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“We both had a bunch of mares, and up here in Hereford, we get some bad weather in winter about the time they’re foaling out, so the weather there would be easier on them. And, combined with Texas racing coming back real strong, it just was a good business decision. Plus, we both have a high opinion of Jimmy, and we were paying lots of other people to do things that buying the ranch allowed us to do for ourselves.”
“Johnny and I always got along well together; we’re both good businessmen and friends, and we talk together well,” Pete says. “He’s as invested in the racing Quarter Horse industry as I am, or more so, so we both thought buying Granada Farms would help us.
“Also, Jimmy has been in the business for a long time and has always done a good job,” Pete adds. “He knows people and people know him, so he’s a good fit in many different ways.”
Johnny adds that along with understanding the business, the breeding pros and the racehorse people, Jimmy is a quality individual who excels at recruiting good help and keeping them.
The trio stresses quality along with quantity in their operation. “Our goal isn’t necessarily to be the biggest, but we do want to be known as the best,” Jimmy says.
T T H H E E G G R R A A N N A A D DA A F FA A R R M M S S S S T T O O R R Y Y
Jimmy and his father, Jim Jr., founded
the 300-acre Granada Farms in 1984, coincidentally around the time Johnny and Pete formed their partnership. “Dad was in the cattle business, and I grew up loving horses,” says Jimmy, who earned a bachelor’s degree in range animal science at Texas A&M in 1981 after growing up in Richmond, Texas, in the Houston area. “Shortly after college, my dad and I decided we wanted to be in the horse business. But we didn’t want to own any horses, so we thought we’d start an equine services company.”
Jimmy met his wife, Debbie, when she went to work for him at Granada Farms early on as a vet tech. She stayed on several years, and they married in 1987, then raised three daughters: DeeAnn, Erin and Kaylee. But— other than Debbie—Jimmy and his dad were the only family members with much interest in the horse business.
Although the farm focuses on the Quarter Horse racing industry, it also serves equines from minis to drafts throughout each stage of their various careers and provides a wide spectrum
of services from boarding to stallion management, breeding, and reproductive services; from mare care to foaling to sale- prepping racetrack-bound yearlings.
As a general manager with decades
of experience, Jimmy oversees the team members who carry out each segment of the farm’s vision.
“We have some very good people in charge of the horses,” he says.
Jimmy Eller and his wife Debbie.
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S u s a n B a
“Our goal isn’t necessarily to be the biggest, but we do want to be known as
the best.”
– Jimmy Eller
SPEEDHORSE July 2023 61