Rafter H Longhorns is the joint venture of Kenn Harding, Tammy Tiner, and their daughter, Laura Harding. Our “business herd” of Texas Longhorns began in November 2000 with the purchase at the Eddie Woods Fall Sale of three foundation cows — all three big-volume cows with twist horns and strong pedigrees. However, our initial “hobby” involvement with Texas Longhorn cattle began back in October 1998 when Laura and Kenn went to John T. Baker's Sunrise Ranch to pick up and halter-break a ten-month old brindle heifer that had been donated to Laura by Glen and Lyn Lewis of the Flying Diamond Ranch. Since we had no place to keep a Longhorn heifer at our College Station house, located a block from Texas A&M University, Starlight Express stayed at the ranch of Christine Larsen, Laura's Longhorn mentor.

Over the next two years, Laura had another heifer donated to her in 1999, and we bought a young Shady W heifer and a young steer prospect from Christine. By the end of 1999, it was clear we were hooked, so we purchased some pasture land and began developing Rafter H Ranch.

The objective in our initial purchase in 2000 was to obtain cows that had the potential to produce show-quality animals, but which would also produce adult Longhorns with desirable horn development. Our initial breeding of Laura's heifers and our cows involved either artificial insemination or borrowed bulls. This approach became increasingly problematic with increasing numbers of breeding-age females. By November 2001, it was clear that the costs of artificial insemination services for the heifers/cows we already had on hand made purchase of a herd sire potentially cost effective.

To meet our objectives, we needed a herd sire that could produce young animals not only with size and conformation, but also with genetics that would provide horn development in mature animals. El Coyote Ranch had consigned an outstanding looking 1998 Emperor son to the Eddie Wood Fall Sale. He had the body size, horns, and pedigree that suggested he might be what we were looking for. After determining that his mother was a top producer of herd sires for El Coyote, we decided to bid on him at the sale. We were successful in purchasing him, and he has been an outstanding buy. He is gentle (he was a World Class Champion in the 1999 TLBT show), he stays at home, and he is producing uniformly outstanding calves from our small set of cows. We entered Emperor’s Echo in the 2002 TLBAA Horn Showcase and he was the Class 6 Total Horn Champion, confirming his outstanding horn growth.

Our first heifer from Echo and one of our first three cow purchases has been a Class Champion at both the 2003 and 2004 TLBT World Show. We took four heifers from Echo's first crop of 15 calves to the 2004 TLBAA World Show. In the TLBT Youth Show, we had one Class Champion, two 2nds, and a 4th . In the Non-Haltered Open Show, we had one Class Champion and two 2nds. Although we are just starting with a small herd, we now have confirmation of our ranch slogan, Breeding for Excellence.

With Echo's second calf crop on the ground and Echo's retained daughters reaching breeding age, we found ourselves needing a second herd sire. We decided we wanted to cross our Emperor genetics with genetics that provided for more early horn growth. Our Echo heifers have good size, and we did not want to sacrifice conformation and size for horn only. Our experience purchasing Echo at an age that we could see what he was going to be at maturity also influenced our decision-making process this time. We again purchased a three-year old bull.

Our second herd sire is Refuge Chex, a 2001 Bob Loomis-bred, Coach son from the El Coyote Ranch, where we were able to see some of his first progeny (one of which was out of an Emperor's Echo daughter!). He had over 50" of TTT horn at two years of age and has 75” of total horn at 3.5 years old. He has good size and great conformation for a Butler-blend bull; his mother is an outstanding WR cow with over 60” of horn and has several progeny with over 60” horn. We will be using him on our big and tall Echo heifers, as well as with some of our foundation females. We are excited about the prospects of this blend of genetics.

Visit us on our website at www.rafter-h-longhorns.com or at our ranch in northern Brazos County. We don't have fancy fences or pens, but we do have a nice set of cows, some champion trophy steers, and a couple of outstanding bulls producing some great looking calves. We also can provide the opportunity for limited pasture breeding to these bulls for other small longhorn breeders.

Phone (979) 777-5256