This is the first story of a four-part series on horse sales in North Dakota from the late 1960’s to present time. If you have never been to a horse sale you will be surprised at what you have missed. If you did attend horse sales, enjoy this trip down memory lane.
Horse sales in North Dakota started gaining popularity in the 1960’s and by the 70’s and 80’s they had become a major part of the state’s economy and of the economics in the towns they were held at. Every town that had a livestock sales auction barn had at least one horse sale per year, many had two, and some even had them every month. Usually sales were held in the spring and the fall.
There were four main reasons for the increase in the number of horse sales. The number one reason was the expanded use of horses for dog food and overseas human consumption. Love it or hate it, agree or disagree, the slaughter price of horses helped determine the price of all horses. The second reason was the increase in the recreational uses of horses. More people were using them for pleasure, horse shows, rodeos, trail rides, etc. And this increase was helped along by the use of better ways to transport horses such as nicer horse trailers and pickups to pull them. All of a sudden it was no big deal to haul your horse halfway across the state for some sort of event.
The third reason was as horse activities became more popular and common place, people wanted better qualities of horses which inspired the horse breeders to breed better horses. This is proven by the rapid increase in the number of registered American Quarter horses over the years. By the 1980’s many people were raising horses and selling them.
And the fourth reason for the larger amount of horses in the state was the PMU lines (pee lines). The PMU lines would collect the urine of pregnant mares so of course all these mares would have a colt every year. The urine was used to manufacture certain medication for women. Eventually science developed synthetic ways of making these medications and so the urine was no longer needed and the PMU lines disappeared. But for many years there were some very large PMU businesses in the state resulting in hundreds of new baby horses each year.
At a livestock auction barn you have the sales ring and above and behind this ring is the auctioneer’s stand. The bleachers for the audience are in a semi-circle around the sales ring across from the auctioneer. Most people who went to horse sales regularly usually sat in the same spot every time. Kind of like going to church! The group of people I associated with usually sat directly across from the auctioneer about half way up the bleachers.
There are three types of buyers at a horse sale. The slaughter buyers who often times were treated like royalty by the auction managers as they usually spent the most money at a sale. Most slaughter buyers weren’t actually horsemen, probably the most they knew about horses was how to judge the weight of the horse and the grade of the meat. Most slaughter buyers wore baseball caps and sat in the front row.
Then there was the horse trader/buyer. These guys were horsemen and were very good at judging horses for their quality, abilities, soundness, and temperament. A lot of times they were also horse trainers and horse breeders. They wore cowboy hats and dressed like cowboys. They also sat in the front row. And then there was the local person who was just looking to buy a good horse.
The majority of the people who come to horse sales aren’t looking to buy or sell, they are simply spectators. Horse sales are a social event. It gives all of us an opportunity to get dressed up all western with our Levi or Wrangler jeans, pearl snapped yoke western shirts, boots, belt with a big buckle, maybe a neck scarf, and of course a nice hat. We try to give off the impression that we are big horse people and we will often greet each other at a sale with “you buying or selling?”
Horse sales were and are a lot of fun but there can also be lots of drama at them, too, such as arguments and fights. Back then unfortunately there was quite a bit of alcohol used at sales, especially in the back corrals. Alcohol at an auction sale is never a good idea! By the 1990’s though, the auction barns were more strict about the use of alcohol.
I remember one guy that used to show up at every sale I went to. He was always dressed nice, very western like and he had a beautiful handlebar moustache. When the sale started you could tell he was pretty “snookered” and by about the middle of the sale he was so drunk he couldn’t sit up anymore and so he was always ushered out of the sale. And probably to be nice they would place him behind the wheel of his vehicle and point it towards home for him. That’s kind of how things were done back then! I always felt sorry for the guy, he must have had an unhappy life. Eventually he quit coming to the sales.
A lot of “shady” things happened at sales, too. Such as misrepresentation of a horses brokeness or soundness. This was often times intentional by the seller but not always. For example, when you lead a horse into the ring with a kid on his back, everyone assumes that the horse is broke for a kid. Sometimes this would happen and the seller didn’t realize they were giving that impression to the audience. They thought they were showing how gentle the horse is, not how broke it is. Drugging of horses was also pretty common. A horse would be so drugged that when it came into the sales ring it looked like the most gentle horse in the world but after the drugs wore off, it was a different story. Many is the time someone bought a nice gentle, quiet horse but when they got it home and the drugs wore off and they turned it loose in the pasture and they never saw it again!
And for some reason horse people were notorious for writing bad checks. The manager of the Carrington auction barn once said that he rarely got bounced or bad checks from a cow sale but would get several from a horse sale. I think quite often people get caught up in the sale excitement, would buy a horse and forget that they didn’t actually have money to pay for it.
The slaughter buyers were very careful to bid only on horses designated as slaughter. If they noticed someone from the audience was also bidding on the horse, they would quit bidding so as not to influence the price and also that a good horse wasn’t accidentally sold for slaughter.
The first horse sale I remember going to was in Harvey and it was in the late 60’s. The sale barn was owned by Ervin Tebelius at the time. The place was packed with people, everyone all dressed up like cowboys and cowgirls. I was impressed! I was a teen-ager, though, at the time and as we all know it can be very easy to impress a teen-ager! I decided then and there that I wanted to be a horse trainer and trader. During my lifetime I did accomplish the goal of a horse trainer and I became pretty good at it. But when I would try the trader part I was really bad at that. I think I made some of the worst trade deals ever. Good thing I didn’t try to make a living of out of it!
The best part about livestock sale barns (ring sales) was their restaurants. All ring sales that I remember had restaurants in them that served great home made food and lots of it. The ring sales in Harvey held their cattle sales on Tuesdays and at noon many people from the community would come just to eat. The restaurant would be packed! I’m sure it was the same way at other small town sales rings.
I have been going to horse sales ever since the 60’s and still enjoy them only now I just go as a spectator. Horse sales have changed tremendously over the years especially as technology has evolved. They used to keep track of everything on paper so the gals (it was always women) doing this job were swamped with paperwork but they were very good at what they did. They didn’t make many mistakes. Now everything is on computer, there is even bidding on-line as the sale goes on.
The auctioneers have evolved a lot, too. Horse auctioneers in the past were for the most part honest but there were a few shady characters, too. Ones who were good at “catching bids in the air” so to speak. Auctioneers today are more professionals and very technology oriented. And they do their homework, they check out the horses quite often before the sale starts so they can represent them better.
Horse sales went through a huge boom in the 80’s and 90’s. everyone was having a horse sale. Then the slaughter market cooled down, people run out of that type of horse to sell plus the government was pressured by the animal rights organizations to add more restrictive regulations affecting the sale, treatment, and transporting of horses. There became fewer horse sales and now horse sales are more of a rarity. Any horse sales now are usually more specialty focused.
The next horse sale story will be about the Tack Sale. More fun than a guy should be allowed to have!