horse Association of America and the Stock Horse of Texas, associations like that came on in our region so our cowboys could go show on the weekend for the day and come home.”

Most recently, Terry Riddle, the ranch’s resident trainer, rode the stallion Natural Bottom (by Playboys Buck Fever and out of Natural Ingredient by Peppy San Badger) to the 2017 RHAA National Championship in the senior class. And Dusty Burson, the ranch’s Dixon Creek manager, won the open championship at the 2017 AQHA Versatility Ranch Horse World competing on a gelding from his working string, Paddys Prince (by Playin Attraction and out

ROSS HECOX; INSET: DON SHUGART/COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

BELOW: Longtime ranch stallion Tanquery Gin (by Doc O’Lena and out of Gin Echols by Ed Echols) had a significant influence on the ranch’s horses through the 1990s.

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of Cowgirl Paddy by Paddys Irish Whiskey).

In 2016, the pair won the RHAA National Championship junior class.

The Four Sixes horses have also had great success in the AQHA Ranching Heritage Challenge program, with the ranch a designated AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeder.

Horseman Boyd Rice began showing the ranch’s horses more than 20 years ago, beginning with Ginnin Attraction, a 1996 mare by Tanquery Gin and out of Miss Holly Tip, whose cutting earnings topped $25,000. He would later ride her 2002 colt

by Playin Stylish, Playin Attraction, to the reserve championship of the 2005 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. He’s currently showing Quahadi, her 2014 colt by Bet Hesa Cat. “We had to ride [Ginnin Attraction] a lot to get her showed, and she was real cowy,” Rice recalls. “I rode her about a million miles during her 3-year-old year, taking care of cattle [at his former home in Spearman, Texas]. Those two colts [Quahadi and Playin Attraction] are as good of horses as you can ride.

“Doc [Blodgett] wants them to look like a good horse,” Rice adds, thinking of the Four Sixes horses as ranch horses and show horses. “A big, strong, pretty horse with conformation, too. Not just a great big horse; he wants them built right.”

To date, the total earnings for horses bred by Burnett Ranches LLC are $2,744,690; Burnett-owned horses have won $1,330,100, (according to Equi-Stat, the statistical division of Cowboy Publishing Group). In addition, the Four Sixes Ranch is the all-time leading breeder of horses in versatility competition.

Stamina, Structure and Speed In his 1959 book The Quarter Horse Breeder, author M.H. Lindeman made this statement about Four Sixes Ranch founder, Samuel “Burk” Burnett: “Burk Burnett, among other breeders, believed that the broodmare carried the greatest responsibility for producing good cow horses. … breeding cow horses from cow-mares would eventually fix this trait that regardless of the

stallions he bred to, this characteristic would not depreciate.”

The Burnett program has always focused on maintaining a broodmare band of generationally strong mare families, and Blodgett has carried that on through key mare lines, many of whose ranch records date to the 1930s.

In 37 years, Blodgett’s view of the ideal broodmare hasn’t changed.

“We like something that has eye appeal and structural soundness, good bone. We want stamina. We want a really good back to hold a saddle, and a good set of withers,” he says. “Good feet and a good thick wall on the hoof that comes all the way back through the quarter.

“Of course we also are mindful about performance—as individuals as well as their family, top and bottom—athletic ability and cow sense. We ride all our mares—for a short time at least; very few are shown—and we know how they ride.”

Throughout its history, the ranch has also purchased mares to bring in new bloodlines, or acquired them through

ROSS HECOX; INSET: DON SHUGART/COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

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foal-share agreements. One recent example came from a foal-share agreement with the Hollman family of Hot Springs, South Dakota, that enabled the ranch to raise individuals such as Paddys Topaz, a 2006 mare by Four Sixes stallion Paddys Irish Whiskey and out of the Hollmans’ mare Frenchmans Topaz, a Leige Lord daughter out of AQHA Hall of Fame broodmare Casey’s Ladylove. Paddys Topaz has since produced National Barrel Horse Association champion Eyesa Topaz (by racing champion Eyesa Special) as well as the Four Sixes’ young stallion Jesses Topaz (by racing champion Mr Jess Perry).

Among all of the things Blodgett considers when selecting a new broodmare, he is especially “mindful about conformational traits.”

“That’s where what we do might be different from discipline-specific production operations,” he says. “I think that there are some conformational traits that get overlooked by a lot of people today in horse production that I think are very important. They get too focused on performance and are not careful enough about conformational traits, and that can create problems. [For example] some of these discipline-specific programs can

A Bigger Influence

get by with a horse that doesn’t have a good back, or that doesn’t have the stamina that we need.”

It’s something Joe Leathers appreciates as Four Sixes Ranch manager, overseeing the cattle operation carried out by cowboys riding the ranch’s horses over miles of rugged, rocky terrain.

“The ranch horses are really athletic and really stout,” Leathers says. “I think Glenn doesn’t follow trends as much as the [horse] industry chases trends, and he’s creating a trend here. That’s reflected in the ranch’s mares. We can experiment [with stallions] a little bit and not hurt our foundation.”

