2010 Results

On a beautiful sunny, seventy degree day, the largest crowd in Sale history attended the 38th Annual Salmon Select Horse Sale, Saturday, April 17th at the Lemhi County Fairgrounds. Sale results were steady grossing $299,100. Bob Thomas, rancher in the Salmon area for sixty years and long time Assocation member was introduced as Grand Marshal of the 2010 Salmon Select Horse Sale. The crowd gave Bob a large round of enthusiastic applause thanking him for his many years of hard work and service to the agricultural community.

Longtime sale consignor Hoot Dotson of Dotson Livestock, Gooding, Idaho took home top sale honors selling, Double Gold Chex, a nine year old top notch, pro caliber rope horse. The palomino AQHA gelding sold to Mike Francis of Pocatello, Idaho for $7,000. Dotson received the $1,000 Super Sale Bonus and the Salmon Select Sale trophy belt buckle. Both awards are sponsored by the major Salmon area motels. Francis received a high dollar trophy silver bit representing the Louis Andersen Memorial Award sponsored by Jerry’s Cowboy Tack of New Plymouth, Idaho. Francis also received the Jack Omohundro Memorial buckle. Jack bought the high selling horse in the first Horse Sale back in 1971.

The Shiner Ranch of Lemhi, Idaho sold the reserve high selling gelding, Dashof Irish Frolic. This eight year old AQHA buckskin, solid ranch gelding sold for $5,250 to Candace Balsster of Roberts, Idaho.

High selling grade horse at $4,200 was Cinco, a blue roan gelding consigned by Ian Ferguson of Busby, Montana. The good do everything gelding sold to Tim Sundles of St. Ignatius, Montana.

The high selling mare was consigned by Evan Allred of Beaver, Utah. His AQHA mare, Buenos Fancy Fair sold for $3,500 to the Rocking D-C Ranch of Mackay, Idaho. The good mare won the Ed Jones Memorial buckle sponsored by the Salmon River Inn. Also, the mare won the Open Performance Champion buckle judged and presented by the Lemhi County Sheriff’s Posse. By coincidence, this mare was certified for mounted police work, mounted patrol, crowd and traffic control. Members of the Sheriff’s Posse again assisted with general crowd information, crowd security, inspected the sale mules for transport after the Friday night Mule Sale and assisted in having the horses and mules ready to come into the sale ring.

Champion Ranch Horse was Lot 22, Smart Magic Remedy, a four year old AQHA mare consigned by JoAnn Carroll of Salmon, Idaho. The mare was shown by trainer Joe Slagowski and scored a possible record 146.50 points. She won the Texaco/Burger King buckle for high point competition mare and the John W. Snook Memorial buckle for Champion Ranch Horse. In addition, JoAnn received the $1,000 payoff sponsored by Salmon River Motors and Quality Motors of Salmon. Reserve ranch horse at 136.50 points was another mare, Lot # 66 consigned by Kirk Robertson of Arco, Idaho. Third at 136 points was 42A, Vinny consigned by Tim Cobb of Weiser, Idaho. The Ranch Horse Competiton was judged by Scott England of Leadore and was directed by Suzanne Nebeker. It was announced by Rick Hussey.

The Novice Division of the Ranch Horse Competition winner with 68.5 points was Solano Dune, consigned by Jeff Haskell and ridden by Kirk Robertson. He earned the Charlie Snook Memorial Buckle sponsored by the Gary Barrett’s Lantern Bar. He also earned the $500 payoff. Scoring 64 points for second was Mark Arnout’s mare, Lot 70 and taking third with 63.5 points was lot 116 consigned by Justin Howard. Cattle for the competition were furnished by Roy, Sharon, RJ, Kevin and Katie Hoffman of the well known Hoffman Cattle Ranch.

The Trail Horse Competition drew a large crowd to watch the various tasks. This popular competition was under direction of Joe Garrett of Carmen. Joe was assisted by several volunteers who organized and judged the challenging ten phases. Evan Allred’s good mare also won this competition to earn her third buckle of the sale. The Trail Horse Competition buckle was presented by Colby and Jenny Smith of Last Chance Pizza.

The Champion Rope Horse Buckle sponsored by the Felker family of The Ranch at Carmen was awarded to Tim Cobb of Weiser, Idaho. His lot # 7, bay roping gelding was selected by judges during the roping showing before the Sale. The gelding sold for $4,100 to Pete Peterson of Helena, Montana.

