Five-year-old Emmy Tate Sexton can’t get the car door open fast enough. The ponytailed charmer, sporting purple boots, hits the ground running as she, younger brother Mac, and little sister Rymer hurry to check out what’s happening at Treasure Hammock Ranch and “help” their father, Mike, just as he did for his father, Sean, and grandfather Ralph.
As the pioneer family’s fifth generation, the three youngsters are next in line to oversee the historic 600-acre cattle ranch their great-great-grandfather Waldo Sexton established over 80 years ago. It’s a way of life only a few aspire to.
“They have to want to do it, they have to appreciate it. I did, still do,” says Mike, who, after graduating from the University of Florida College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, headed west to work at a ranch in Wyoming. He was in his element, doing what he loved; all was well.
Then came the day his grandfather called with an offer he didn’t see coming, but one he couldn’t refuse. “Ralph said he wanted a Sexton to run the ranch, and that if I’d come back, he’d give me land to build my house on. He also promised I’d get a steady paycheck. It wasn’t as much as I had been making, but it was enough, and it was home,” says Mike.
“I loved my grandfather; he was my best friend and mentor. My father is a real cowman who understands cattle and what they need. He’s been really good about giving me the reins, trusting me. I can’t envision being anywhere else, doing what I’m doing.”…