For example, Blodgett regularly breeds ranch mares to racing stallions, and racing mares to ranch stallions, to constantly bring back size, bone, speed and stamina to the broodmare band, while keeping athletic ability and cow sense.

“Owning fast horses has always been something ranchers have taken pride in,” Blodgett says. “Look back and you hear all the old stories about the match races between ranches on Sunday afternoons.”

The need for versatility in ranch work and Western performance poses an additional challenge for the ranch.

The flurry of activity at the horse division on a breeding season morning is mind-boggling. Glenn Blodgett, DVM, and staff veterinarian Nathan Canaday, DVM, palpate and breed mares, flush embryos and treat horses, with the help of breeding manager Sara Riddle. Phil Fox, mare manager, coordinates bringing mares in from the pastures and sorting them, horseback. Meanwhile, stallions come to the collection shed handled by Eric Van Reet, stallion manager, and the lab processes semen for on-site and shipping. In the heart of the season, days can begin before dawn and end after dark.

Riddle coordinates the eight to 10 undergraduate interns leading mares and foals through the stocks. Mostly young women, they arrive from equine, animal science or pre-veterinary programs across the United States. Blodgett hired his first intern in 1994, and the horse division has since employed hundreds. They help in every aspect of the operation, from veterinary technician tasks to racehorse yearling sales prep.

“Some have gone on to become lawyers, or work for feed companies, pharmaceutical companies, breeding farms, ranches or horse trainers,” Blodgett says. “We get some with very basic skill sets, and others that are further along; we try to work with them all.”

Through the years, the ranch has hired former horse division interns, including current employees Van Reet, and, on the cattle side, Dusty Burson, Dixon Creek division manager, and his brother, True, a Guthrie division North Camp cowboy, and Will Wallendorf, a Dixon Creek division South Camp cowboy.

This influence on young people is one example of other aspects of the Four Sixes horse program’s “global” reach.

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“I’m always looking for a new stud,” Blodgett says. “It’s harder and harder to find one that fits what we’re trying to raise here. That’s why Natural Bottom and Jesses Topaz end up being good horses for us because we raised them.

They’re what we’re all about.”

He’s looking forward to what Quahadi might add to the mix, as well. At press time, Rice and Quahadi were headed to the Lazy E Ranch in Guthrie, Oklahoma, for the 2019 AQHA Versatility World Championships. Plans now are to campaign the horse for a Superhorse title at the AQHA World Championship Show and after that perhaps the NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman.

The Bottom Line These days, Blodgett is especially proud of the ranch’s new covered arena and sale pavilion. It had been on Blodgett’s mind to build for years. It provides year-round training ground, accommodates the sale and its demonstration, and, with windowed garage-style doors, can protect the crowd from the wind and not obstruct the view. It also represents coming through a tough period at the ranch.

Through the years, the ranch has participated in a number of university-led research projects that have benefited foal health and stallion reproduction. Under Blodgett’s leadership, the ranch has contributed to research on Rhodococcus equi pneumonia in foals that has led to life-saving changes in screening, diagnostics and treatment. The ranch is an active supporter of research funding entities, such as the American Quarter Horse Foundation.

Since helping to usher in AQHA’s organization, the ranch has supported the efforts of the association to steward the Quarter Horse breed. Blodgett has served as an AQHA director since 1991 and on numerous committees; he was AQHA president in 2015. Prior to that, the late Jay Pumphrey, former general manager for what was then the S.B. Burnett Estates and Tom L. Burnett Cattle Company, did the same, establishing the association’s international committee; he became AQHA president in 1970.

Blodgett also serves on the American Horse Council board of trustees; the AHC is the horse industry’s political lobbying arm based in Washington, D.C. Blodgett’s industry contributions have been recognized. His honors include the 2016 Distinguished Life Member award from the American Association of Equine Practitioners, and the 2017 National Golden Spur Award given by the ranching and livestock industry.

“Our focus [at the Four Sixes] is the Quarter Horse, but we’re really all about the health and the welfare of horses and cattle,” Blodgett says. “That’s our business and our lifestyle here; it’s part of the Western lifestyle. We want to promote it and protect it.”

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The annual sale had been a success, and brought crowds to the ranch. But, the ranch was spending thousands on tent rentals—the sale’s date on the first weekend of October coincides with the first fall fronts, bringing thunderstorms that tended to wreck tents. Blodgett prepared preliminary plans for a practical facility.

“Right when I was thinking about approaching Mrs. Marion, we entered the 2011 drought, and we had to depopulate the ranch of cattle,” Blodgett says. “It looked like a desert here. We had a significant mare reduction that fall [from 130 to 65 head of ranch mares].”

But by 2017, the arena had a roof and was fully completed in time for the 2018 sale. The 146 horses offered by the Four Sixes Ranch, Beggs Cattle Company, Tongue River Ranch, Pitchfork Land & Cattle Co., and guest consignors Wagonhound Land & Livestock and King Ranch, exceeded $1.5 million in gross sales.

The ranch horse production is just where Blodgett wants it now. The

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broodmare band ranges between 65 and 70 mares. Blodgett selects a few fillies each year for the ranch to keep and the rest go into the annual sale consignment.

