The Clark Morris Ranch Then in _ my Dad, John Morris purchased a Brahman Bull. For about 15 years, John and Charlene worked to establish a purebred herd of Brahman and Simmental cattle. These cattle provided 4-H projects and show cattle for Misty, Sunny and Tawny.
Cattle on the Morris Ranch
The Morris Ranch always ran cattle and horses. There were more than likely never more than about 10 horses on the ranch at any time. The cattle herd began as commercial cattle which numbered originally about 100 head of mother cows Ramona and Clark ran. They hayed the meadow and land across the river. The cattle were turned out in the spring in the Willie Lewis place and then in June they were gathered and driven to Bear Valley. The cattle stayed in Bear Valley until fall when the calves were weaned there and the cows driven back to the ranch in October. They stayed in the Willie Lewis place until it was time to feed again in the winter.
Horses on the Morris Ranch
Most likely there were never more than 10 horses on the ranch. The horses Clark rode he bought, but the horses John and Mary Margret had were raised. When Mary Margret was around 4 Clark had a horse by the name of Cowboy. He was a bay horse and a good one. Evidently, he was a rather spirited horse. It is told that Clark had Cowboy tied out by the pickup one day and Mary Margret asked to go pet him. Clark assumed that she would go pet him on the nose. When Clark came back outside she was squated behind his hind foot petting him!!!!! Cowboy lived a long time on the ranch after that. Mary Margret thought he became crippled either by some accident or old age and had to be put down.
A few years later Clark had a Morgan horse by the name of Buster. Buster was a beautiful horse but you could ride him all day and he may try and buck you off when you got home. Mary Margret remembers him bucking with Clark near the gate into the barnlot and in the middle of a harrow. Clark sold him to a man that had connections to rodeo stock. This man sold him to a bucking horse contractor and some time later Merl Collins was going to be a pickup man at a rodeo that the contractor was producing. Merl looked in the pen of bucking horses and said he would use that one and he rode Buster and picked up on him that afternoon.
When Clark and Ramona first were married, Clark bought Darkie for her. He was a big black horse. Bryon Lemmons borrowed him for his daughter when she was Roundup Queen (June Lemmons Brunswick). Darkie became John's horse years later.
Sometime later the ranch had a horse named Jud. He was a bay horse that was eventually loaned to several families in town that let their kids ride. Clark gave up on Jud when he couldn't get him to gallop anymore. Jud was a wonderful kid's horse.
When Mary Margret was probably aboout 4, Clark bought Gypsy for her. She was a white grade mare. Later Gypsy was bred to a pinto stallion. She had a pinto colt that was to be mine. Clark bought a 1/2 brother to this colt for John. We would have matching pintos!!!!! Well when the colts were about a year old John's colt came in with a broken leg and had to be destroyed. Mary Margret gave John her colt. These colts were Snip and Snap. The last Mary Margret knew of Snap he was at the dude ranch up Canyon Creek. They had some promo pictures of the dude ranch with him in them. (In John and Charlene's house, the picture of Tuffy and Clark roping, Clark is riding Snap.) Gyspy's next colt was a quarterhorse mare named Cotton. Maurice Ray owned the stud. He lived near the Holliday Ranch on the way to Prairie. She was the first colt Mary Margret broke and she belonged to her. Mary Margret was about 9 when she"broke" her. She became crippled when she was 3 and was then turned out and bred. She was bred to a quarterhorse stud and the result was Cassandra. After she had Cassandra she was never lame again. The vet's can't explain that. Cotton ended up at the Mascall Ranch below Dayville and their kids learned to ride her. She was gentle as a dog. Gyspy's last colt was Ali Khan. He was from a remount Arabian stallion that Wayne Stewart had at the edge of Dayville. He was to be Ramona's horse. He became Mary Margret's horse and John ended up with Cassandra. Snap was never a horse for an inexperienced rider and Cotton was to slow for us kids!!!!!
One of the things Clark did to get the mares bred was to make a deal with the stallion owner. If it is a horse colt it is yours and a filly colt mine or vice versa. Daddy won with Snap, Cotton and Ali Khan. Somewhere we bred Cotton and Cassandra to a Thoroughbred stallion and had Pat and Star. Pat was John's and we gave Star to Joe (Davis). We sold Star in California. Don't know what happened to Pat. Cassandra then had Billy King and Billy King 2. The first Billy King drowned up above the corrals. One other horse we had was Louis Morris's (John and Mary Margret's granddad) He was a mustang from Murder's Creek. His name was Skippy. He was gentle enough but very spirited. Just what a kid loved. Mary Margret remembers riding him when she was finishing the 5th grade and had her leg in a cast. She also remembers catching him in the meadow one day and trying to get the other horses up the lane. She said, she supposes he ran away with her - with a spade bit!!!!! -- A little bit of advice: Never chase horses bareback with an old mustang!!!!!!! Cassandra was probably the last horse we had on the ranch you could ride with a spade bit. We rode Ali Khan with a spade bit when we weren't going to be playing (at parades, show rings and such)