One of the most renowned ranch rodeo teams in the country professionally live the real cowboy life every day.
Lonesome Pine Ranch, Cedar Point, claimed its most recent ranch rodeo title at the EquiFest of Kansas in Salina. It is one of nearly uncountable such feats of the true working cowboys.
“We are a working ranch using horses everyday caring for cattle in the Flint Hills,” said Bud Higgs.
It’s a family operation going back more than eight decades. “My dad Frank Higgs, now 85, is still a working cowboy at Valley Center where I grew up,” Bud reflected. “So, I have been a cowboy all of my life really.”
Today, Bud Higgs’ children Troy and Makenzie have continued the family tradition. “They work on the ranch horseback and are on our rodeo team along with my dad. Of course, my wife Roseann is our biggest supporter and best coach we could ever have.”
Very competitive and an achiever in whatever endeavor, Bud inherited the trait. “Dad bred, raised, and trained his own Quarter Horses. He was always out to be the best possible, and I’m the same. All of the family is too.” Bud admitted.
Showing Quarter Horses successfully as a youth and a college athlete, Bud came to the Flint Hills to be a “real” working cowboy. “I worked for the Griffin family in their diverse Chase County cattle operations,” Bud said. “That also gave me additional opportunities to do horse training and occasional day work.”
Expanding out on his own through custom grazing cattle, Higgs then acquired his present ranch. “There was a lone pine tree in the front yard, so that’s where the Lonesome Pine Ranch named derived,” he said. “We built a new home, but that pine tree is still there.”
While Higgs has a substantial personal ranching operation, he also works with a number of other cattle and land owners. “We have about 150-stock cows of our own and manage another thousand cows for additional owners.”
Custom grazing cattle has long been a Flint Hills tradition. Owners locally and from afar put their cattle on leased native Bluestem a few summer months for efficient profitable gains.
“We look after 5,000 grazing cattle every summer which keeps all of us busy,” Higgs admitted.
“I am especially fortunate that everybody in my family has the ability and is interested in doing the work,” Higgs credited.
Additionally, Higgs and family are called regularly for day work assisting area ranchers in roundups and cattle care. “We help everybody out when they need us,” Higgs said.
Of particular interest to Lonesome Pine Ranch is the preservation and care for the Flint Hills. “We’ve always believed in burning for managing and improving the oldest largest native grassland in the world,” Higgs said. “There’s a lot more to taking care of pastures than most people realize.”
Handwork and chemical applications also help control brush and weed invaders. “Now, sericea lespedeza has become a terrible problem for us,” Higgs said. “We are doing our best to slowdown pasture invasion, but it’s sure an uphill battle,” Higgs said.
Roseann is a longtime teacher and coach at Chase County Schools. “She’s had considerable success coaching basketball, volleyball and softball,” Higgs said. “Roseann even coached our own children and must be credited for much of their athletic accomplishments.”
After graduating from Kansas State University, Troy returned to the Flint Hills to become a rancher. “Makenzie is finishing up at Butler County Community College, and is uncertain whether she’ll continue her education or pursue ranching fulltime,” Higgs said. “’She’s always a big help on the ranch doing whatever needs to be done.”
Higgs has been competing at ranch rodeos for about 30 years. “I rode with several other area ranches before starting our own Lonesome Pine Ranch team,” Higgs said. “We compete in 15-20 rodeos throughout the Midwest each year. With our family, Bo Krueger and Travis Duncan have also been on our team for five years.”
Collecting many ranch rodeo team titles, Lonesome Pine’s highlight was the Working Ranch Cowboys Association (WRCA) Finals Championship in 2015. “That’s the one we work the hardest for all of the time,” Higgs said. “You first must qualify and then compete at Amarillo against the best working cowboys in the world.”
Personally, winning a number of ranch rodeo top hand and top horse awards, Higgs is proudest of son Troy matching and exceeding those feats. “Troy has received the top hand and top horse awards at the WRCA Finals, which means so much to us all,” Higgs said.
Especially important to all of the family, they are riding homebred and trained ranch horses. “Dad started the breeding program with Tinker Red McCue, so the mares all trace to that stallion,” Higgs said. “We are using a couple of Doc Alena, Freckles Playboy, Joe Reed stallions with the mare line also intensely Leo influenced.”
Troy showed a homebred gelding to win heeling at the Wichita Quarter Horse circuit with his dad as header.
There was more than the ranch rodeo championship for Lonesome Pine Ranch at the EquiFest of Kansas. The team won the stray gathering and wild cow milking at different performances. Roseann again served as the rodeo secretary which she has done a number of years. Lonesome Pine provided some of the cattle for the rodeo and Frank Higgs settled cattle after runs during both performances.
No slowdown is in sight for Lonesome Pine Ranch as dad Frank is excited about his new stallion prospect. Troy, with a horsewoman fiancé, is a major asset to the ranch. Makenzie’s enthusiasm for ranch life expands as Roseann keeps a watchful eye over all at the renowned Lonesome Pine Ranch.