“On the male side we’re producing about everything we need on the ranch for geldings,” he says. “Plus we’re able to allocate a few horses to send to the Road to the Horse competition.”

The Four Sixes began providing horses for the international colt-starting competition in 2011, largely “to showcase the ranch to a whole new audience of people,” he says.

It’s hard to imagine what Blodgett might have in mind next for the ranch’s horse program, aside from continuing to breed that better horse for the cowboys.

He pursues that every breeding season morning, looking over the new foals brought up from the back pasture by Phil Fox, ranch mare manager.

Fox hired on in 1997. During breeding season, he gathers the broodmare band, sorts the mares, and brings them in to be bred. He gets a good look at the new foal

W EstER N H O R sEM A N

crop, watching them grow and comparing them to their relatives he’s seen over two decades. When it comes time for the crew to pick new horses for their strings, he has a good idea of the ones he wants.

He says the desire to ride really good horses was part of him wanting to work for the ranch.

“Doc’s breeding ranch horses,” Fox says.

“He doesn’t drift away from that, which he could—he’s had the guns in top cutters and top racers. But he doesn’t drift away from a strong, boned-up ranch horse, with stamina. A using cowboy horse that you can use in other places.

“Before I came here, I cowboyed and I traded horses all the time. But I never had a super nice one until I came here,” he pauses and smiles. “I was like, ‘This is where it’s at.’ I’ve only got so many years to live. I want to ride good horses, you know? I don’t want to sit on mediocre. I want the best.”

CHRISTINE HAMILTON is editor of Western Horseman. Send comments to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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ROSS HECOX; INSET: FRANK REEVES, COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST COLLECTION/SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY

Clint Winslow brings in L- and triangle-branded Four Sixes broodmares on a 2019 breeding season morning.

INSET: This photo of Four Sixes Ranch fillies, circa 1940s, was taken by livestock reporter and photographer Frank Reeves.

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Deep Bottom

The mare-line strength of Four Sixes Ranch horses spans decades and traces to visionary breeders and legendary horses.

F

By Christine Hamilton

our Sixes Ranch Manager George Humphreys knew the importance of getting a witness to sign an affidavit. He’d been sheriff of King County, Texas, since 1928, a position he held while working for the ranch. On cattle business near Elk City, Oklahoma, Humphreys ran into a cowboy who had information that caught his attention.

When the cowboy heard where Humphreys was from, he told him about a speedy stallion named Scooter that he’d started, and said the horse had been sold to a Texas rancher named Burnett. When the cowboy described the Four Sixes’ top herd stallion in detail, Humphreys knew he had a mystery solved. Little did he know the information would impact Burnett-raised horses well into the next century. >>

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Two of the ranch’s top broodmares from the Miss Tommy 99 mare line through the great mare Natural. Sunshine Ingredient (TOP) is a 2000 mare by Mr Sun O Lena and out of Natural Ingredient by Peppy San Badger. Gins Last (LEFT) is a 2002 mare by Tanquery Gin and out of Natural Pick by Tenino Badger.

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KATE BRADLEY BYARS; INSET: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM

ABOVE: Tanned and hatless, the longtime Four Sixes Ranch Manager George Humphreys is depicted after a long day’s work in this painting by Tom Ryan.

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CHRISTINE HAMILTON

KATE BRADLEY BYARS; INSET: COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL COWBOY & WESTERN HERITAGE MUSEUM

About 1928 or 1929, Thomas Loyd “Tom” Burnett, son of Four Sixes Ranch founder Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett, had been in Oklahoma and bought a gray racehorse that he took home and turned out with the mares at his personal Triangle Ranch holdings. Rumors varied on the stallion’s breeding, but Tom’s reputation as a horseman left no doubt as to the horse’s quality. It was said his sire was Rainy Day by the respected gray Midnight, who was double-bred to Peter McCue, already a legendary bloodline among ranchers breeding “quarter-type” cow horses.

In 1933, Tom sent the stallion to Humphreys for the Four Sixes to use on its mare herd, and the cowboys called him “Tom.” The stallion died in 1938—oddly enough, the same year as Tom Burnett. The ranch liked the horse well enough to acquire the stallion Rainy Day in 1940 from horseman Jim Minnick, the first inspector and judge for the American Quarter Horse Association.

But the Oklahoma cowboy told Humphreys that Tom’s gray stallion was an own son of Midnight. Humphreys asked him to sign an affidavit swearing to what he knew. In later records the horse would often be noted as “Tom (Scooter).”

“It was important to [Humphreys] to know,” says Larry Thornton of London, Arkansas. “It shows how seriously he took knowing the genetics of the ranch’s horses.”

Thornton, a respected author and expert on American Quarter Horse pedigrees and bloodstock history, pieced together the story from various sources in a document he researched and wrote for Burnett Ranches’ internal archives.

