Our History
From George Paul to today — and tomorrow
1940-1950
Reed & Barbara, the perfect match
Fresh from college graduation and city dwelling, newly married couple Reed and Barbara Kettlewell moved to the countryside in 1950 when they purchased a 210-acre farm, moved their small group of horses and began what is today Sunup Ranch – nationally recognized, and still Minnesota’s oldest and largest Quarter Horse breeder.
It started with Barbara, who in the mid-1940s found she was fascinated by the Quarter Horse, and began her quest to become a real student of the breed’s bloodlines. Reed came to be fascinated with horses at a young age through the influence of such movies as “My Friend Flicka.” He attended a school that offered a riding curriculum. Ironically, they both received help from their grandmothers to purchase their first horses and to stable them in Minneapolis. This is how the meeting between the two started – at a riding stable called Oak Lane.
Among Barbara’s first horses was a Quarter Horse stallion. “He was a horse named Palo Amigo Don by Don Elgelo by Don Topaz by Golden Don D. Then I got a little mare of Question Mark breeding in about 1947 or 48. That is what got me going. They were probably some of the first Quarter Horses in Minnesota and they gave me the bug.”
Once Reed graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Animal Husbandry, Reed and Barbara married and were keen to set about their dreams – which started on that 210 acres near the town of Osseo, Minnesota. Not only did they start out with their horses, Reed had a real desire to raise cattle, specifically Aberdeen Angus. They set about purchasing cattle from Mandan, North Dakota. They first called their place “Red Steer Ranch.”
Two years into their endeavor, and now with mares who were daughters of such horses as Monsieur Joe, Toad, Oklahoma Star, Sport, Tom Benear and Waggoner’s Rainy Day, Barbara felt their next purchase needed to be a stallion that would elevate their breeding program even more.
1950
Introducing George Paul
That was the auspicious start of Sunup’s breeding program. The ranch began raising and selling colts from the cross of George on these mares and many more who were purchased during the 1950s.
One mare in particular, EZ Dawson, a 1949 daughter of Wimpy II (Wimpy P-1 x Ann Wilson’s daughter) and out of the mare, Nancy Dawson (Pistol Dawson x Buckskin Dawson) became the magic cross with George. The match became the “power couple” of Sunup’s program. Together they produced get that became AQHA champions, ROM earners, futurity champions, AQHA halter champions and performance champions. Individuals such as Beau Bonanza, a son of Coy’s Bonanza and Dawson Beauty (George Paul x E.Z. Dawson) was the 1971 AQHA High Point Halter Stallion. Forty years after her death, Dawson Beauty remains in the top 20 all-time leading dams of halter winners.
To this day, Sunup has selected mares and stallions who keep alive the George Paul and E.Z. Dawson genetics and their impact on the ranch’s program through the get, grandget and great-grandget that continues to be realized in the mare herd, ranch horses and ranch-raised stallions.
Not only was the ranch focused on its mare herd, it also was invested in building an Aberdeen Angus herd. The horse and cattle operation complemented each other nicely and was a way to put the horses to work.
That move to purchase a stallion came in 1952, with a horse named George Paul. Barbara found the colt in Oklahoma at the G. E. Nicholson Ranch.
“I bought George Paul, as a weanling, sight-unseen, not even a picture. He came off the Nicholson Ranch at Tulsa, Oklahoma. I don’t think they were big breeders, but I liked the sound of the horse and it is the best thing I ever did. He was just a baby colt. He had a very nice pedigree. He was a son of Bert P-227, his dam was a daughter of Star Deck by Oklahoma Star and he was a fine animal. He was some colt. We couldn’t have come out better. He was a typey horse, with a great disposition. He had it all and he is what put us in the business. The day he arrived is the day I came home from the hospital with my first daughter, Vickie.”
1950s
The Expanding Stallion Battalion
As the ranch kept more daughters of George, it became necessary to bring in another stallion. Keeping with the working performance ability of the Bert horses, they selected a stallion from the King Ranch, Tee Bar Hitone, a son of Rey Del Rancho out the mare Nellie Laureles.
