Will Gill & Sons

The Gill family ranches date back to 1873 when they moved from Iowa to Porterville, California. They were a large family and, by the early 1900’s, had acquired many thousands of acres in the foothills of Tulare County. By the early 1920’s, the Gill family expanded to Madera County, bought several ranches, including part of the old Henry Miller ranch, built a feedlot and established our office where it is today.

In 1945, we acquired “Easy Keeper”, P12044, a bay colt from the Peakes. An own son of that great foundation horse “Driftwood”, he was out of “Smokey McCue”, a gray mare with identical papers to “Sage Hen”, the mother of Dale Smith’s “Poker Chip”, also by “Driftwood”.

Floyd Boss broke Easy Keeper for us, and, in no time, I was watching the sorting gate on him. He had so much natural cow sense, speed, quickness and athletic ability, along with a great disposition, we decided maybe we should buy a few mares and get in the horse bought a truckload of AQHA foundation mares from W. M. Howard, picked up a few others at auctions, and in 1949, we registered our first colts. To that end, we were recently honored for 50 continuous years of breeding and registering quarter horses with the AQHA.

These horses all have a great rodeo and performance heritage. Truly, horses with a history, from the ranch to the rodeo.