Humphreys was a horseman, as was the Four Sixes and Triangle ranches’ owner, Anne “Miss Anne” Burnett Tandy, Tom’s daughter. The new AQHA was officially organized in 1940 during a meeting at Miss Anne’s Fort Worth, Texas, home. The long work of establishing pedigrees and inspecting horses for AQHA registration had

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begun, adding validity and value to ranch horse breeding programs across the West. The Burnett-bred horses stood at the front lines of the development of the breed.

But for Humphreys at the time, it might have been enough just to know the truth about ol’ Tom’s daughters. It would change the way the Quarter Horse industry remembered them.

NUMBERS AND MISS TOMMY MARES At the end of 1935, Humphreys and his crew spent two days branding the Four Sixes mares and foals with a new

and horseman M.B. Loyd of Fort Worth, Texas. The horses carried an “L” on their left shoulder, and Burk continued to use it.

When the cowboys roped the first mare, a bay, she was jaw-branded No. 1, and the filly at her side was branded No. 2. So it went down the line, with the next mares and their foals getting subsequent numbers. The dry mares without foals came next and were branded 65 through 87. Yearlings were branded last.

The written notes included the foals’ sires—that year it was either Tom (Scooter) or Buggins, one of many good U.S. Army remount

Old breeding books reveal meticulous ranch records of mares, foals and horse sales that span decades. Glenn Blodgett, DVM, points out the record for Triangle Lady 17’s 1940 dun colt by Gold Rush; he would be named Hollywood Gold.

numbering system, designed to better identify the horses. It was winter before the crew found time to tackle the chore.

In his research, Thornton found Humphreys’ original records from that first number branding on December 6 and 7, 1935. Each horse received a number on its left jaw and, if it didn’t already have one, the Four Sixes “L” horse brand on its shoulder. The brand originated with the first ranch horses Burk acquired. He bought them from his father-in-law, prominent banker

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Thoroughbred stallions the ranch used. They also listed other identifying factors such as a nickname (No. 51 was Fiddler), appearance (No. 49 had a “mealy nose”), or where she’d originated (No. 84, a dun, came from the Matador Ranch).

In hindsight, the system seemed random. But it helped the ranch to track the quality of the horses the mares produced, and in coming years the generational strength of a mare line. Once a mare had a number, the ranch branded her foals with her

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number. If a daughter was good enough to enter the broodmare band, the daughter passed on the number to her foals, carrying the female family number into the next generation.

Whenever the ranch bought new mares, they received a number. In later decades, if the ranch “lost” a mare line—a mare or her daughters were sold, a mare died or never had fillies—once all of her descendants were gone, the ranch could recycle that number on a new mare brought into the herd.

The ranch kept detailed produce and breeding records in bound ledger books, but the brands made a horse’s mare family immediately identifiable.

When cowboys selected young horses to add to their working string, they often gravitated to horses carrying the numbers of favorite mare lines, regardless of their sires.

Tracking the mares was important to Humphreys. When he accepted the job of ranch manager in 1932, he’d already worked for the Four Sixes since 1919. After Burk died in 1922 and the Four Sixes fell under trustee management, according to ranch

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history, the horse herd had been largely sold.

Regardless of why that happened, it was a loss to what the Four Sixes had been known for: mounting its cowboys well. In the chapter on the Burnett horses in his book, The Quarter Horse Breeder, published in 1959, author M.H. Lindeman wrote, “In 1923, Marcus Snyder, who supplied many of the ranchers in Montana with cow horses, purchased 1,000 head from the 6666’s. The reputation of the Burnett cow horses were [sic] nationwide.”

Humphreys wanted to reignite the Four Sixes horse program. And he had the support of Miss Anne and the Four Sixes estate trustees, especially John C. Burns. Appointed a trustee in 1933, Burns was a respected livestock man and former head of animal husbandry at Texas A&M University.

Thornton’s research references an article by livestock reporter and photographer Frank Reeves, “Horse Breeding by Selection,” in the September 1944 issue of The Cattleman magazine. In it Reeves reported that in 1934 John Burns authorized the ranch to purchase 10 mares from the Graham

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brothers of Lovington, New Mexico.

Thought to be originally from Mexico, the mares were nice enough for Burns to purchase 10 more. In addition to those mares, some L-branded broodmares remained on the ranch.

As Thornton put it, “The nucleus of a [Four Sixes] broodmare band was brought together with the original L-branded mares and the Graham brothers mares.” These were the horses Humphreys numbered in 1935.

Thornton also recounts an interview with Lanham Riley, a Four Sixes ranch cowboy at that time. According to Riley, “Mr. Burns was trying to upgrade the horses,” and part of his plan was to have “everything broke to ride, geldings and mares.” Prior to that, Riley recalled, the mares had not been ridden; but now, no filly would enter the broodmare band unless she rode well and was determined to be a good mover. Burns and Humphreys elicited help in evaluating the horses, including Jim Minnick.

How the men came up with the numbering system is not recorded. It was likely something that Burns and Humphreys developed together.

CHRISTINE HAMILTON

When the ranch acquires an outside mare for the broodmare band, she gets a new mare number to pass on.

This mare’s 94 brand indicates her female line brings in the outside blood of AQHA Hall of Fame broodmare Casey’s Ladylove.