Tee Bar became the go-to horse for checking and moving the cows. And in those years, cutting was popular in Minnesota. Much like jackpot ropings, just-for-fun cuttings would rotate between neighbors for the sheer joy of working cattle and each other’s company. Reed would take Tee Bar to those, and a number of participants would be mounted on Sunup horses. Tee Bar earned his ROM in Working Cow Horse. The ranch used him on the George daughters and the cross was an excellent nick. The Tee Bar horses were cowy and talented.
And thus began the foundation of today’s mare herd – a true seed stock of Sunup’s selection history, arcing back to the very first Quarter Horses on the ranch.
With each successive generation Reed and Barbara would bring in outcross stallions that they felt would perpetuate not only conformation excellence, but real working athleticism and cow sense.
And, a young family was forming with the birth of a second daughter Jennie in 1957. Both daughters loved the ranch life and the horses. They were heavily involved in 4-H and showed in AQHA’s then-new youth classes. Growing up, they too were integral to the ranch. There was not much they couldn’t do – from operating hay machinery to starting colts to chore work.
At about this same time Reed became an AQHA judge. Reed considered judging almost an art form. He absolutely loved it. He would later go on to get judging cards with other breed organizations such as American Paint Horse Association and Palomino Horse Breeders Association.
Tee Bar Hitone, King Ranch branded stallion by Rey Del Rancho x Nellie Laureles
Reed, Vickie, Jennie and Barbara
1960s
Two Eyed Jack
Barbara and Star Eyed Jack
Strawberry Jack as a yearling
The third colt, Strawberry Jack, was out of the mare Margie Star (Starduster x Roan Queen). The addition of these stallions continued the compounding of Sunup’s program. Reed’s prediction came true as well – Two Eyed Jack’s record number of AQHA Champions sired is yet to be eclipsed.
In addition to the Two Eyed Jack sons from the Pitzer Ranch, Sunup Ranch purchased two sons of Watch Joe Jack out of the great mare Ima Tyree. These stallions – Watch Tyree and Watch Tyree Two – really amped up the ranch’s showing interest. These sires, crossed on daughters from the Two Eyed Jack x George Paul mares, produced get that excelled not only in halter, but performance as well, particularly in the roping classes. They sired multiple Superior earners, ROMs, World Show qualifiers and performance and halter point earners.
Each successive outcross stallion added to the ranch came from families who were beginning to define AQHA’s “who’s who” pedigrees. For Reed and Barbara, they saw the potential in Two Eyed Jack as a breed-defining sire. Reed judged a number of AQHA shows where Two Eyed Jack was shown. He realized, right off, the horse’s potential.
In the late 60s, Reed and Barbara made several trips to Howard Pitzer’s ranch to select colts to bring on as sires at Sunup. Two of those colts were out of the mare Hilda Pat Star (Pat Star Jr x Hilda Beauty), an AQHA leading produce of dam. They were Star Eyed Jack and Chocolate Jack.
Barbara and Chocolate Jack
Watch Tyree Two made a huge contribution to Sunup. Get from these stallions out of the ranch’s George Paul and Tee Bar Hitone mares went on to prove themselves in most any direction customers took them – from the arena to the ranch to the trail – with Superior earners, ROMs, APHA champions, futurity winners, halter and performance point earners.
1970-1980
Adding Important Outcrosses
In the mid-1970s, the ranch moved operations to a much larger spread near Brainerd, Minn, the move made necessary by development. The ranch’s new location afforded expansion of both the cattle and horses. With that expansion came the purchase of additional outcross stallions. A young sire by the name of Zan Parr Bar captured Reed and Barbara’s attention. They bought two sons as yearlings – Zan Parr Sun (Zan Parr Bar x Skip Shot x Skipity Skip) and Saturday Nite Line (Zan Parr Barr x Paclamar Sweetie x Parker’s Trouble).
By this time, Sunup Ranch had gained a national customer base. Unique to Sunup Ranch is that all sales are private. In the 1960s and ‘70s, customers traveled from across the country to visit Reed and Barbara to see their stock and purchase colts. Deep friendships formed around the horses. Customers became repeat, loyal customers, and found success with their Sunup-bred horses in their own breeding programs, in the arena, on their ranches or simply for their recreation. Establishing that early customer base has been key to the ranch’s longevity.
