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Outside Circle by Jan Swan Wood: Bad river horse sale, PRCA season wraps up, Dane ties arena record, Alzada poetry gathering

I’m sure glad the weather rebounded to a more tolerable temperature! It got down in the 20’s a couple mornings and sure made the horses look fuzzy. We got a nice rain but know a lot of folks not far from us that had a bit of snow from that system. Whoever left the gate open at the Arctic Circle must have noticed and closed it again. I don’t think anyone was ready for summer to be over quite yet.

Horse sale season is winding down. I know the numbers of weanlings sold this year is sure down from the sales of 10 years ago, but the quality is sure there in most of them. Most breeders took a long, hard look at their mare bands and pared them down to a smaller, more sellable number. As for me, quality trumps quantity any day.

The big Bad River Fall Extravaganza Catalog and Consignment Horse Sale is coming up on Saturday, Sept. 27 at Philip, S.D. It’s always packed with top weanlings from some of the top breeders in the region, plus a great selection of riding horses. There will be 200 head in the catalog alone, which will sell at noon. The loose horses will start selling at 8 a.m., and the open consignments will be after the catalog sale. It’s the last loose horse sale of the year for the west river region, so if you have a horse you don’t want to winter, this will be your chance to get it to town.



The PRCA regular season is over Sept. 30, so those still scratching their way up the standings to qualify for the WNFR are going full bore at these last rodeos. The Pendleton Roundup is one of the rodeos that most pro hands dream of winning at and it drew the top end again this year. Cort Scheer, Elsmere, Neb. won the saddle broncs with 175 points on two head. His first go round attempt was a 91 point ride on 4 Star Rodeo’s Rounder. Second in the broncs was Cole Elshere, Faith, S.D. Riley Pruitt of Gering, Neb. won the tie down roping with a total time of 28.8 on three head. With the long score at Pendleton, that’s really gettin’ ‘er done! No regional gals placed in the barrels, but I found it interesting that the barrels there are 280 feet apart! Now that’s a big pattern.

Dane Kissack, Spearfish, S.D. tied (excuse the pun) the arena record at Missoula, Mont. when he clocked a 7.9 in the tie down roping. the record is shared with Cody Ohl and Shank Edwards.



The 25th Annual Alzada (Mont.) Poetry, Music and Art show will be held on Sunday, October. 5. Anyone wanting to perform or show their art must be signed up by September 26. The hall will open that morning at 10 a.m., with coffee on, then the lunch stand will open at 11. The free program starts at 1 p.m. The lunch is what they raise their money with, so eat hearty. They usually have a grand selection of home made pie as well. For more information, contact Gay Arpan at 406-828-4517 or Chris Maupin at 307-467-5260.

The 10th Womens Ranch Rodeo Association finals will be held Oct. 17-18 at Loveland, Colorado’s Larimer County Fairgrounds. Eighteen of the top women’s ranch rodeo teams will be competing, plus there will be an Open Stray Gathering for their families on the 18th. That is limited to 30 four person teams. To order tickets, call 620-326-1083. You can get more details at http://www.womensranchrodeo.org.

The SDHSR Finals Short Go will air again on Oct. 26, 7 p.m. on SDPB-2. I watched it the first time it aired and will probably watch it again. I’m sure glad that public TV has picked this up and is showing it in the state.

Well, that’s my circle for this week. If you’ll send me your upcoming events, fundraisers and other news items, I’ll sure share them here. I can’t tell everyone else if you don’t tell me! Have a great week.