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THE MOBILE METHOD.

CHRISTINE HAMILTON

Regardless, it stuck and is still used on the ranch today.

Many of those early numbered mares maintained that identity when registered with AQHA. For example, mare No. 9’s 1935 filly by Tom (Scooter), who was branded No. 10 that December, became Miss Tommy 10 on her registration papers. Some of Buggins’ daughters became known that way as well. In old pedigrees, entries of “Burnett Riding Mare” might have been mares in the original numbered herd.

But as AQHA grew, the success of the gray stallion Tom (Scooter) on those early Four Sixes broodmares would become legendary in the multitude of “Miss Tommy” mares that showed up in Quarter Horse pedigrees.

Triangle ladies The numbering system was also used at Tom’s Triangle Ranches. By 1910, Tom was building his Triangle Ranch holdings along with a horse herd of his own. Among Tom’s responsibilities working for his father was to run the Burnett cattle and grazing leases in Indian Territory, and he acquired many good horses there for both the Triangle and the Four Sixes.

Reportedly great judges of horseflesh, Tom and Burk were like other ranchers across the Southwest raising fast horses with cow sense for working cattle and match racing—at times called Steel Dusts and quarter-milers.

Breeders bought, traded and bred horses carrying the blood of Old Billy, Traveler and Peter McCue that would become the foundation for the American Quarter Horse. For example, despite the onslaught of the Great Depression, Tom reportedly paid $2,000 for legendary speedster Joe Hancock to use on his Triangle mares.

After Tom’s death in 1938, his estate went to Miss Anne, who shared the Burnett horse passion. Horses acquired by Miss Anne for the Triangle included Grey Badger II, a stallion she bought from legendary breeder Walter Merrick of Sayre, Oklahoma.

“I’ve never found it written anywhere when they started to number

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the Triangle mares,” Thornton says, “but I would assume it was about the same time [as the Four Sixes].

There may be archives on it hidden somewhere.”

Tom branded horses with his triangle brand on the left jaw, so the horses received their dam’s number on the left shoulder. Many of those mares became known as “Triangle Ladies,” and also had their number included on their AQHA registration papers.

For example, the dun mare of unknown breeding branded No. 17 became Triangle Lady 17 with AQHA. In 1940 she foaled a dun colt by Gold Rush that Miss Anne let Humphreys take to the Four Sixes because he liked the colt so much. Hollywood Gold would become one of the ranch’s most famous stallions and a legend in the brand new association.

LASTING IMPACT Go back far enough on a Quarter Horse extended bracket pedigree and you’re likely to find a Four Sixes or Triangle ranch broodmare. Legendary stallion Two Eyed Jack’s dam, Triangle Tookie, was a Burnett mare tracing back to Triangle Lady 10; Hollywood Jac 86, the sire of top reining stallion Hollywood Dun It, gets the number in his name from his maternal grandmother, Miss Buggins 86; and the Burnett Ranches’ homebred Playin Attraction, the 2005 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity Open reserve champion, traces back through six generations of Four Sixes broodmares to Miss Tommy 96. The ranch has focused on mare families that produce quality for its cowboys to ride in every generation.

Today, stewardship of that herd has fallen to veterinarian and horseman Glenn Blodgett, DVM, who Miss Anne’s daughter, Anne Windfohr Marion, hired in 1982.

“When I came here, I immediately started looking at the mares and offspring and the way they were branded,” Blodgett says. “I identified right quick that there were two or three mare families that your eye

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tended to migrate toward a little more than some of the others.

“I also learned that there were good mare families that had been lost—families that I kept hearing good things about, but there wasn’t any way to get that line back. In those days, in the lifespan of a mare she might only have 10 foals. If less than half of them were fillies, and then if something happened to them, you could lose the line.

“Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Besides all of the other things I look for in [deciding to keep a filly in the herd] one of the things I consider is that I don’t want to get myself in a bind and lose a good [mare] family.”

One of the Four Sixes’ most successful mare lines is the L-branded 99 family. It originated with a black filly

by Tom (Scooter) foaled in 1934 and eventually registered as Miss Tommy 99. Two of the ranch’s current stallions, Sixes Pick and Natural Bottom, descend from her through the mare Natural, a 1972 daughter of ranch-bred stallion Coe Badger Two. “Natural was a mare I identified when I came here that was really good,” Blodgett says. “Her mother, Miss

TAIL FEMALE LINE

THE BURNETT RANCHES numbering system traces what pedigree experts call the “tail female line” of descent in a horse’s pedigree.

When you look at a bracketed pedigree chart, the topmost line of horses going back with each generation is a horse’s sire line, or the tail male line. The bottommost line of the bracket is the mare line, or tail female line.

It has long been a practice of horse breeders worldwide to track and preserve the tail female descendants of their prolific producers.

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Cee Bars 99, had been sold because she had a bad udder. A few years later, I was able to buy her back and we did [embryo transfers] and raised good offspring.”

