I’ve always wanted to go to the Pitzer Ranch Horse Sale. It’s been on my bucket list as long as I can remember. They have two sales every year, one in spring and one in fall. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve printed off the sale catalog and went through circling my favorite horses.

Not only have I not entered many rodeos the past several years, I’ve also had some bad luck with horses the last year or so. First, Houdini, our older ranch horse, passed away. Then Oakley, my blue roan mare, came up blind due to Leptospirosis. We still have her, and she frolics in the pasture at a high rate of speed for a horse that can’t see anything, but being blind limits what I can do with her. After that, JR came up with a growth on his eye. Turns out, he had cancer eye, something fairly common in cattle, but not so much in horses. The vet removed the growth, and fingers crossed, it hasn’t come back. Finally, Cosmo, my rope horse, passed away last December. With all these issues, my heart hasn’t been in it.

Recently, I’ve noticed how much I’ve missed riding and roping. So a few weeks back I decided I’d saddle JR and start riding him. Well…if you don’t know how that went, check out my post about getting back in the saddle. After that, I made a decision, I was going to start horse shopping. If you’ve not shopped for horses lately, let me just tell you…fun is not a word I would use to describe it. I started on Ranch World Ads, which is one of my favorite places to look, and then I went over to Facebook Groups, and that was a terrible life choice.)

While perusing ads on Facebook, here’s a few interesting things I read in ads:

“He needs a rider who will not back down when he’s being a dick” …well at least your honest

“Somewhat broke but turns out he’s not good for beginners” Hmm, you don’t say?

And the one that made me laugh out loud…”Our theory is she works off voice commands, but we don’t know what they are” No… just… no.

Needless to say, I was quickly losing confidence in my ability to find what I was looking for, until I came across a flyer for the Pitzer Ranch Sale. With all the craziness associated with the coronavirus mess, they had pushed the sale back from its normal date in April to the first weekend of June. I asked my dad and sister if they’d go with me, and as soon as they said yes, I started circling numbers in the sale catalog!

By the time we pulled up to Pitzer Ranch in Ericson, Nebraska after a 12+ hour drive, I had multiple lists: dream horse, can’t afford but love, love and might could afford, want to see in person (What can I say, I’m OCD). I had watched so many videos on their YouTube channel. But my lists mostly went out the window when we sat down to watch the preview on Friday. It’s one of the awesome things about the Pitzer Ranch Sale, you don’t just look at a picture or a horse standing in a stall and think, yeah, he might work. They actually preview the horses in the arena. For about five hours they ran steers and calves so consignors could show off their horse’s ability. As a buyer, it was great to see what they could do. It helped mark a few off my list that weren’t quite what I was looking for, and it also had me add a few to my list I didn’t notice in the catalog.

By auction time Saturday, I was a bundle of nerves. Auctions give me anxiety. Yes, I know the irony of this seeing as my dad works for an auction company. I’m a researcher. I need time to decide. I need control. These things are not possible with auctions. I had several horses on my list, but with an auction, I think things like – I like horse #56 but I like #92 better, but what if I don’t bid on #56 but then #92 goes out of my budget, and I’ve missed out? This is just one of the many, many thoughts that race through my head.

And don’t even get me started about when it comes time to actually bid. I’m telling you I made my dad come with me because I wasn’t sure if I could do it. Everything happens so fast. But I will say this about Pitzer Ranch Sale, it wasn’t rushed. When it came time to bid, I did it all by myself. They give you time to think. The auctioneer would read the highlights of the horse riding in the sale ring, and then take bids. Then they’d let Mr. Jim Brinkman talk about the horse some more, and let the rider make any comments, then they’d take more bids.

Ultimately, I did bid on a few horses. And I ended up buying one! I was the proud winner of Lot #240 – Wolfs Dodie Babe, a 2016 mare. She’s done some travelling in her life. She was born and raised in South Dakota by Debbi Holmes Quarter Horses, and has been in training at Eagles Nest Arena in Texas, and is now here in Arkansas. I’m so excited to share more about her as I get to ride and learn about her.

So not only did I mark off my bucket list item of going to the Pitzer Ranch Sale, I even got to bring a horse home. The weekend was filled with an amazingly smoothly run auction, a little bit of anxiety, and a whole lot of awesomeness!