AQHA Best Remuda Award

AQHA presents the Best Remuda Award – the oldest and most prestigious ranching award.

Remuda: "The herd of horses from which those to be used for the day are chosen."

The American Quarter Horse Association created the Best Remuda Award to honor the contributions that ranch horses have made to the heritage of the American Quarter Horse. Since its beginning in 1992, the award has recognized 31 U.S. and seven International outstanding ranches for their efforts in raising American Quarter Horses – an important tool of their trade.

Any Ranching Heritage Breeder that is a member of AQHA and produces five or more registered American Quarter Horses per year for ranch work is eligible for this award. We encourage all AQHA members to nominate their ranch or a ranch they feel would be deserving of the Best Remuda Award.

The International Best Remuda Award debuted in 2018 to recognize international ranchers outside of the United States that take pride in their remuda program. 

View AQHA Best Remuda and AQHA International Best Remuda awards presentation information. 

To apply for the Best Remuda Award, download an application:

U.S. ranches 

International ranches (Canada, Mexico and other countries)

 

Winners of the AQHA Best Remuda Award

2024 Beggs Cattle Co.- Fort Worth, Texas

Western heritage through four generations of Beggs ranchers from three ranches in seven Texas counties.

2024 International: Las Tunas Cattle Co.- Chihuahua, Mexico

Las Tunas Cattle Co. continues to preserve and promote ranching traditions through breeding quality livestock.

2023 Creek Plantation- Martin, South Carolina

A family operation focused on raising high-quality American Quarter Horses that check all of the boxes.

2022 O RO Ranch - Prescott, Arizona

Breeding the right kind of American Quarter Horse since long before the inception of AQHA.

2022 International: Fazenda Gruta Azul - Dois Irmãos Do Buriti, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

For decades, Norberto Soares Leite’s Fazenda Gruta Azul in Dois Irmãos Do Buriti, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, has raised cattle and American Quarter Horses.

2021 Miller Land & Livestock - Big Piney, Wyoming

Breeding quality horses for generations, this Wyoming ranch is honored with the AQHA Best Remuda Award.

2021 International: Estancia San Rafael - Argentina

This Argentinian ranch has bred quality ranch horses for decades.

2020 A Bar Ranch - Claremore, Oklahoma

A Bar produces the top-quality horses used to get work done.

2020 International: Fazenda Campanario - Brazil

For 125 years, the land at Fazenda Campanario in Laguna Carapa, Brazil, has been cultivated for agriculture. For the past 40 years, one of the ranch’s focuses has been raising quality American Quarter Horses for ranch work.

2019 King Ranch - Kingsville, Texas

King Ranch is the birthplace of American ranching.

2019 International: Estancias Graciarena, Argentina

Estancias Graciarena has produced quality ranch and performance American Quarter Horses for more than 30 years in Argentina.

2018 Wagonhound Land & Livestock - Douglas, Wyoming

Wagonhound as it is today got its start in 1999 when owner Art Nicholas purchased the ranch. Today it's a self-sufficient, versatile operation.

2018 International: La Media Suerte - Uruguay

The inaugural International Best Remuda winner is La Media Suerte, owned by Alvaro Martinicorena. The operation has been breeding American Quarter Horses for more than 30 years.

2017 Silver Spur Operating Company - Encampment, Wyoming

Silver Spur Operating Company is the ninth largest cattle operation in the United States. 

2016 Bartlett Ranch - Pike Road, Alabama

Fifty-five years of selective breeding have gone into the ranch horses that wear the Flying B brand.

2015 – 75-Year Breeders were honored

2014 Muleshoe Ranch - Gail, Texas

Historically, there has been some confusion on the location of Muleshoe Ranch. Most people seem to think that it’s located at Muleshoe, Texas. It’s not, although it was at one time.

2013 Matador Ranch - Matador, Texas

Cattle and cowboys have been on this ranch for 136 years, ever since 1877, when Henry H. Campbell established a ranch about 80 miles northeast of what would be come Lubbock, Texas. 

2012 Singleton Ranches - Lamy, New Mexico

When Henry Singleton bought the 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch, south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the mid-1980s, people familiar with Henry had to wonder what was going on. That purchase did not fit the pattern of businesses that Henry had been buying.

