The Kieckhefer family bought the K4 Ranch, 35 miles north of Prescott, in 1941 and will celebrate 85 years of ownership in 2026. Over the years the family has supplemented its holdings with property in California and southern Arizona. The cattle operations now total over 185,000 acres, running 3,000 mother cows.
Wanting to improve the quality of the K4 ranch horses, Robert (Bob) H. Kieckhefer began raising Quarter Horses in the 1940s, registering the first of them in 1943, just three years after the formation of the American Quarter Horse Association. K4 Ranch has consecutively registered horses for over 80 years with the AQHA. Bob was very active in AQHA, serving as president in 1976, and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1994.
One of the K4's early stallions was Hank Will, who went on to become Arizona's first AQHA Supreme Champion. Chuck Sheppard joined the K4 as manager in 1959 — a top hand, World Champion Team Roper, and Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductee — and the Sheppard and Kieckhefer families merged when his daughter Lynda married Bob Kieckhefer's son John in 1970. In 1963 Chuck and John purchased the great stallion Driftwood Ike, who stood at the ranch for 17 years and had a tremendous influence on the breeding program; in 1997, Cee Booger Red breeding was introduced and has crossed very well on the Driftwood-bred mares.
K4 Ranch now runs 40 broodmares, with bloodlines including Driftwood Ike, Tuffy Ike, Orphan Drift, Drifts Vaquero, Ike's Last, Harlan, Oklahoma Star, Colonel Freckles, Cee Booger Red, Valiant Hero, and Sunfrost, with recent additions from the Waggoner Ranch and 6666 Ranch programs. In 2024 the AQHA recognized K4 Ranch as a Ranching Heritage Breeder. Today Rick and Sarah Kieckhefer manage the K4 horse program — Rick is a National Finals Rodeo qualifier in calf roping, and Sarah is a 24-time Turquoise Circuit qualifier in barrel racing.
The Diamond A Ranch, also known as The Big Boquillas, is the largest cattle ranch in Arizona. Owned by the Navajo Nation, the ranch covers 750,000 acres and stretches 75 miles from the town of Seligman to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. In 1982 Harvey Dietrich and partner Richard Rudnick took over the Diamond A from Victorio Cattle Company, operating as Cholla Livestock; in 2018, at age 83, Dietrich took on a new partner — Rick Kieckhefer of the K4 Ranch. With Harvey's passing in 2020, his remaining interest was sold to the Kieckhefers, and his legacy continues today.
The ranch runs an extensive cattle operation of 6,000 mother cows, with ten full-time camp cowboys covering seven ranch camps. The size and remote locations of the pastures demand horses that are both athletic and tough — used to brand calves, gather cattle, sort in the corrals and outside, check fence, gather horses, halter break weanling foals, doctor cattle, and cover a lot of miles through all kinds of country.
The Diamond A currently runs a remuda of 75 working saddle horses, 35 broodmares, 6 stallions, and 35 young geldings and fillies, run outside in the same tough country they work in. Bloodlines include PopularResort Figure, Metallic Cat, Tanquery Gin, Doc O'Lena, Colonel Freckles, Peppy San Badger, Bueno Chex, Driftwood, Zan Parr Bar, PlayGun, Easy Jet, and Doc Tom Tucker.
