The Four Sixes Ranch | Samuel Burk Burnett | Tom Burnett | Anne Valliant Burnett Tandy | Anne W. Marion
The Big House | Oil and the Four Sixes | Horses of the Four Sixes | The Four Sixes Cattle
Four Sixes Supply House | Burk Burnett's Private Rail Car and The Burnett Buggy | End of the Open Range
Managers | Quanah Parker and Burk Burnett | Quanah Parker | M.B. Loyd

Horses of the Four Sixes

Burk Burnett had loved paint horses, and in the early years of the Four Sixes, he kept many of the paints on the ranch. He often said every spot on a paint horse was worth a dollar. The Indians he often traded and visited with agreed. In 1923, following Burnett’s death, all the stock horses were sold.

By the time George Humphreys took over as ranch manager in 1932, only a few horses remained on the ranch, and he assessed them as mostly old or worn out. Humphreys had a desire to some day have the best horses in the country on the ranch. He started building a herd by purchasing 20 good broodmares. The first stud horse was a grey named Scooter, a gift from Tom Burnett. The horse was out of a small Oklahoma sorrel racing mare. Tom had seen the horse win a race and thought Humphreys could use him.

Humphreys’ favorite stud, however, was Hollywood Gold, a yearling foaled on the Burnett ranch in Iowa Park, Texas, in 1940. He talked Miss Anne, granddaughter of Burk Burnett, into letting him have the horse “to raise some cow ponies,” Humphreys said. Hollywood Gold was used as a stud horse for many years. His offspring won cutting contests across the United Sates and brought top prices for breeding purposes.

Other than the discovery of oil on the Four Sixes Ranch, the most important change was the addition of an equine breeding program in the 1960s under Humphreys’ management. The ranch was very soon known for its world-class horses used for ranch work and competition in the arena and on the racetrack. The Four Sixes’ colts are carefully bred to have cow sense, speed, gentleness and good looks.

While American Quarter Horses are raised mainly for use on the ranches, surplus horses have been sold internationally and throughout the United States. Three of the most famous sires have been Joe Hancock, Hollywood Gold and Grey Badger II.

The ranch’s resident veterinarian and Horse Division manager, Dr. Glenn Blodgett, directs breeding through artificial insemination. The broodmare band is maintained at about 100 animals. All of the colts are gelded, then go into the cowboy remuda. Each year, a few of the fillies are kept to replenish the broodmare band.

Four Sixes horses wear the L brand in honor of Burk Burnett’s father-in-law, Captain M.B. Loyd. In 1994, the Four Sixes outfit of the Burnett Ranches was honored with the American Quarter Horse Association’s Best Remuda Award in recognition of its outstanding band of working cow horses that tend thousands of the ranch’s cattle.