All sale averages were strong considering horse sales in general. The 102 geldings bid on averaged a good $2,540. The 23 mares averaged $1,700. The overall sale average on 126 head was $2,390.

Top volume money buyer was Peterson of Helena, Montana who bought three horses for $9,050. Peterson received the Fred H. Snook Sr. Memorial Buckle sponsored by the Salmon Valley Chamber of Commerce as high volume $$ horse sale buyer.

The top volume buyer by number of horses bought was the Kellys of Midway, Utah. They purchased three good horses and received the J. Wayne McArthur Award hat from Roy Jackson of Jacksonbilt Hat Co.

Kirk and Charlotte Robertson received recognition as Horse Sale Consignors of the Year. A plaque and trophy buckle sponosred by Gale Harding and Associates was presented in a short ceremony before the sale.

Stephen Shiner of Lemhi won the Hister Buckle sponsored by Lemhi Lumber and Allied Builders for having the high selling horse from Lemhi and Custer counties. Eight area sellers had consignments in the Sale.

Dale Bagnell of Missoula, Montana was presented with a trophy buckle as SSS Hall of Fame - All-time Champion. A noted horseman and race horse trainer for over fifty years, Dale sold the high selling horse at the 1980 sale and purchased the high selling horse at both the 1973 and 1979 sales.

Alyssa Nelson of Fresno, California was chosen to receive the Elizabeth H. Snook Memorial Buckle for being Champion Cowboy of the 2009 Sale. The award was presented by Laurie Ruggiero and in absentia Frederick Snook. Alyssa was chosen for her showmanship and dedication to training her horse for the 2009 sale. Many young, young riders showed off their riding abilities during this year’s sale. A champion will again be chosen and receive a surprise buckle at next year’s sale.

Lot 125 consigned by Tim Cobb selling for $3,200 earned the $500 bonus for being the high selling horse in the last twenty horses. Buyer Quint Whitman received a $500 rebate for buying the horse.

Toby Lapp of Filer, Idaho highlighted Thursday’s opening day of the Sale with the first of his three mini horse training clinics. His first clinic was part of the opening Chamber of Commerce After Hours Welcome Party that also featured live music by Russ Bjorkland. The Old Time Fiddlers entertained the crowd in the vendors’ Exhibition Building both days of the sale.

The smallest horse in the Sale was Roxy a nice, nice 2010 wooden rocking horse personally made and donated to the Sale by Randy Cheney of Salmon. Guaranteed to load easy in a trailer, car or pickup, will rock all day and night and easy to shoe and care for the rocking horse sold to Fred Snook for $150. Randy requested the money be donated to the Salmon HIgh School Rodeo team.

Roxy was the 23rd rocking horse that Randy has made and donated to local charities.

Many local youth groups participated in the sale. Salmon High School FFA club parked cars both Friday and Saturday to earn $400 for the club. Salmon Hockey, 4-H, and Salmon Boosters all sold food. Salmon Hockey reported they made the most money ever in their Friday food booth. In addition, the senior class under direction of Britany Infanger took admission tickets Saturday morning to earn $500 toward this year’s senior graduation night event.

Salmon River Stampede local rodeo queen, Mary Bennett presented the colors for the national anthem performed by Vicki Harbor on Saturday. The Lloyd Shaw Post 67 of the American Legion of Idaho presented the colors on Friday for the national anthem performed by the deep voice of Nick Tracy.

Stealing the thunder for the weekend was the Mule Sale. The Friday night Salmon Mule Sale had its largest crowd ever. People were amazed at how the Mule Sale has grown over these past eleven years. Again prices for mules were higher, higher. Forty six mules had bids of $88,700 for an average of $1,930. This was up about $100 from last year’s prices.

The big, big news from the Mule Sale was the high selling mule. Jaren Whitman of Belgrade, Montana sold the high selling mule toward the end of the sale at Lot 47. His mule Casey sold for $7,200 to become the all time high selling mule. So the high selling mule was higher than the high selling horse to the delight of mule folks everywhere. The 11 year old, solid sorrel john mule sold to Fred Imlar of Pennsylvania. Jaren received the $1,000 sale bonus plus a Montana Silversmith trophy buckle presented by Rulon Wellard of Wellard Constructors, Inc. Imlar received a certificate for a new hat presented by Roy Jackson of Jaxonbilt Hat Company. Imlar was also presented the framed, large western print, Almost Home by Sale Manager, Fred Snook.

