Growing up in a small town just east of Dallas, Gilbreath’s life with horses started at an early age. Gilbreath would often want to stay home with the horses instead of going to school, at the age of 14 he began to develop an interest in horses while working for a farrier at Phillips Ranch. The farrier dubbed him as sleepy.
 
Sleepy conditioned some of the best horses in racing history such as Ochoa with $2,781,365 in earnings and Refrigerator with a little under $2,130,000 in earnings. Not only has he sent out the winners of more than 40 grade one races in California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; he also received  AQHA’s Gordon crone Special Achievement Award in 2019.