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horse sales in wy. , mt. and the dakotas

T

tumbleweed_texn

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Among the sagebrush and greasewood.
i've been buying and starting some really good ranch geldings. the horses are all papered with lotsa class and flash. my question is, does anyone have any thoughts as to the best sales in the region? i'm originally from n.e. texas and have been working ranches and starting colts most of my life. currently im in gillette wy and am finally able to afford to get into the horse business the way that i want to. there are quite a few ranch horse sales in the region each year. which one to consign to is the big question. depending on who you talk to, a person may get alot of contradicting stories. the horses i have started now will be ready to go in the spring. the "buffalo bill cody days ranch horse sale" is the outlet im leaning toward at the moment. if anyone has any firsthand knowledge of some good sales for top caliber horses i would greatly appreciate the info.[/b][/i]
 
The sale at Corsica, SD is one of the better ones in SD,they have buyers from all over and an arena where the horse can be used to rope or whatever,the website is corsicahorsesales.com i beleive
 
Been to Corsica and they generally run 400-500 head thru. Also Clovis,NM runs some good sales, as does Billings,MT, Whitesboro,TX & Belle Plain,IA. All have excellent facilities with cattle available for demos.

General comment, don't send anything east of the big river :wink:
 
Everything I've heard, any sale you go to, you better have real pretty ones that can do anything, then you better havce someoner makin' sure they bring enough.

Horse are hard to move, if you need to get what they are worth.

Private treaty seems to work the best. All the buyers are scared of the horse traders and all the traders are scared of the other traders. Pretty hard to get an honest sale.


The sales at the Stockshow, in Rapid City, end of January sell some fairly high priced ones, but lots of cheaper ones alos. Too many horses. Everybody has some and there really aren't any wealthy buyers.

When somebody knows you and knows you are honest wqith your horses, you seem to get along better.

Too damn many 4 wheelers and not enough cowboys. Those teamropers seem to pay quite a bit for the right horse, but he has to be good. Still not a lot for all the time spent on one to get them good.

JMHO

Good luck.
 
Ever thought about taking them south say to Scottsdale AZ area? That or to the west coast?
I dont know first hand but I have been lead to believe that good horses go quite high in these areas<People have more money to spend>?
 
There is a true "ranch" horse sale in Calif, in april. I delivered some colts to the guy who runs it and he says he turns down about 100 traders, every year. Sounds like a good, solid, aged gelding would bring from $5000 to $15000 there, but they got to look good and be plumb solid. Don't have to be real fancy about reinin' and slidin' like them show horses, but they have to be good, solid and gentle. I almost took my older dun out there, but it's a bad time of year to drive the northern route and a long way by the southern route. And what if they don't sell good? It's a long ways home.

I heard there were some awful nice ones fron Idaho at Billings last month that went way too cheap. Hay just cost too much around here, to winter any poor ones, I guess. I'm glad I've got a little grass yet.
 
That brings to mind the Red Bluff, California sale, if you don't mind
travelling a little (or a lot)!

Also, you might contact Lyle Allen at Lewistown Livestock. He's a stand
up guy and he has run the traders out of his horse sales. I bet he could
help you market some good horses at his special sales. He has
a list of people that need horses as well.

406-538-3471.

Hope this helps!!
 
Jinglebob said:
There is a true "ranch" horse sale in Calif, in april. I delivered some colts to the guy who runs it and he says he turns down about 100 traders, every year. Sounds like a good, solid, aged gelding would bring from $5000 to $15000 there, but they got to look good and be plumb solid. Don't have to be real fancy about reinin' and slidin' like them show horses, but they have to be good, solid and gentle. I almost took my older dun out there, but it's a bad time of year to drive the northern route and a long way by the southern route. And what if they don't sell good? It's a long ways home.

I heard there were some awful nice ones fron Idaho at Billings last month that went way too cheap. Hay just cost too much around here, to winter any poor ones, I guess. I'm glad I've got a little grass yet.
Click to expand...