Now, with more cattle and more pastures, use of the horses for moving and gathering became even more integral to operations. The ranch’s cattle operation was cow-calf based, running about 80 pairs, and as with the horses, the ranch kept heifers and bought bulls.
Zan Parr Sun by Zan Parr Bar x Skipity Skip
1980-1990
Great growth and a great loss
The 1980s and early ‘90s were robust times. To support the core group of stallions at the ranch, which now ran 80-plus mares, Reed and Barbara added Heza Peponita, a son of Peponita; Skips Poquito, a son of Skipper’s King; Gay Bar Robin, a son of Gay Bar King, and the ranch still had a breeding son of George Paul and E.Z. Dawson – Wimpy George.
The 1980s were also the years Sunup had their first international customers come to the ranch – from England and France. With favorable exchange rates and the increasing interest in Quarter Horses in Europe, seven horses left Sunup for Europe with those first customers. Since then, Sunup horses now have homes in Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, England and France. And, Sunup Ranch horses have gone to Central America, Mexico and Canada. Of note is that Sunup Ranch horses reside in almost every state, including Alaska and Hawaii.
In 1986 Reed died, leaving the large operation to Barbara to operate. The family’s intense interest was to keep Sunup going. A few adjustments were made, some of the cattle were sold along with some of the mares.
Reed Kettlewell
Barbara kept the operation going strong; she had always been an equal partner. Today, at 98 years, Barbara still resides on the ranch.
1990 to today
The Next Generation
In the early 1990s, daughter Vickie Kettlewell, and her husband, Greg Booth, moved onto the ranch and began taking on some its responsibilities. Greg took up an interest in roping, and the ranch began to more heavily promote its production in the roping arena.
The ranch campaigned more of its own stock, putting show records on some of its breeding stallions, and on mares the ranch had selected to go back to the herd.
Greg and Vickie brought in some new stallions to the program as well, including a son of Mr Baron Red – Watch Red Sunup, and a young son of Joe Jack Red named Hey Joe Jack, whose second dam is a daughter of Zan Parr Bar.
They also decided on a couple of young sons from Watch Tyree Two’s last foal crop – Down To Tyree, out of a daughter of Zan Parr Sun, and Sunups Tyree, owned in partnership with Crow Bar Ranch, and shown to an AQHA ROM Performance earner, 2018 World Show qualifier in Dally Team Heeling, Performance Halter stallions and Tie-Down Roping. Sunups Tyree stood 4th in the nation in Jr. Tie-Down Roping; he was MQHA high-point champion in heading, heeling and tie-down roping.
Misty Star Eyed heading at the AQHA World Show with Chad Masters
AQHA honored Sunup Ranch with its 50-year Legacy Breeder award in 2005, and in 2012 the ranch was among the inaugural ranches qualified and recognized in the Ranching Heritage Breeders program. In 2016 Sunup was named a finalist as Ranching Breeder of the Year by AQHA.
Throughout the decades, the ranch has always felt it was vital to select for conformation correctness – horses with great depth, carry-down muscling, good bone and feet, balance, and the accompanying athleticism, speed and innate cow sense that is unique to the breed coupled with the breed’s inherent kind, reliable and willing disposition. We find it vital when selecting for these traits to not lose sight of Quarter Horse type and class, the breed’s defining structure and look.
Vickie Kettlewell and The Suntan Charmer, a daughter of Zan Parr Sun
For about five years, the ranch stood a son of Freckles Playboy x Peppys Jeannie (by Peppy San Badger), Playboys R Peppy, with more than $14,000 in NCHA earnings. We retained three daughters in our herd from this sire.
Most importantly in the 1990s, Barbara had identified a young son of Zan Parr Sun, Zans Tyree Drifter, out of the mare Tyrita George by Watch Tyree. The second dam went back to George Paul and EZ Dawson. Greg and Vickie began using this horse extensively on daughters of Heza Peponita, Watch Tyree Two, Skips Poquito, Gay Bar Robin and Nic It In The Bud. Due to the uniformity of his foals and how consistent they are in athleticism, conformation, type and disposition, today Zans Tyree Drifter is the ranch’s main stallion.
More recently, the ranch has added Nitos Smart Jewel, a son of Bowmans Smart Jewel and out of a daughter of Peponita.
Watch Tyree Two