Generations of bloodlines: Oklahoma’s historic Stuart Ranch

Recognized as the oldest continuously family-owned ranch in Oklahoma, Stuart Ranch traces its Quarter Horse bloodlines back more than 70 years.

Most mornings on the Stuart Ranch begin in stillness, but not in sleep. By 3:30 a.m., Terry Stuart Forst is up, the Oklahoma night still stretching its darkness across the skies. The early mornings give her time for Bible study and to crack open one of a stack of journals she has kept since 2011, the year the drought was so bad, water tanks went dry and grass crisped to powder.

Those journals are more than a record of weather and cattle counts — they serve as a log of decisions made in the hardest times, a map for how to keep going when the going feels impossible.

“I started it because I thought, maybe someday, when the next generation faces something like this, they can look back and see what worked and what didn’t,” she says. “It’s a reminder that we’ve come through before, and we can do it again.”

By the time most people are considering their first cup of coffee, Forst is saddled and riding out. She prefers to check cattle the old-fashioned way: horseback, because the pace and perspective can’t be matched by a pickup window or drone.

“You see more, you hear more. You catch things earlier,” she says. “And you can’t replace the connection you get with the cattle, the land, and the horse under you.”

The land she rides has been in her family since 1868, when Robert Clay Freeny, her great-great-great-grandfather, claimed 240 acres of Choctaw allotment land in what was then Blue County, Indian Territory. Freeny and his wife, Sarah Ellis, a Choctaw citizen, built a livelihood trading horses and mules to the U.S. Army, while also farming and running cattle.

That original homestead grew, generation by generation, into today’s Stuart Ranch, spanning across four Oklahoma counties. Between Caddo in the southeast and Waurika in the southwest, the ranch has grown to a combined excess of 40,000 acres of grass, brush, and history. It is recognized as the oldest continuously family-owned ranch in Oklahoma, and it’s run as a working operation, not a museum.

“This place is my life, my heritage, my responsibility,” Forst says. “When I had kids, that responsibility only grew. You realize you’re standing on a lot of broad shoulders, and you don’t want to be the one that drops the ball. This isn’t just ours. It belongs to the generations that came before and the ones still to come.”

Despite her love for the ranch, Forst’s path back to it wasn’t straight. Growing up, her father, R.T. Stuart Jr., believed that cowboying was for boys. She was welcome to be around the horses and cattle, but she wasn’t taught the nuts and bolts of running them.

One of her earliest jobs was walking her father’s polo ponies to cool them down after chukkers. Sometimes, she got the better-paying gigs walking horses for friends like oilman and horseman John Oxley or Bob Moore.

“I’d go wherever the pay was better,” she says with a laugh.

She took her interest further at Oklahoma State University, earning a degree in animal science at a time when few women pursued that path. Later, she attended the Texas Christian University Ranch Management Program, which she calls “one of the most valuable experiences” of her career. “I came out of there knowing I could run an outfit, and I had the tools to do it.”

When her father finally asked her to come back to the ranch, it was accompanied by a challenge: turn the cattle operation around and make it profitable.

“I told him, if I couldn’t make it work in a few years, he needed to hire someone else,” she recalls. “And, by golly, we did it. But not because it was easy. Daddy threw me to the wolves, and I had to figure it out. That’s how you learn.”

She credits those early challenges with shaping not only how she runs the ranch, but how she lives her life. Central to that outlook is her belief that the land is a blessing to be stewarded, not owned. She sees her role as honoring that gift, caring for it during her time, and ensuring it’s passed on in better condition than she received it.

Forst says her faith has been strengthened in both good years and hard seasons. She recounts the brutal 2011 drought and clings to Psalm 23’s reminder to go “through the valley” rather than stop in it.

“It doesn’t say we won’t face the fire, it says God will be with us in it,” she explains.

She also remembers a wreck in the pens when a calf tangled her leg against the fence, spooking her horse into a tight bunch of cattle.

“Somehow, I ended up in an empty pen,” she says. “I was banged up pretty bad, but I walked away. I know God’s angels were with me that day.”

