Winnemucca~A Ranch Hand Gatherin'

What a busy week last week was!! Thursday and Friday I had ag surveys scheduled up in Grant County (had to stay the night in John Day) and then Saturday morning My Man and I, with lil' Cindy Sue in tow, headed to Nevada for the 20th Annual Winnemucca Ranch Hand Rodeo and Ranch, Rope & Performance Horse Sale.

Last fall, one of my clients had mentioned that they might take the two geldings I started for them to the sale and asked if I would ride one through the sale...of course I said yes. But, it turned out that they're going to keep the two geldings.

But, by now, My Man and I are really looking forward to a road trip, the rodeo and the sale...so we're goin' anyhow!! On Saturday the rodeo starts at 11 a.m., so we left at 6:45 a.m. with big mugs of coffee in hand!

Lots of beautiful scenery along the way.

Spring is here!! Look at the cute lil' foals!
These aren't wild horses. They are ranch breeding stock.

And the road looks never ending...

I would have loved to spend the whole 4 days there. Thursday had cow dog trials; Friday started the sifting of the sale horses, a Stock Horse Challenge, and the preview of the sale horses. But, we could only go for one night.

The Winnemucca Event Center is really a nice place (for our area). It's the county fairgrounds as well as the venue for anything else someone wants to put on.

The posting of the colors at the rodeo.

The ranch rodeo was a great time. There were 33 teams of five members (one of which had to be a cowgirl). My photos didn't turn out at all as you can see by my post from yesterday's Sunday Stills! But a great time was had by all and no one was injured.

Was there shopping to be had??? Why yes there was...and my kind of shopping too!!! Any kind of buckaroo gear you wanted or needed could be found at the trade show. Dan Fowler, who is braiding my hackamore, was there. I've never met the man...only talked to him over the phone. He and his wife live here in Harney County, so I would consider them neighbors! Well, I got to see my hackamore...it's beautiful!!! All that's left to do is put the heel knot on it! I should have it by the end of the week!!!


After checking in at our hotel and having a fantastic Mexican dinner, we headed back to the Event Center for the sale. With the economy and horse market in the toilet, I was very curious how this was going to turn out.

67 horses in the catalog
6 horses were either sifted out or pulled from the sale
14 horses passed out...meaning the seller wasn't willing to sell the horse at the price the auction brought.

Highest selling horse: Blues Little Badger (by San Badger Blue by Doc San Badger) a 2002 blue roan gelding
$16,000

Blues Little Badger

Next highest was at $10,000, another at $6,600, another at $6,000

Everything else sold for under $3700

Lowest selling was $800

So many horses that were seasoned horses that went for less than $3000...amazing. We had no intentions of buying a horse, but if I had been in the market, I would have been able to pick up a really nice horse for not a lot of money!


But, I had a lil' helper that kept me in check...

Remember mom...no more horses!!!

Ok...one last pic...this is how they do rodeos and horse sales in Nevada...cocktail waitresses come to you in the stands!!