The dust had no time to settle on the dirt road leading to the B-Bar-B Ranch in Picabo, as trucks pulling trailers one after another were traveling to rancher Katie Breckenridge's horse sale. Men, women and children gathered from all corners of the West to attend the sale on Saturday, July 31, which had not occurred since 2002.
"In the past, we have done a Women of the West sale," Breckenridge said. "We canceled the sale because we did not have enough horses and did not like the quality of horses."
Breckenridge has been raising horses for 35 years. The horses sold at her sale were fourth-generation horses born on her ranch, the B-Bar-B Ranch off U.S. Highway 20. The horses are part of a bloodline program Breckenridge created and maintains with the highest standards of breeding.
Breckenridge grew up in Twin Falls, and her father bought her 800-acre ranch in 1944. He trailed sheep to the Stanley Basin. Breckenridge came to Picabo to live on the ranch in 1971. She has created and shaped the B-Bar-B Ranch from what was a land covered in sagebrush into a well-kept horse farm.
Recently, things changed at the ranch.
"Three years ago, I could see the horse-sale industry collapse," she said. "The number of people buying horses had dropped dramatically caused by the closing of slaughterhouses and the over-producing of horses for the number of buyers. And, the U.S. economy was collapsing."
Breckenridge said the majority of horse owners make less than $50,000 a year and the market for selling horses has disappeared.
In previous years, she said, people would come to B-Bar-B on their own to buy horses. She was able to sell most of her horses on private consignment at the ranch.
"Every year, people would come to buy horses for roping, cow-horse events, top dressage and pleasure riding," she said. "I have sold horses as far away as New Jersey."
For the July sale, the B-Bar-B Ranch was in pristine order, set up with a ring and bleachers sitting inside a barn where Breckenridge and auctioneer Blake Nuffer presided over the proceedings.
"You'll drive your wheels off the road to find this," said Nuffer as he started the bidding for Bounced Chex, a gelding ridden by Megan Crist.
Crist showed off Bounced Chex's moves and turns with style and grace as the bidders raised the prices to own the beautiful chestnut. Breckenridge said to the bidders, "The horse will be right there for them, and he is beautiful."
The horses were calm and well-mannered. Breckenridge told the crowd that many of the 2-year-olds for sale have never seen so many people before and were overwhelmed, but that hardly seemed the case. The horses acted in excellent form.
Breckenridge and her husband, Rob Struthers, have been raising horses as part of a program breeding what Breckenridge calls "the horse of tomorrow."
"I halter-break every horse," Breckenridge said. "I have 110 horses and breed all of them. I have created athletes."
Breckenridge said she breeds her horses to have sound mind, solid bones and good footing for trail use. She wants to maintain the cow breed in them. She said the horse of the future is a cow horse that has been trending to be a smaller horse, but she has added speed to the bloodlines.
"Creating and maintaining the mind of the horse is the basic part of the program," she said. "The horses never lie, and they learn to trust. A major part of the program is how the horses are raised and handled."
At the sale, ring man Bo Bevis took a bid for a horse. It sold to a man from California who was buying several horses. A woman from the auctioneer booth came down with a clipboard for him that held a simple piece of paper with the sale figure and the name of the horse for him to sign as the next horse entered the ring.
"You are buying a program," Breckenridge said to the buyers.
Breckenridge said the horses she presented at the sale are the top of the market. The sale was not about the value of the horse but what was happening in the U.S. economy. The horses sold at the B-Bar-B Ranch sale went to Nebraska, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and California. Breckenridge said the buyers knew they were getting high-quality horses in a down market.
"We felt fortunate to sell all of the horses," she said. "We really feel proud about where they went."
Outside of the sale ring, women were giving homemade cake to attendees as the sale's barbecue was ending. Sold horses tethered to fencing patiently waited for new owners to take them. Struthers walked with a horse to the sale ring.
"Each horse has something unique," he said. "This sale is capitalism at its best. It's an auction—it's a business."
Breckenridge is planning to have another sale in two years. She said she is always looking to the future with a positive attitude.
"It is a labor of love for me, and I do it every day," Breckenridge said. "I can call my horses easier than my dogs. Sixty of them will come galloping through the pastures whenever I call them."
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
Ring man Bo Bevis signals to auctioneer Blake Nuffer for a bidder at the Katie Breckenridge B-Bar-B Ranch horse sale in Picabo. Photo by Willy Cook
