Reining ~ Reined Cow Horses ~ Roping ~ Barrel Racing

The JG & Wilson Sisters Ranch in Cherokee, TX (San Saba Co.) was bought by my grandfather, James F. Gray, in 1947. It is still a working cattle & horse ranch owned by his granddaughters, Gray-Leigh & Shannon Wilson. The ranch is located 8 miles east of Cherokee & has several miles of Cherokee Creek running through it. There is also a 25 acre lake that James Gray built in the 1960's. This water has been a great asset in improving the ranch for wildlife habitat & for livestock as well. King-bred Quarter Horses & Hereford cattle continue to be a part of our heritage. The limestone soil is key to building good bone in animals & it is high in calcium. The native grasses are strong & we have increased the coastal bermuda fields for the horses. It is primarily rough terrain with the creek bottom land being more suitable for the broodmares.

Some of my mares still trace back to our original "Cuellar" bloodline from the 1940's. Cuellar P-1821, was by King P-234 out of Old Silver P-12,893. He was a grand champion halter horse & sire.

A daughter of Cuellar, Cuellarine, was given to my mother by A. C. Hillman (who owned Cuellar) in 1948 & she produced our first 5 ranch horses. My first mare, Gray Le Cuellar (1961), was by a son of Cuellar out of this daughter of Cuellar.

What still amazes me after years of breeding horses, is that this mare would run so hard & wouldn't let another horse pass her. She would reach out & bite them if they got even close. Yet, if I were to fall off, she would stop dead still & wait for me to remount. She never ran off & left me. That special mare taught me to ride, work cattle & goats, learn every 4-H event, & swim across water. Sometimes, I would only be hanging on by her tail! The amazing part is - I was only 6 yrs. old & this mare was 3 - and why did my grandfather let me?! The disposition of that one horse shaped how I breed horses & how important bloodlines are.

My daughter, Leigh-Adella, barrel races & ropes. She takes my horses after I have them broken by Rory Phelan at Fredericksburg, & she starts them on barrels, roping, & hauling them to rodeos. She's a sophomore at A&M. I have 3 other trainers that specialize in reining, roping, or futurities that we use also.

Gray-Leigh Wilson Quarter Horses
San Saba, TX 76877

Home: 325-372-6162
Cell: 325-372-1242

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