She’s learned that faith doesn’t always mean answers come quickly.

When her husband passed away, Terry was left to raise two young sons, just two and five years old, while keeping the ranch running. There was no pause, no room for collapse. She relied on her faith and her grit, leaning on the quiet certainty that she wasn’t carrying the burden by herself. 

“I didn’t have the option of falling apart,” she says quietly. “We had life to live, and I had two little boys who needed a mama who could keep going. God carried us through that. Every day I got up, did the next thing, and trusted that He’d handle the rest.”

She often thinks about the generations before her, surviving the Depression, droughts, and hard markets.

“They made it through because they kept their eyes on the Lord and their hands to the work,” she says. “We’re no different.”

Family, work, and lessons from the land

That same grit and faith shaped how she raised her own sons on the ranch. For Robert and Clay, the land was both playground and classroom, a place where lessons in responsibility came early.

“They learned that animals come first,” Forst says. “You feed the horses and cattle before you feed yourself. That’s just the way it is.”

Ranch life meant long days in the saddle, learning to rope, fix fence, and handle livestock with respect. It ushered in a rugged work ethic and the knowledge that survival and success on this land takes a rare kind of resilience. When a storm wipes out a fence, fix it. When a calf doesn’t make it and heartbreak seeps in, tomorrow is still another day that work needs to get done.

The boys also learned their mother’s rule: No job was beneath them.

“I’ve told them, if the bathroom needs cleaning, you clean it. If a horse needs saddling, you saddle it,” she says. “A good leader is willing to do the work no one else wants to do.”

That same commitment to readiness extends beyond the ranch gates. She remembers a winter when the lodge’s water froze solid with a full house of hunters on-site. The ranch had to strip the beds and haul the laundry into town to be washed — and then return before the next group arrived at 4 p.m.

“Everybody jumped in — our office manager, my daughter-in-law, me. No job was too small,” she says. “Around here, if someone’s got a fire, everybody drops what they’re doing and shows up. That’s just how we live.”

Under her management, the Stuart Ranch became a model of diversification. The cattle operation includes both cow-calf and yearling programs, with about 60 percent of the cow herd being Black Baldies from Angus-Hereford crosses. Calves are marketed privately, with repeat buyers forming the backbone of sales.

For years, the ranch also operated the Stuart Ranch Meat Co., selling beef directly to consumers. It found traction during the COVID-19 pandemic, when grocery shelves went bare.

But when the processing plant shuttered unexpectedly, they again pivoted. Closing the meat company didn’t become a setback but rather part of a forward-looking strategy.

“The market was at a place where selling cattle on the hoof made more sense than processing them ourselves,” she says. “That decision gave us the cash to finally do some things we’d put off for a decade, like building fence and putting in water tanks. It felt like God was steering us toward a better path.”

She adds, “We aren’t so set in our ways that we can’t see a bigger picture. The three of us: Robert, Clay, and I, are always coming up with ideas. I’d say 85 percent of them are harebrained, but somewhere in there, one of them will stick, and we’re willing to change course if it’s better for the ranch. That’s how we make sure the next generation inherits something that’s still relevant.”

In 2009, Clay launched Stuart Ranch Outfitters, offering deer, turkey, and waterfowl hunts, along with lodging and full-service guiding. Robert runs the horse training program, producing horses proven on the ranch before they ever step into a show pen.

The beauty of the ranch’s bloodlines

Vital to the ranch’s diversification is its equine breeding program, which has roots dating back more than 70 years.

The Stuart Ranch horse program is anchored by its mares, many tracing to the original band R.T. “Bob” Stuart Jr. assembled with mares from West Texas and the stallion Big Shot Dun. From the start, the focus has been on soundness, cow sense, and versatility.

“My number one criterion,” Forst explains, “is this: Would I put a daughter of this stallion back in my broodmare band? If the answer is no, I won’t breed to him. I want good feet, good legs, a strong back, fertility, and mothering ability. Our mares foal in the pasture and raise their own colts; they have to be able to do a job, not just look the part.”

