HW 84 · Goldthwaite, Texas · Over a Century of Legacy
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700+ acres of private Texas Hill Country.
Come share it with us.
Six ways to use the land, from a night under the stars to a full season lease.
Bring your horse and ride 700+ acres of native Texas Hill Country: creek crossings, open pasture, old-growth oak, and limestone ridgelines. Private land means real riding, no crowds.
Bring your own horses. Day access. Private group rates available for larger gatherings.
Book AccessHost your clinic, riding event, get-away, or whatever you need on private ranch land. We have an arena, cattle equipment, paddocks and more with tons of room for parking, lots of open space.
Opening our stallion program in 2027, focused on producing horses with exceptional human connection: intelligent, calm, willing, and beautiful. Join the interest list now for first access.
Mares considered individually. Temperament and human-bond genetics are the priority.
Join Interest ListWhite-tailed deer, wild turkey, and native waterfowl on proven Central Texas ground. Private lake fishing included. Two lease options available for the 2026–27 season.
Currently full for 2025–26. Inquire to get on the waitlist for next season.
Join the WaitlistPrimitive camping on private land along the creek or near the lake. Horse-trailer friendly. The kind of quiet you can't find at a public campground.
Pack in, pack out. No hookups. Bring everything you need and leave it better than you found it.
Reserve a SpotSeasonal grazing arrangements on native pasture. Terms are set based on head count, acreage used, and how management responsibilities are split. Land-first operators preferred.
The ranch sits along Highway 84 in Goldthwaite, where the Hill Country starts giving way to the rolling plains of Central Texas. There's a creek that runs through the property year-round, a lake, open native pasture, limestone outcroppings, and stands of live oak that have been here a lot longer than we have.
Wildlife is thick: white-tailed deer, wild turkey, native waterfowl, and the kind of birdlife that makes binoculars worth carrying. The water and the trees and the silence make this a genuine retreat, not a manicured one.
The long-term vision for the land is a naturally managed native landscape: habitat restoration, native plant recovery, and thoughtful use that works with the land rather than against it.
It started with Joe White, our grandfather, who in the 1950s had a way with horses that felt almost prescient. He didn't break them or demand from them. He worked alongside them, with the patience of someone who understood that the horse had something to teach, if you were quiet enough to listen.
That understanding passed to our mother, Marena. She got her first horse as a girl, a Shetland named Sugar, quickly outgrown but never forgotten. At fourteen, she was given Starduster, the mare who would define the rest of her life. Starduster was grade, no papers, no pedigree, but Marena didn't need any of that to know what she had. Neither did anyone else. Wherever they went together, people stopped and made offers. Unsolicited. Persistent. Marena never sold her. Starduster responded to verbal commands, seemed to anticipate Marena's thoughts before they became movements, and worked cattle with the same quiet intelligence she brought to the arena. Her daughters went on to compete and win in rodeo. She and Marena spent nearly their whole lives together, that rare bond that people outside the horse world struggle to explain, and people inside it recognize the moment they see it.
In 2014, Marena passed away suddenly. The day before she left, a filly was born to Starduster's line, a granddaughter who earned the name Hellstar. We felt so lucky, so full of purpose, in being gifted our mother's passion and vision right as she left this world. Hellstar carries Marena's love forward, and always will.
We lost our grandparents and our mother, our guiding lights, the ones who knew this land and how to care for it, while we were still in school. It has been a monumental task to carry the weight of this inheritance forward without those who came before us. There was a lot of darkness in the years that followed. But slowly, we found our way back to healing, all through the horse. We don't doubt we could have made it without them. I don't doubt that Starduster's soul has been guiding us home.
"I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you."
Our goal is to breed horses that carry what Starduster had: that rare, human-first intelligence. Brilliant, expressive, kind. A guardian personality. The presence that makes strangers stop and ask. We also hold a quieter goal: to honor the native horses of this land and give them the space to preserve what makes them singular.
The program here is built on natural upbringings and connection-based horsemanship: relationship-based training, natural environments, slow-paced weaning, unhurried work, and holistic care. We're here for life, and longer.
Learn More About Our Equine ProgramThis land has been in the family since 1904. Irk and Minnie Black were headed for California when Texas held them up, and it held them for good. They worked these acres until they could not, then passed them to their youngest daughter and her husband: Joe White and Neta Fay Black, our grandparents and the reason the ranch is called Black & White.
Joe and Neta Fay ran this place from the 1970s on. Ran animals, worked their own fields, fixed what broke with whatever was on hand. Grit and joy, firmness and warmth.
Dakota and Cheyenne carry it forward now. We are not here to extract from this place. We are here because we love it, and we believe it has more to offer than it has ever been given the chance to show.
Land & LegacyMills County has a deep and layered history. Long before the Black family arrived, the Comanche people ranged across this land, expert horsemen who knew every creek and canyon. Their relationship with the horse is one of the great stories of the American West.
As Choctaw descendants, Dakota and Cheyenne also carry their own tribal history, a people who fled to Texas before the Trail of Tears, who survived by holding onto land, family, and identity against impossible odds. Both stories are part of who we are. We carry them with gratitude and with the understanding that none of us own the land, we are just the ones caretaking it for now.
Our extended family runs a dedicated cattle operation focused on doing it right: pasture-raised, grass-fed and finished, no shortcuts. You order a whole animal, they process it fresh, and you receive all your cuts at once.
Try a single lesson before committing to a course. 1-2 students, private setting.
Book Intro Lesson →Intro lessons book directly through Calendly. For everything else, use the form.