Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch...

Brian's company is owned by a famous ranching family.  And on Wednesday, we were invited to spend a day on the ranch.  

The ranch is southeast of Lubbock.  About a 3 1/2 hour drive from Fort Worth.  And it is a totally different world.

The ranch is known for black angus cattle and for a world class quarter horse breeding program.  I was surprised to find that the cowboys still do most of their work on horseback.  I asked one of them  about it, and he told me that the terrain is so rough on the ranch that four wheelers just don't work.  Too many canyons and gullies.

I have lived in Texas for 35 years.  Pretty much my entire adult life.  But I had never been on a working ranch.  It is the middle of calf branding season, so when we arrived we watched the calves being roped, branded and inoculated. 

They were more anxious about being separated from their mothers than about being wrangled by the cowboys.

We had lunch with the cowboys in the modern day version of a chuckwagon.  Beef was on the menu.

After lunch we moved over to the working horse corral.  A few cowboys rounded up a few dozen horses....

 And then they all picked out fresh mounts.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the quarter horse breeding facility.  It is state of the art, breeding both cutting, reining and ranch horses (they call them performance horses) and racing horses.  This is Sixes Pick, a performance stallion.

And this is one of the racing stallions.  I didn't catch his name.

We visited some mares and foals.  This little guy was 2 days old.

We left the breeding facility and headed to the ranch house for a tour.

Since it is still the family's home, we were asked not to take pictures of the house.  But believe me, it was pretty amazing.  Beautifully furnished and lots of interesting art.  Many presidents have visited, included Teddy Roosevelt and both Bushes, and the Comanche war leader Quanah Parker was a frequent guest.  

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful glimpse into another world.
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