In 2018, a bay colt hit the ground at Stuart Ranch that Stuart believed could be the next chapter in their stallion legacy. Seven S Grand Slam, affectionately known as “Slammer,” was bred to embody everything the program stands for: substance, mind, athleticism, and a deep connection to the ranch’s own mare line.

Grand Slam is by Stevie Rey Von, the $420,903-earning 2015 National Cutting Horse Association Open Futurity Champion and 2018 NCHA Super Stakes Open Champion, whose offspring have already amassed more than $1 million in earnings from just two foal crops of show age. His dam, Seven S Fiesta, is pure Stuart Ranch, the result of decades of purposeful breeding, producing horses with both the grit for the ranch and the style for the show pen.

From the start, Slammer stood out. At 15.1 hands, 1,200 pounds, and N/N on the genetic 6-panel test, he combined size, clean conformation, and the mind to work anywhere.

“We used him in every aspect of the ranch before he ever bred a mare,” Forst says. “He’s sorted pairs, shipped cattle, doctored calves, and gone to town. You can ride him one-handed in the pasture or show him in a bridle class: he’s that trainable.”



Slammer is being used on the ranch, and enrolled in several of the industry’s most prestigious incentive programs, including The Riata Buckle — a premier roping stallion incentive series that draws top competitors nationwide, and the NRCHA Stallion Stakes, a major cow horse competition for young horses. He’s also part of the new NRCHA Cowhorse Incentive and the Gold Buckle Futurities Breeder Program, both designed to boost the visibility and earnings potential of top-quality performance horses. His first foals arrived in April 2023, stamped with his balance, athleticism, and quiet disposition.

The second stallion on the roster brings a different but complementary strength to the program. Mister Montana Chic, a 2007 black AQHA stallion by Smart Chic O Lena out of Lois Montana, carries a pedigree loaded with reining, cutting, and cow horse success. Originally purchased to pasture-breed ranch mares, Montana has NRHA earnings of $18,000 and five AQHA reining points, and like Grand Slam, he is N/N on the genetic panel. His foals are also eligible for The Riata Buckle program, giving them the chance to compete in one of the most lucrative and competitive arenas in the roping world.

The Stuart Ranch Quarter Horse program’s main focus has been producing horses that can work and still excel in the show pen. By the early 2020s, with the breeding program producing 30 to 40 foals each year and a growing demand for versatile young horses, the Stuarts began offering young horses at their annual sale, showcasing the ranch’s decades of selective breeding and commitment to producing horses with proven pedigrees and practical ability. 

Now in its fourth year, the sale has become a hallmark event for the program, attracting bidders from across the country. From August 21 to 24, the ranch will host its annual Seven S Quarter Horses Online Sale, with Grand Slam progeny headlining alongside young prospects by Mister Montana Chic. Buyers can expect yearlings bred for real-world use, built to last, and versatile enough for roping, cow horse, or ranch versatility.

While the sale is online, Forst encourages in-person visits.

“I want buyers to see these horses here, in their environment,” she says. “It’s about making the right match, not just making a sale. For her, the event is as much about relationships as it is about horses, finding people who will value and use these animals in the way they were bred for.

The ranch is ‘a gift from God’

Ask Forst what she loves most, and she won’t mention awards or sale prices. She’ll talk about riding through a pasture at sunrise, seeing the cattle where they’re supposed to be, watching a colt she raised handle a job with quiet confidence.

“It’s where I think best,” she says. “I see the land, the cattle, the grass, the water. I make plans out there. It’s not just work: it’s my way of being part of this place.

“This ranch is a gift from God,” she adds. “We’re just the caretakers for the time we’re here. My job is to be faithful with it and to hand it over better than I found it.”

With Robert and Clay deeply involved, the sixth generation is already shaping the ranch’s future. Forst’s focus is on keeping the operation strong, versatile, and ready for whatever the next decade brings.

“I want my grandkids to have the choice to come back,” she says. “Whether they do or not, I want the ranch to be ready for them.”



Heidi Crnkovic, is the Associate Editor for AGDAILY. She is a New Mexico native with deep-seated roots in the Southwest and a passion for all things agriculture.