MEET DAVE AND THE WALKING G RANCH
THE WALKING G RANCH
The Walking G Ranch is literally a dream ranch!
As a small boy on a horse farm near Newport, RI, I dreamed of having a horse ranch out West where you could ride the trail for days without hitting a fence. My dream ranch had beautiful, well fed horses, cattle and all sorts of animals. It had lush green pastures, a river to swim and fish in.
After leaving home at the age of 16, I made my way West by working on ranches and traveling through all the western states. On August 16th, 1950, my search finally came to an end in historic Genesee Valley, California .
Soon after settling down on this dream ranch, we call the "Walking G", I thought how much I would have enjoyed spending some time on a ranch like this when I was a child. Watching my own children grow up on the ranch, I knew that we should share this experience with others. In June of 1957, we started the Walking G Ranch Camp with five children for one month. After 52 years of operating the ranch camp for children, I have decided to offer this enjoyable experience to families and other groups.
HISTORY OF THE WALKING G BRAND
I am often asked where we got the name Walking G. While making my way out West, I decided that I wanted to raise Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. I managed to get work with some of the leading breeders of that time by going to each breeds' center. I did some "horse tradin" to accumulate a foundation of breeding stock. At this time my ranch was still a dream. So I pastured my growing band of horses on the huge Antlers Ranch near Meeteetse, Wyoming. The Antlers Ranch covers many thousands of acres, much of it open range. The horses had to be branded for identification. At the time I called my outfit the Gypsy Ranch. I called it this because I was very similar to a traveling Gypsy with many of my horses scattered in various ranches throughout the western states. When I finally put my roots down, the name was changed to Walking G.
We don't brand our horses anymore, but we do have the Walking G on the back of our racing silks and we often have the pleasure and excitement of watching some of our homebred race horses carry the kelly green and white colors with the big Walking G right to the winner's circle! We still breed, raise, race and sell high guality throughbreds and quarter horses.