America’s Horse, November 4, 2008 – Moorhouse Ranch Company of Benjamin, Texas, is the winner of the 2008 AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda Award.
The ranch is owned and managed by Tom Moorhouse and includes 50,000 acres of land owned or leased in King, Knox and Stonewall counties in Texas. The ranch’s remuda has 32 mares, 65 geldings and two stallions. Today’s cattle operation includes 1,200 cows and 1,000 stockers.
The Moorhouse ranching tradition began in the 1800s when Edward Moorhouse raised cattle in Texas and Oklahoma’s Indian Territory. Edward’s youngest son, Togo, purchased land in the 1930s that would grow into the operation that is today Moorhouse Ranch Co. Togo incorporated the ranch with his sons – Ed, John, Tom and Bob. After Togo’s death in 1995, the ranch was passed down to his sons, who operated the ranch together until 2000. While the brothers split up their shares of the ranch, Tom continued operating his shares under the Moorhouse Ranch Company name.
American Quarter Horses play a key role on the ranch. Geldings are used as working horses to doctor the cattle and to do other ranch work. They are also used in ranch rodeos and ranch horse contests. The broodmare band is used exclusively for breeding, although all fillies are broke as 2-year-olds to allow the fillies to become accustomed to being handled by people. Training the fillies also benefits the ranch when picking replacement mares to return to the broodmare band. Those not kept for broodmares are sold by private treaty or at select sales. The ranch’s stallions are used as part of the working remuda or as performance horses when it’s not breeding season. As a life member of AQHA, the ranch has registered more than 800 American Quarter Horses.
“The Best Remuda Award honors ranches that are preserving our Western heritage while raising quality American Quarter Horses,” said AQHA Executive Vice President Bill Brewer. “I congratulate Moorhouse Ranch Company for being this year’s AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda winner. Today, the American Quarter Horse still plays a vital role in the ranching way of life just as the breed did when the West was settled.”
Moorhouse Ranch Company will officially be presented with the AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda Award at the Working Ranch Cowboys Association Word Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo on November 15. The ranch will receive a Lisa Perry bronze titled “The Remuda.”
The Best Remuda Award is presented each year by the American Quarter Horse Association and Bayer Animal Health to honor the contributions that ranch horses have made to the heritage of the American Quarter Horse. Since the award’s inception in 1992, many outstanding ranches have been recognized for their efforts in raising American Quarter Horses. The term remuda means a group of working horses bred by the ranch specifically to work and pen cattle.
Any ranch that has five or more American Quarter Horse mares used to produce horses for ranch work and is a member of AQHA is eligible for this award.
For more information about the Best Remuda award or to request an application, visit AQHA’s Web site at http://www.aqha.com/association/benefits/awards.html. AQHA will be accepting applications for the 2009 AQHA/Bayer Best Remuda Award until December 1, 2008.
To learn more about Moorhouse Ranch Company, visit the ranch’s Web site at www.moorhouseranchco.com/.
2008 Moorhouse Ranch Company – Benjamin, Texas
2007 S Ranch – Billings, Montana
2006 Tule Ranch – Tulia, Texas
2005 Babbitt Ranches – Flagstaff, Arizona
2004 Douglas Lake Cattle Company – Douglas Lake, British Columbia
2003 Lacey Livestock Company – Paso Robles, California
2002 W.H. Green Cattle Company – Albany, Texas
2001 Van Norman Ranches, Inc. – Tuscarora, Nevada
2000 CS Cattle Company – Cimarron, New Mexico
1999 Bogle LTD – Dexter, New Mexico
1998 Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company – Guthrie, Texas
1997 R.A. Brown Ranch – Throckmorton, Texas
1996 Bar B Ranch – Beaver, Oklahoma
1995 Stuart Ranch – Caddo, Oklahoma
1994 Waggoner Ranch – Vernon, Texas
1993 6666 Ranch – Guthrie, Texas
1992 Haythorn Land & Cattle Company – Arthur, Nebraska