Today, Blodgett tracks the mares via computer, making use of technology such as digital barcode scanning via microchip. But he continues to use Humphreys’ branding system—both the Triangle and L ranch brands with the mare line number brands. After Miss Anne died in 1980, Mrs. Marion eventually sold the Triangle Ranch holdings, but kept its horses and the brand. The descendants of both ranches’ horse herds are found in the Four Sixes broodmare band today.

“Back then, they may have moved the horses around a bit between the two ranches,” Blodgett says, “But in general they kept them separate. But if you mixed them in a herd, unless you looked at the brands you wouldn’t know any difference. That’s the way it is today, too.”

It wasn’t until the 1980s, Blodgett says, that the ranch began adding number brands to indicate a horse’s sire. If a horse stands at the ranch, he’s assigned a number and his foals are branded with it on their right buttock.

“It’s a good means of identification,” Blodgett says, and that hasn’t changed in more than 80 years. “I like our system better than any I’ve seen.”

Blodgett recalls meeting Humphreys once as a veterinary student long before coming to work for the Four Sixes.

“He had retired and had a ranch down in Aspermont, [Texas]. He called his ranch the 99 Ranch,” Blodgett recalls. “He used the Four Sixes open-6 branding iron [to make his No. 9].

“When I came here and got acquainted with the ’99s, well…,” Blodgett pauses, and then continues.

“It may not have had anything to do with it, but deep in my mind, I wonder if it wasn’t because of the 99 mares.”

CHRISTINE HAMILTON is editor of Western Horseman. Send comments on this article to edit@westernhorseman.com.

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by ACCET. www.oklahomastatehorseshoeingschool.com Contact us at 1-800-634-2811 or email at oshs@cableone.net, 4802 Dogwood Rd, Ardmore OK 73401 MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY FARRIER SCHOOL - Don’t settle for a shorter course, get the foundation you need to succeed! MSU

W ESTER N H O R SEM A N

Farrier School is a 16-week program.

Limited class size of 12 students.

VA approved. For more information, go to http://animalrange.montana .edu/horseshoe.html or call 406-994-3722.

Employment $500 WEEKLY ASSEMBLING PRODUCTS from home. Free information available. Call 860357-1599.

Farriers DURASAFE BORUM HORSESHOES - Proven Satisfaction. www.TheBlacksmithShop.net; 800-840-7463.

Horses / Stallions WWW.WOLFERANCH.COM Offering beautiful, good-minded AQHA and draft cross horses and prospects. 580-993-0097.

TENNESSEE WALKING HORSES: Box Hanging Three Ranch, Dubois, Wyoming. mtnwalker@ wyoming.com. Online catalog www.mountainbredwalkers.com

Leathercraft GET THE WORLD’S PREMIER LEATHERWORKING How-To Publication. www.leathercraftersjournal.com, 1-715-362-5393.

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TANDY LEATHER’S 252 page Buyers’ Guide of leather, saddle and tack hardware, tools and more is FREE. It’s filled with everything for the leather craftsman and useful supplies for the ranch. Tandy Leather, Dept.

19WH, 1900 SE Loop 820, Fort Worth, TX 76140. www.tandy leather.com

Livestock REGISTERED MULES AND MAMMOTH JACKSTOCK for sale from Hall of Fame bloodlines. Training, private lessons anywhere and phone consultations available. www.diamond creekmules.com; 307-899-6553.

Real Estate HOMES, RANCHES & LAND around North Texas. www.texasliving.com, Dutch & Cheryl, Keller Williams Realty, Aubrey TX 940365-4687, info@texasliving.com HORSE HEAVEN IN SOUTHWESTERN NEW MExICO. Complete horse facility. 43 acres bordered by Gila National Forest.

Barn, covered arena, round pen, 30+ acres fenced pastures. Low maintenance custom home. National Forest trails out the back gate. $1.3M - All farm equipment included. 575-536-3109; suechiverton@gilanet.com NEVADA RURAL PROPERTIES For Sale - Horse and Ranch Division, Coldwell Banker Select. 775783-6273; www.lee-mckinney. cbselectre.com

Tack / Equipment EQUINE DENTAL INSTRUMENTS: World Wide Equine, www.horsedentistry.com, www.

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equinedentistry.com, 208366-2550, wwequine@horse dentistry.com SUPREME HORSE WALKER Affordably priced! Lead and Freeflow exercisers. 256-412-5782; www.SupremeWalker.com HITCHING POST SUPPLY Shop www.hitchingpostsupply.com for buckaroo gear, bulk horsehair, mohair cinch cord, cowboy books and music. Catalog 800689-9971.

NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP EQUIPMENT: Marine rope halters, leads, reins. Order at www. horsefriendly.com; call 1-855467-7337 toll free.

CUSTOM SADDLEMAKER for 30+ years! Traditional Ranch saddles and repairs. Other custom leather gear made. saddledon@ yahoo.com; 208-220-1786

Vacations / Trail Rides WE ARE THE REAL DEAL: Experience the cowboy life on our working cattle ranch in Wyoming! 307-467-5663, www.the newhavenranch.com COWBOYCATTLEDRIVE.COM - The authentic “Lonesome Dove” experience; operating on 22,000 acres in the Bighorn Mountains Wyoming. 5 days of endless riding, horse provided, small group, 3 meals daily off authentic chuck wagon. 307-737-2680.