I have a friend that Team Ropes in AZ every winter<all winter>.
What I was thinking about doing at one time is just taking a trailer load of Bridle horses down there and just staying there promteing and selling them privately until they were sold.
Apparently a $10,000 horse is pretty cheap in the Scottsdale area. Like right in Scottsdale they have horse communities. This is like subdivisions with community arenas and barns right in the city?
A fellow would have to make arrangements before hand as to where you were going to stay and figgure out what your costs would be first. I know feed is also expensive in some of them places.
I used to have a friend outside of Seattle. It was silly what she claimed horses and hay were going for in there area.
In California they had a sale for ranch horses. I think it was called Californioes? Anyway I read about it and it seemed like they were getting pretty big prices.
I know that in Canada a horse that would sell for $2000 in SK would bring $5000 in AB and if you took that same horse to BC you would probable get $7500 for him.
Then if you took that same horse to Billings you would probable get $8000 with the exchange on the dollar. <Im not sure on Billings MT prices anymore>
 
Ponies arent moving out here at all. I just picked up a couple more freebies. Nicely bred yearlings. The breeder didnt even want to fork out the money to get them registered that's how bad things are. I'll hang on to them for a bit and see what happens. Really cute little fellas not exceptional pedigrees but solid. Should make really nice riding ponies :) Maromac Tiger kids.
 
Pick a sale and then become a reputation regular...

I say this as I have watched the Hermiston Sale...Not a great sael in my opinion, but we all tend to say that about local ones, LOL...

Anyways....I watch this guy from Canada bring trailer loads....When he first came, the thought was, another trader....But he kept bringing decent horses...over time, he gained a good reputation .....His customer bas expanded....Also the Auctioneers became more familiar and comfortable selling his horses (and him)....The result is they work harder for him now...

Red Bluff is the ultimate...But take a damb hard look at what you consign...It is a pretty tough sift at times and a long haul to get excludd form the sale...But it would be a great place to become known as the guy that brings grat ones,

All my Opinion,

Pat
 
What it all boils dowen to is trust.

If people don't know you they tend to not trust you, until they do get to know you.

Find a way to get and keep their trust and you will be rewarded.

Horse sales sure ain't the best place to buy horse, IMO. :x

Exceptions for production sales, I guess. Well, most production sales. :wink:
 
Jinglebob
They had a working cow horse sale in Calgary. It was like Californioes in that you got to see the horses actualy working cows/reining and stuff.
The horses went for pretty decent prices. Im thinking in the $7500 range if I remember right.
Then they had the same type of sale down in Claresholm later on. The horses didnt bring in near as much. Probable in the $4000 range. Anyway if I was a buyer I would like these sales a lot better than the regular ones where you only see the horse being rode a few seconds while people are bidding.
I used to work at a regular auction mart. As far as there horse sales went my impression was that every horse was there for a reason. Even the "reputable" trainers that took horses there where only getting rid of the stuff that they didnt feel compfortable selling private. Then there are the trainers that buy junk at one sale for little or nothing. Take it home and do a quick tune up and then bring it back to the next sale to flip.
Sometimes just whoever rides the horse through the ring sems to make a big difference in the price. If a known trainer rides the horse through the ring it tends to bring in more than somebody who isnt known so as a result a lot of guys actually hire somebody else to ride their sale horse for them.
Your right about the "Name" making a big difference.
What amazes me though is the difference in colt prices between a western and eastern stable.
With QHs in Alberta there are some eastern stables breeding really nice QHs. Example larger QHs than the western breeders and better whithers. But if a colt comes from one of these eastern barns they want and seem to be able to get three times as much for them as a regular QH which doesnt really make any sense to me.
What I have had some success with is buying Appendix or Paints with a lot of TB in them from western breeders at resonable prices. Starting them and then marketing them to English riders. Prices that seem high to local western riders seem pretty good to English riders.
Sometimes the snob factor is a problem though. If I can get them out here they like what they see. But sometimes its hard to get them out here to take a look because a lot of them dont want to buy a horse from some guy in a cowboy hat. Haha I should start dressing up my place with flowers, start wearing tights and a tie, maybe even get a pancake saddle? :lol:
 
Not all the ranch horse deals are that great either-I think the best place to buy a ranch horse is from a ranch where the horses are used. The stud and brood mares included. Not going to name places or names and got to use and watch some almost 5 figure ranch horse sale graduates they got failing marks in the real world-one was a postcard pretty dead head-the other one had a bad habit of bucking people off -5-6 hours into the day. Not all of horses from those deals are bad but it i8s a good place to spend alot of money and get disappointed. Most of us have friends or neighbors that we can trade horses with that suit our needs just fine. The best prescription for a long healthy life is one horse trade per year-you won't die as long as you have to stick around to get square lol. I think Soap and JB could fix most up with horses that can do a days work. As for Arizona my buds in Wyoming told me that every down and out teamroper and horse trader goes to Arizona for the winter to make his fortune-not sure if a guy would get rich but I'm sure you'd get your grade one through twelve pretty quick.
 

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