Horse Sales: A Family Affair

August 27, 2018
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Jolyn Young

Posted in: Featured, Featured Horse for Sale, Ranch Life

My husband and I consigned our second bridle horse to a regional sale this fall, and there’s a 75% chance that I will cry when he sells. When the auctioneer yelled “Sold!” on our last horse, I bawled my eyes out until I learned that he went to a super nice ranch family whose kids quickly claimed him for their own. The horse we are consigning this year is one that we bought when I was pregnant with our oldest child, and I’m now pregnant with our youngest child. “Shorty” is like part of the family, but I am confident he will make a wonderful addition to someone else’s equine family.

Cuchara Only Cash

Preparing to sell Shorty has definitely been a family affair. As is often the case in ranch families, I handle the sale paperwork and my husband, Jim, handles the actual horse. I also got roped into producing and editing the video showcasing Shorty’s abilities, because I have zero experience in that field and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Luckily, we were able to get a usable seven-and-a-half-minute video using my good Nikon, a $10 tripod, and about three hours of original footage. Fortunately, my editing program allowed me to delete the audio tracks of “Kids, get out of that mud hole,” “Honey, don’t let the bull get me!” and “Fine, next time you run the camera and I’ll ride the horse.”

Besides wrangling kids and shooting raw footage (I feel like that’s the technical industry term), I also was tasked with driving the side-by-side towing a roping sled so Jim could school Shorty on team roping elements when live cattle weren’t available. While I maintained the correct speed and distance between corners, our five-year-old daughter sat backwards in the middle seat and watched her dad through the rear window. She yelled “He just throw-ed!” every time he delivered his loop, which was my signal to quickly, yet smoothly step on the brakes.

On a good day, our family’s system ran like a well-oiled machine. On a typical day, there was some squeaking and threats of time-outs. Unfortunately, I have yet to receive my time-out.

It’s fun helping Jim with the horse sale prep, though. It’s a great way to involve the kids in the family side business, and I enjoy having a larger role in managing the horse herd rather than just saying “Yep, he’s a sorrel.” I am also just so darn proud of my husband’s ability with a horse, and I love that his hard work and skills will be showcased in the sale ring.

For more information, visit the Van Norman and Friends Production Sale website.