OklahomaHorses Magazine May 2022

28 OklahomaHorses • May/June 2022 Still Going Strong Stanley Burris Is a Keen Competitor Story and photo by Carol Mowdy Bond “Coach and I went to the Express UU Bar Ranch in New Mexico four years ago,” explains Stanley Burris. “One morn- ing we got up, and it had snowed about six inches. We loaded our horses and rode to the top of the plateau. There were 128 black cows with their calves. We gathered them on horseback and had to push them down a narrow trail. I could see black cattle coming down that switchback trail for over a mile, com- ing down that mountain. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. We’re probably going to go back in about 30 days and gather the cattle again.” A central Oklahoma farmer, 92-year-old Burris is chatting about Doug Sauter, who is a fellow horse enthusiast and a retired ice-hockey coach. Sauter was head coach of the Oklahoma City Blazers. Sauter and Burris gathered the New Mexico herd four years ago on land-and-cattle magnate Bob Funk’s ranch, more than 11,000 feet above sea level in the Rocky Mountains, on land formerly owned by oilman Waite Phillips of Tulsa. Funk, chairman and CEO of Express Employment Professionals, also owns Express Ranches in Yukon and other properties elsewhere. Backing up to his life story and how he came to Oklahoma, Burris says, “We were living in Poolville, Texas. Uncle Wiley drove a team of mules. Dad drove a team of horses. And they moved all our family possessions and farm equipment in a wag- on. Mom, me, and my three siblings came by train. I was three years old. My dad was a tenant farmer. I can count seven different houses, all up and down this valley, that we’ve lived in.” Stanley Burris and Lady round up a herd of cattle.