I got into the cattle business on the grade side in December 2003. We started with a small loan, 4 heavy bread heifers, and a leased place. Though, in high school, I showed heifers at all of the major shows.
Now, we have registered breeding herds of both Texas Longhorns & IBBA Brangus.
I have been around cattle & horses my entire life. I grew up on a farm in Kaufman, TX. I broke horses on our place, & for the neighbors. I also trained & tuned up horse for people who had problems with their animals.
I started riding bulls in 1988. I started with high school rodeos. It wasn’t long before I was traveling the circuits. Then I was leaving the states on the weekends. I told my parents I was camping with buddies. I enjoyed a good run of free spirit, and free life from 1989 & retired in 1998. I was able to walk away done & complete. I walked away in good health on my own accord.
I have always enjoyed working with children. I have been involved in a multitude of youth sports. Horses & cattle have always been my sanity & love. Combining these with kids is the ultimate blessing & opportunity for me. When you do what you love, it is no longer work. I am lucky whether we are introducing & teaching a child with horses, or cattle. Both carry huge responsibilities. Both teach kids what it means to have life depend upon you. We incorporate every level at our ranch. We teach the vocabulary. We teach the work to include feeding, health care, bathing, we teach patience, how animals learn what you are looking for, and we teach the importance of loving the animals to get the most out of them.
My family:
I am married to Amy Grubaugh.
Clint is my oldest son. Clint has other aspirations outside of the ranch. He is his own dog with his own path. No forced hands here.
Our oldest daughter is Brittany. Brittany has that natural thing with animals you just can’t teach. She is as good with training & riding a horse as she is with raising & producing the very best show heifers. Brittany can drive the dually, stretch fence, run the tractor, and drive her Dad nuts… all in the same day.
3rd in line is Marilyn, AKA “The Midget”. The Midget had her first show experience with her heifer, “Fern” starting in 2008. She was 9 when we picked up Fern. Marilyn was immediately in control & responsible for feeding her twice a day, everyday. Marilyn & I worked together to teach Fern to lead, set up, and then shows.
Our youngest daughter is Marci, AKA “The Tiny”. Marci is the horse lover from the word go. She has always been fascinated with horses since birth. She got her first horse in 2003 for Christmas. Horses & people were the first two things she drew for Mommy & me.
The IBBA Brangus:
The Brangus are for breeding stock & the show arenas. Two of my daughters show Brangus heifers at all of the major shows. This is how we started our heard. Marilyn is the youngest & a member of Junior FFA. Brittany is the oldest & an active FFA member. Both girls have placed top 5 at San Antonio, Ft Worth, Houston, & our local county shows in Kaufman County.
We believe that disposition is a part of our job. All of our cattle can be hand fed. We handle them as quickly after birth as possible. We believe in imprinting early.
It has been a life long dream of mine to have a herd of IBBA Brangus. Our goal is to be a premier ranch for the show arena & breeding stock. I started with a few grade cows knowing without a doubt it was my means of getting to a registered herd.
The TLBAA Longhorns:
The Longhorns are Amy’s. We met on February 19th, 1997. We were married April 25th, 1998. Amy is my soul mate. She is a graduate from THE University Of Texas at Austin. I will let her tell you the rest about her.
She truly loves UT, Austin, Longhorns, all that go with the university & it’s surroundings. For our 5-year anniversary, I gave her 2 heavy bred Longhorn cows. Then there were 4, then 5, 6, 8, 10, and so on. The herd grew fast. We were quickly obsessed with getting different colors & horn patterns into the herd.
All of our Longhorns, like the Brangus, are handled within hours of birth. I am often asked where are the cows when I do this? Do they run you over? The answer is no. They trust me. They are great mammas, but they trust us. Imprinting early is huge to us. All of our Longhorns can be hand fed. Anyone can dump feed into feeders & walk away. We believe owning a Longhorn is an experience. These are unique pieces of live art. No two horn patterns are exactly the same. No two have color patterns the same.