COMPARED TO US “City Slickers” is a pony ride. 120-year-old working Wyoming ranch. Check out our new venture “COWBOY CAMP”. Double Rafter Cattle Drives 1-800-704-9268. We dare you to compare: www.double rafter.com

W EstER N H O R sEM A N

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BACKWARD GLANCE

The Great Wolf Hunt

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W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

COURTESY OF FOUR SIXES RANCH

LEGENDS COLLIDE in this photograph taken in the spring of 1905, when President Theodore Roosevelt came to hunt wolves in “The Big Pasture” region of what is now southwestern Oklahoma. For decades, the Comanche and Kiowa leased swaths of Indian Territory land to ranchers seeking grazing country, hence the region’s nickname.

Organized by Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett of the Four Sixes Ranch and legendary Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, among others, the hunt was led by famed wolf hunter Jack Abernathy. Its purpose was to bring Roosevelt’s attention to the tribes’ ongoing battle to protect their land rights, and an effort to delay the loss of grazing range.

The hosts were well acquainted. A warrior and leader who fiercely battled the United States Army until the Comanche surrender in 1875, Parker had taken part in Roosevelt’s 1905 inauguration. The hunt gave him an occasion to welcome the president to his Star House home, which got its name from the stars painted on the roof. In addition, Parker and Burnett had developed a close friendship through the years of their business dealings; the Comanche people called the rancher mas-sa-suta, or “big boss.”

Those pictured include Abernathy, standing center with a wolf; Parker is to his right, kneeling.

Roosevelt stands second from the right, with Burnett to his right. It represents a unique moment in time, when ranching and tribal interests united. Read more about Burnett’s iconic ranching legacy throughout this issue.

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Advertiser Index 6666 Ranch Supply House Inside Front Cover

Nutrena

19

Booma Rein

16

Pacific Health Collaborative, Inc.

57

Canyonview Equestrian College

92

Paizlee’s Meats

17

Cashel

40

Pidcock / Coates Quarter Horses

91

Catalena Hatters

90

Pine Ridge Knife Company

89

Purina

25

Red River Arenas

90

1

Charlie Trayer’s Cowdogs

91

Chiverton, Sue

90

Come To The Source Production Sale

42

Cowboy Christmas

41

Davis Ranch

91

Double Diamond Halter Co., Inc.

59

Downunder Horsemanship

85

Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering

24

Equithrive

53

Eriksen’s Saddlery

89

Farnam - Vetrolin

7

Farnam - Weight Builder

9

Goldenwingshorseshoes

89

Graham School, Inc.

92

Horsemen’s United Association

92

Jose Sanchez Boot Co.

92

JT Int’l Dist., Inc. - Tough 1

27

Kenetrek Boots

89

Resistol

Back Cover

Return To The Remuda Sale

28

Roto-Harrow

89

Saddle Up For Christ

55

South Point Hotel Casino

29

Spalding Fly Predators

Inside Back Cover

Steve Guitron Custom Rawhide

90

Stock Horse of Texas

51

Tammy’s Cowdogs

91

Techsew

89

The Right Horse

77

Tippmann’s - The Boss

33

Tip’s Western & Custom Saddles

90

TLC Animal Nutrition

71

Triple Crown Nutrition, Inc.

2

Turner Performance Horses

33

Van Norman & Friends

61

Vetericyn

17

91

Weaver Leather

52

Mackey Custom Hats

89

Western Horseman

Morgan Stock Horse Association

91

Morgan, David

90

Working Ranch Cowboys Assn.

43

Mustang Heritage Foundation

31

WYO Quarter Horse Ranch

21

National High School Rodeo Assn.

79

Wyoming School of Horseshoeing

24

Kent Industries Corp.

Kubota Lazy HT Performance

August 2019

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28, 61, 70, 71, 85, 87, 90, 91, 93

W ESTER N HO R SEM A N

KATIE FRANK

Cavender’s Boot City

Coming Up

Scary Setbacks

Learn to break a horse’s bad habit of setting back with Montana horseman Jon Ensign.

Plus:

• Amp up your Western wardrobe with functional and fashionable clothes for the whole family.

• An Alberta couple makes a living managing historic ranches for modern generations.

Look for our September issue on newsstands August 15.

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6/21/19 11:37:52 AM

On the Edge of Common Sense

by Baxter Black, DVM

The Valdez

Lately there has been dissension at the rancho. I have overheard murmurings in the barnyard, in particular regarding my stock trailer. The grumbling animals enlisted my teenage daughter to present their complaints.

In my defense let me describe my trailer. I felt like it was a real bargain when I bought it. It’s an 18-foot Hale, ’92 model with a bumper hitch. Upon purchasing it from a reputable Hereford breeder who guaranteed it would haul up to eight full-grown cows, I made a few minor repairs.

Three of the wheel bearings needed replacing, but the left front still spun good. We welded a jack on the tongue, built a new wooden panel for the end gate, put plywood over the rotting floor and bought inner tubes for the two new recaps that didn’t have any tread left.