Scott and Sandy Salle of Emigrant, Montana took home reserve honors. Their mule, Peanuts was almost the last mule in the sale and sold for $6,500 to Vern Smith of Ucon, Idaho to become the second alltime high selling mule. Earlier in the sale, lot 12, Cowgirl consigned by Levi King of Payette, Idaho had sold for $5,700 to Gary Sparks of Nyssa, Oregon to break the old record of $5,500.

The top five mules averaged a whopping $5,540 up from the record of $3,910 in 2009 and the top ten mules averaged $4,300 up a $1,000 from $3,365. Sixteen mules had bids of $2,000 or higher.

Again this year was a Mule Trail Competition under direction of Joe Garrett and crew. 1st Place went to Blake Ford of Idaho Falls, with his Molly Mule, Lot#5, Annabell and 3rd Place went to Blake Ford for his Molly, Faith, Lot# 43. 2nd Place went to Jeremy Anderson of Youngward, Utah, with his Molly, Lot #10, Pearl.  The champion buckle was sponsored by Bruce and Ross Cole of Cole Insurance Agency-Farmers Insurance agents of Salmon. A new event was the Mule Packing Contest directed by John Burns and Joe Garrett. The winner was Kitty, a 23 year old molly consigned by the US Forest Service, Palisades District of the Targhee National Forest.

The large crowd made it again necessary to "expand" the fairgrounds. Local rancher John Ziegler allowed the use of his adjoining field. An even larger tent city again sprang up in his field, just like old gold rush days and John was declared the mayor of Ziegway or Zigfield. John was thanked by Fred Snook for his generosity and was presented a special mule 5X sale winter coat as a token of appreciation.

More than twenty beautiful Montana Silversmith trophy belt buckles were awarded during the two sales. Their value was almost $4,000. Steve Beller of McPherson’s of Salmon helped design the many buckles and greatly assisted as Sale buckle coordinator.

Gale Harding of Rexburg served as sale auctioneer. Gale and his wife Judy were introduced during a special award ceremony. They received a set of beautiful horse tack items from Gary and Cindy Thoreson of Wyoming. The Thoresons sold the sale high seller back in 1995. has been associated with the Sale for more than thirty years. Ring men were Rob McDowell of Butte, Montana, Scott Perkins of Deer Lodge, Montana, Jim Wiley of Bozeman, Montana,, Dan Williams of Rexburg, Billy Alder of Challis, Idaho and Jay Wiley, Bruce Mulkey, George Harkrader, Bob Loucks, Rick Hussey and Anthony Littleton all of Salmon. Hussey also serves as outside arena announcer for the many of the arena events. Harkrader received a trophy buckle as Ringman of the Year for his fifteen plus years of assistance. Linda Harkrader served as Sale Clerk assisted by a fine group of volunteer clerks with Laurie Ruggiero serving as Sale Coordinator and Vendor Chief.

More than fifty vendors attended the Sale. Numerous "gate prizes" were awarded to lucky ticket holders by the many vendors. Alco of Salmon also generously supplied a number of assorted items that were greatly appreciated by the ticket holders.

An older two horse trailer painted in Salmon Savage orange with an honorary image of Chief Tendoy on the front was sold to the Whitewater Association of Salmon. The proceeds from the donated trailer have been directed to Salmon football.

A registered two year old was donated by Machelle Hussey with the proceeds going to benefit of Jessy Wiley.

The 4-H Stallion Service results are not totally complete. JoAnn Carroll’s topped the auction selling for $400 to Sam and Chris Slavin of Carmen, Idaho. Both received buckles awarded to the seller and buyer of the high selling stud. These trophey buckles were sponsored by Eagle Valley Ranch of Salmon.

The Mary Turner Memorial Barrel Racing was a huge success. The 4 D barrel racing had 48 entries the most ever. ** Results will be posted. The 3 D pole bending had 13 entries. The Lemhi Jackpot Association donated all office fees as well as time only fee to Jessy Wiles. They were able to raise $930. The event was sponsored by Salmon River/Quality Motors, Salmon Select Sale, Berry Oil and Deena Shiner.

Team roping results are not yet available.

There was no winner of the $1,000 Pick Six Contest sponsored by Main Street Realty.