2011 Tongue River Ranch - Dumont, Texas

It was an unusual spring, and one like it everyone hopes not to see again soon. Dry and hot. Unusually dry and unusually hot. And windy. Of course, everyone knows the wind blows during the spring in West Texas, but every day?

2010 Spade Ranch - Lubbock, Texas

In 1889, when Isaac Ellwood stepped down from the train in the West Texas town of Colorado (known today as Colorado City), he knew he had come to the right place. The railroad shipping pens were full of cattle.

2009 Haythorn Ranch Co. - Maxwell, Nebraska

Howard Haythorn came to Maxwell on horseback at age 13, helping his father trail in a herd of cattle and horses to their new home.

2008 Moorhouse Ranch - Benjamin, Texas

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.

2007 S Ranch Ltd. - Billings, Montana

Today, the S Ranch is still owned and operated by the Scott family – John Scott Jr., John Scott III, Jim Scott, Maggie Scott Brown and Sissy Scott Croft are all general partners of the 227,000-acre ranch (including leases).

2006 Tule Ranch - Tulia, Texas

The Cogdell family has made a name for itself in two areas – ranch horses and cutting horses.

2005 Babbitt Ranches – Flagstaff, Arizona

Established in 1886, Babbitt Ranches is one of the largest and most historic ranches in Arizona.

2004 Douglas Lake Cattle Co. - Douglas Lake, British Columbia

Douglas Lake Cattle Co. is a town of itself. It has a store, post office, school and church. It’s also the largest ranch in Canada.

2003 Lacey Livestock Co. - Paso Robles, California

Almost everyone’s vision of a desert is that of a dry, sandy area, almost void of vegetation and with unrelenting heat. That’s not necessarily so – especially in the winter and early spring.

2002 W.H. Green Cattle Co. - Albany, Texas

Henry Green said that when his father stepped down from the train, he was the maddest man that Henry had ever seen. And the thing about it, he was mad at Henry.

2001 Van Norman Ranches Inc. - Tuscarora, Nevada

The Van Norman family is a steward of the land and prides itself in continuing the traditions set forth by their parents and grandparents, the late Charlie and Della Van Norman.

2000 CS Cattle Co.- Cimarron, New Mexico

When Frank Springer topped a rise and looked down on the little village of Cimarron, New Mexico, in February 1873, two things immediately struck him – the snow-covered peaks to the west, and the rolling short grass prairies to the east.

1999 Bogle Ltd. - Dexter, New Mexico

It’s no accident that Bogle Ltd. was named the winner of last year’s Best Remuda Award. They planned for it. Bogle Ltd. Ranches lie in the southeast corner of New Mexico.

1998 Pitchfork Land & Cattle Co. - Guthrie, Texas

The 118-year-old Pitchfork Ranch breeds good horses by necessity, because no modern convenience can take their place in rugged terrain.

1997 R.A. Brown Ranch - Throckmorton, Texas

When R.A. (Rob) Brown Jr.'s grandfather established his Throckmorton, Texas, ranch in 1903, one of the first things he did was to make sure he had some top horses. 

1996 Bar B Ranch - Beaver, Oklahoma 

For more than a century, the Barby family has made its living on horseback, herding cattle on the sprawling Bar B Ranch, east of Beaver, Oklahoma.

1995 Stuart Ranch - Caddo, Oklahoma

The oldest family ranch in Oklahoma doesn't rest on historical markers or tradition. Stuart Ranch, carved out of Indian Territory in 1868, is in the midst of a renaissance, a rebirth, thanks to strategic efforts by the Stuart family and ranch personnel.

1994 Waggoner Ranch - Vernon, Texas

Turning back through the pages of Texas horse history, it may be said that in his time, (W.T. Waggoner) owned or used most of the great Texas horses of his day.

1993 Four Sixes Ranch - Guthrie, Texas  

Raising good ranch horses was always a goal with Samuel Burk Burnett, legendary founder of the Four Sixes Ranch. He found his calling early, and joined his father in the cattle business in Denton County, Texas, when Burk was only 19 years old.

1992 Haythorn Land & Cattle Co. - Arthur, Nebraska  

Few ranches in America today are as reliant on horses as the Haythorn Land & Cattle Co. Others are bigger, land-wise, but the Haythorn is the largest breeder of American Quarter Horses in the United States.