Quixote Longhorns
Les Mallory had already found the perfect getaway, a ranch on a beautiful lake just outside of Warrenton on FM 954, now aptly named Rincon del Cielo - roughly translated meaning "piece of heaven". He liked the idea of doing something with cattle, and the more he researched the more he became enthralled with the Texas longhorn. Another thing that drew him to the special breed was a common heritage - Mallory has an ancestral background comprised of Spanish and German blood, and Texas longhorns were originally also from Spain.
After researching the breed, Mallory decided to purchase his beginning herd from Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge (WMWR) in Oklahoma. All of the refuges longhorn bulls and cows are registered with the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, the International Texas Longhorn Association, and the Cattlemens Texas Longhorn Registry (CTLR). The CTLR requires blood typing to confirm the purity of the longhorn blood line.
In 2003 he came home with 13 pure longhorn cattle, the beginnings of Quixote Longhorns. Ease of birth and the toughness of the breed were two other reasons why Mallory chose the longhorn.
Longhorn cattle, the full-blooded Texas breed, are descended from Spanish cattle who came here with the first Spanish settlers in the mid 1500s. Possessing survival traits such as its awesome horns and ability to eat just about anything, the pure Texas Longhorn was a breed that came close to extinction due to crossbreeding with other species of cattle. By 1920, the true longhorn had begun to disappear. A special Congressional appropriation made funds available for two U.S. Forest Service employees, Will C. Barns and John Hatton, to set forth on a 5,000-mile search for typical animals.
If you'd like a Longhorn of your own, contact Quixote Longhorns on how to purchase one of our calves.