I’m still working on the wiring and have got a good coat of primer on the front panel, which covers about six square feet in the shape of Utah. The greenish primer almost matched the original scour yellow.

Recently I put down a rubber mat on the slick plywood after a horse came loose in transit and slid from front to back goin’ up a steep grade. Every improvement an investment, I always say.

Jennifer’s list of complaints seem trifling. The horses, she claims, are embarrassed to be seen unloading. She suggested I repaint it. Trying to get along, I pulled it down to the sandblasting guy for an estimate. He recommended against it.

Apparently he was afraid it would cause structural damage.

To remove that much rust would weaken the steel. Admit-

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tedly there has been some erosion where the sheet metal sides attach to the frame. This complaint was brought up by the cows. They worried about sliding a foot through the 4-inch gap that circles the trailer. I have always looked on that gap as good drainage to prevent manure buildup. I take it the boys at the sale barn agree since they’ve named my trailer the Valdez.

The dogs only asked that they be allowed to stay in the cab of the pickup instead of shut up in the trailer when I go into the sale. That way if they see any other dogs they can duck below the dash. I thought leavin’ them in the trailer would keep other dogs from peein’ on the tires. But they said no self-respecting dog would even consider it.

Perhaps my daughter has her own motives. I’ve noticed she won’t even tie her horse to the trailer at a ropin’ or horse show. I offered to paint her name on the side. Give her some pride of ownership. She said no thanks. I’ve always admired her modesty.

Bein’ a good ranch boss, I’m considering their grievances but I’ve good reason to avoid any hasty decisions. The Valdez is perfectly suited to my pickup. It’s an ’89 Ford with good tires and a fully functional left side mirror.

Besides, the annual registration for the trailer is only $13.

W EST ER N HO R S EM A N

Cowboy humorist BAXTER BLACK, DVM, is based in Benson, Arizona.

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6/18/19 5:06:03 PM

The Best New Fly Spray Bye Bye Insects

TM

Spalding’s newest product is Bye Bye Insects. This is a principally Essential Oil based Fly Repellent that, for the first time, is comparable to the performance of Pyrethroid synthetic chemical products.

Our goal was to create the best fly repellent, of any kind, for horses and people. In the past, Essential Oils never kept up with synthetic chemicals in performance.

Smells Great

Have We Made The Perfect Fly Spray?

Getting close, but not yet. One issue is a slight yellow staining on white and grey hair. If used lightly, the staining is minimal and wears off.

Other than on white and grey hair, it’s not noticeable. We’re working to fix this for next year.

Bye Bye Insects Is A Concentrate And A Super Value

You can adjust its performance to what you need. We expect many will find a 50% dilution will still provide sufficient repellency. After you use up your first quart spray bottle, don’t throw it away. Instead refill it from the 3 quart EZ refill Stable Fly pouch.

Besides great performance, Bye Bye Insects also smells and feels terrific.

Pyrethroid fly sprays warn Bye Bye Insects’ Biting against use on human skin, and few people like the smell Repellency Performance on of them. By comparison, Bye Horses vs. Other Brands* Bye Insects has a pleasant Bye Bye Insects™ scent and can be used on yourself, your family and your horses.

1 Quart $22.95 + tax, Delivered

Better

Bye Bye Insects active ingredients are primarily Essential Oils, including Geraniol, Rosemary, Citronella, Peppermint and Lemongrass. All ingredients meet EPA’s 25(b) Minimum Risk requirements and for Rosemary, Peppermint, Vanillin and Lemongrass, we use food grade quality.

The ecological and stay fresh 3 quart pouch costs $44.95. That’s like buying 2 quarts and getting the third one free. Thus, each full strength refilled quart is only $14.98. Diluted to 50% it’s $7.49 per quart delivered. That’s one of the best buys in fly spray.

More at: spalding-labs. com/x92je

Hours Looking at the graph above of fly repellency, note that Bye Bye Insects (Yellow) has comparable repellency to Farnam’s Tri-Tec14, Absorbine’s UltraShield Red and Pyranha’s Spray & Wipe, three of the “high end” Pyrethrin based sprays. Bye Bye Insects performed far better than the other Essential Oil sprays like Absorbine’s UltraShield Green or SmartPak’s OutSmart. These tests were for Biting Stable Flies which are harder to repel than House Flies. Chart data as of 10/20/18. Test protocol and full data posted at spalding-labs.com/x92je

3 Quarts $44 44.95 + tax, Delivered

Connect With Us @SpaldingLabs

The Little Bugs That Do A BIG Job™

pinterest.com/Spaldinglabs

1-888-282-8042 • ad code ujgcp • spalding-labs.com/x92je Bye Bye Instects and The Little Bugs That Do A Big Job are trademarks of Spalding Laboratories, Inc. Copyright© 2019 Spalding Laboratories, Inc., PO Box 10,000, Reno, NV 89510 All rights reserved. *Absorbine’s UltraShield Green and Red, Farnam’s Tri-Tec14 and Bronco, Pyranha’s Spray & Wipe, SmartPak’s OutSmart are trademarks of those respective companies tm

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