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Written by Bill Lefty & the Brooks family
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Leonard Brooks & Plumb Dry
“Every morning, he awoke at 5 a.m. That morning, he peacefully departed at 5 a.m., with all his dignity intact,” said Leonard’s youngest son Lee as he made the calls to inform family members and friends.
In 1967, Louis Price, Leonard’s father-in-law, offered Leonard and his wife Patty, an opportunity to return to Jamestown and run the family ranch formerly known as the Price Ranch. Now known as Brooks Ranch, its 7,000-plus acres has been in Patty Price Brooks’ family more than 100 years.
Once given their chance, Leonard and Patty, and other family members, immediately went to work improving the native grass pastures and availability of stock water, updating the genetics and rapidly increasing the carrying capacity for their expanding cow herd, yearling operation, and 100-plus horse broodmare band.
During more than 50 years of breeding, Brooks Quarter Horses became bigger than life. Leonard Brooks explained to his son Lee, an NCHA Non-Pro Futurity finalist, that he’d liked horses since he was a boy. As early as the 1960s, Brooks always owned “a few mares”. Brooks Quarter Horses, sometimes with an inventory of more than 250 registered horses, was never a mere business for Leonard. It represented his life’s work. The ranch provided an ideal environment, and the horses were a necessary part of their cattle operations, and his lifelong passion.
His horses were raised as practical as the cow herd, bred, foaled and raised outside in the rolling to steep native grass pastures. The purchase of AQHA race horse Bar The Door (sired by Three Bars) From Schwabacher’s Quarter Circle 5 Ranch, was a precursor to buying Plumb Dry (Dry Doc x Pantera Chex x King Fritz) a 1981 stallion Leonard developed into a 1984 Natonal Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity World Champion. “Plumb” later sired more than 500 foals, including Lee Brooks’ Plumbs Sensation (Plumb Dry x Spear Side Gal x No Doors), a career earner of more than $63,000 as a cutter.
Sons of Smart Little Lena, Dash For Cash, Peppy San Badger and most recently, Tapgun were bought to use in Brooks Ranch’s unique pasture breeding operation.
In 1979, the Brooks family built a large on-the-ranch enclosed horse complex including stalls, pens, and an indoor training facility. The site hosted cuttings and cow horse events, ranch production sales and daily training sessions.
Not long after Plumb Dry won the 1984 Snaffle Bit Futurity, Leonard experienced a major health scare that prompted his wife Patty to encourage a down sizing of their cattle operations.
Brooks had the advantage of observing many successful ranches, packing companies and feed yards throughout the United States. He took the best and innovated the practical applications to the Changing times. He preached that “Information is a very valuable asset,” to family, friends, and employees.
He knew who was buying what and for how much, what stallions were getting the job done, and where the best quality horse hay was plentiful. He knew where cull cows would bring the most, which ranches had the best feed and water, where to buy cows as good or Better than his. He also knew what to charge for pasture gains, what the exchange was on the Canadian dollar, and what was happening on the Southern border.
Against conventional wisdom, Brooks went to fellow cattle feeder Sam McElhaney in Arizona and over time, bought more than 100 Charolais bulls. When they delivered the first Charolais-sired calves to the community corrals, after weighing the first two drafts, Brooks thought there must be something wrong with the scales. Word of The Brooks Ranch “big Buckskin or white and black-nosed calves” got around.
Some of the first “Brangus Super Baldies” in the West wore Brooks Ranch’s I Heart brand. By the 1970s, Leonard And Patty Brooks had over 4,000 cow-calf pairs and 135 mares. Even by 2011 standards, that was a sizeable operation.
In order to accommodate their increased cow herd and broodmare band, plus the need for summer pasture to balance the ranch’s strong native feed, Leonard and Patty leased ranches, including Double Diamond Ranch In Reno, Nev., Simpson Ranch, Bridgeport, Calif., Kelsey Ranch, Merced, Calif., Rodden’s Circle Bar Ranch, Oakdale, Calif., and the family’s mountain ranches in Hull Meadows.
Leonard Brooks discovered the Internet in 2002 and doubled his information data bank. From his own computers, he promoted Brooks Ranch Quarter Horses, tracked the markets for horses and cattle, and with his daughter-in-law Miriam’s help, did some very effective marketing. His telephone bill remained substantial but the new “Information Age” did not intimidate Brooks.
He was always up for a challenge. He demonstrated many times that necessity was the mother of invention. In the spring of 1964, the Federal Cattle Market threatened to end the cattle feeding business. So, Leonard and Patty Brooks opened their own butcher shop to retail the cattle they had on feed at Kern County Land Company. Full-page ads in The Bakersfield Californian launched Stockdale Meats, stating “We Feed Our Own Cattle ... Selling Only American USDA Meat.”
As documented in a 1964 Western Livestock Journal editorial, Brooks was always aggressive in solving a lack of feed, and in later years, he solved most market challenges by enlisting marketing stalwarts Ellington Peek or H. ‘Skinner’ Hardy. Admittedly, the only real problem he couldn’t improve was the weather.
Brooks served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. He worked for the Rudnick family at its feed yards and Piute Packing Houses In Bakersfield and Modest, Calif. His livestock education included working with H. ‘Skinner’ Hardy’s father, Col. Harry T. Hardy.
In September, 2011, Brooks started aggressively implementing a “Bucket List,” on his terms. He negotiated and documented one of the best grass leases in the West, witnessed the start of a promising grass year, and enjoyed Thanksgiving at home with his family. He watched the 50th National Cutting Horse Association Futurity on his computer during his short stay in the hospital.
Brooks methodically said “goodbye” to those he treasured most, reiterated his “exit plan” on his terms and on his peaceful way out, his parting words to loved ones were, “That’s the way it is supposed to be done! ”
Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Patricia Price Brooks, sons Ron (Gerry) and Lee (Miriam), daughter Eileene Dambacher (Jim), stepson Price Mailloux (Barbara), stepdaughter Deniece Mailloux (Audi Rice), and many grand and great-grandchildren. His parents Munsel Brooks and Jesse Jackson Brooks and sons Rod Brooks and Robert Brooks preceded him in death.
The Brooks family asks anyone wishing to make a donation in memory of Leonard Brooks to contact their favorite charity, any cancer organizations, the AQHA Youth Foundation, NCHA Charities Foundation, Andy Peek Memorial (c/o Red Bluff Bull & Gelding Sale), or Small Miracles Foundation Of Oregon (for children with cancer).
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