12/17/08 Best Remuda

One of the awards I always look forward to learning about was presented on November 15th. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute to tell you about it. The annual award I always like to read about is the AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda. This year's award goes to Moorehouse Ranch in Benjamin, Texas. Tom Moorehouse owns or leases from his brothers around 50,000 rough, mesquite and cedar thicketed acres cut up with canyons where he runs 1,200 cows and 1,000 yearling cattle. That rough range makes American Quarter horses a vital part of managing the cattle. The Moorehouse Ranch remuda has 32 mares, 65 geldings and two stallions. Ranch hands ride geldings and each rider has five to six horses in his string. The cowboys are responsible for the training and health of those horses and no one else can ride them without permission from that certain cowboy. Fillies are started in training and rode on a limited basis to see if they should be added to the broodmare band or sold at various sales. The AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda award has been given since 1992 and of the 17 winners seven ranches are from Texas, two each from New Mexico and Oklahoma, five scattered from the states of Nebraska to California and one ranch in British Columbia. I'm sure some of the bigger ranches in Oregon and Idaho qualify for the award and I think we need a winner from the Northwest. I'm Jeff Keane.