Making a Little Girl's Dream Come True

My young friend Jackson is the granddaughter of the folks who own the ranch where I live. Bruce and his late wife Linda came here in 1975 with their herd of pedigree Hereford cattle (for market reasons they later switched to commercial Angus.) Shortly after Bruce and Linda moved here, they built a barn that included a sale ring where they could hold auctions of their Hereford bulls. My ponies spend a lot of time right outside this barn in a paddock, and the Three Sisters herd recently helped one of Jackson’s wishes come true.

Jackson and Madie with a Hereford sign from back in the day when the sale ring was used for selling bulls.

Earlier this year, Bruce and I took Jackson to her first bull sale for her birthday. Bruce usually goes to a half dozen bull sales a year to choose outcrosses for his cow herd. We thought it would be fun for Jackson to see this part of being a rancher since she will one day inherit this place. She got to walk amongst the bulls for sale and then witness the theatrics of the auctioneer’s sing-song voice to encourage bidding. Bruce even let her hold up his buyer’s number to bid. That made her pretty nervous, which I can totally relate to! I get nervous just helping write the checks for the bulls he buys!

When Jackson next visited the ranch, she was helping me with pony chores. As we walked past one of the doors of the barn, she asked what the door was for. It was a good question because it is in an odd place for how the barn is used today. I explained that it was how young bulls entered the sale ring in the barn many years ago. I opened the door to show her the ring and auctioneer’s stand and pointed out the similarities to the bull sale we had gone to a few weeks before. In the course of our conversation, she expressed interest in someday reenacting a sale with ponies.

A few excruciatingly hot months passed, and then on a cool fall day during a visit to the ranch, Jackson decided she would rather do the sale reenactment than ride a pony, which had been her first request after we finished chores. Perhaps the farm equipment auction we had all been to the day before inspired her interest in recreating a sale in the ring. Regardless, I proceeded to help make her wish come true.

The ponies lined up to go in the ring, passing through the small pens that held individual bulls back when the sale ring in the barn was used to sell herefords.

First we closed the gates outside at either end of the overhang. The doors to the ring opened onto the overhang and are how bulls once were moved from paddock to ring and back to paddock again. Then we opened up the two doors for entering and exiting the ring. Inside on the auctioneer’s stand, we upended a bucket for her to stand on because she chose the role of sale announcer. Then, we located a discarded brush that she could use as a microphone. Finally it was time for me to go out and halter the Three Sisters herd and position them to go into the ring.

Madie voluntarily investigating the sale ring!

The overhang has several small holding pens where the bulls were staged for the sale. I decided, though, that they were too small for the ponies, so my plan was to tied them to the fence. Because she presented herself first, I brought Willowtrail Mountain Honey up into the overhang and tied her to the fence. Then I brought Willowtrail Wild Rose up into the overhang. I left the gate from the paddock open behind us, and while I was tying Rose to the fence, I looked back to see that Willowtrail Spring Maiden was curious about the goings-on and had followed us. She proceeded to enter the sale ring on her own, walk around in front of the announcer’s stand and then appear at the exit door, all on her own! After tying Rose to the fence, I haltered Madie and snapped the picture of Jackson and Madie in front of the Hereford sign. Then since the ‘sale’ hadn’t officially started, I tied her to the fence, too. It was quite something to see the Three Sisters positioned for the event!

Each of the Three Sisters went through the ring in front of the sale announcer, AKA Jackson!

Next I took each pony into the ring and gave the ‘announcer’ their color, name, age, and parentage. Jackson then repeated the information to our ‘audience,’ a large stack of hay bales. (I’m sure the resident barn cats were annoyed by our disruption of their quiet!) Madie and Rose willingly entered the ring and stood quietly while awaiting the announcement about them. Honey, though, decided she wanted to use the opposite doors for entering and exiting. I’m not sure if it was the Hereford bull on the sign, the huge difference in light and dark between inside and outside, or the strong smell of feline at one of the doors. Once inside, though, she waited patiently for the ‘announcer’ to do her job. Then I put Honey back outside, and the announcer asked for each pony to be brought back through the ring once more.

Honey took exception to entering the ring through this door. Perhaps it was the picture of the bull?

After the second tour through the ring, I put the ponies back in their paddock, quite pleased with how they’d helped the ‘sale’ be ‘successful.’ As I went back to the barn to close doors and gates, I could hear Jackson still talking in the barn. When I asked what she was doing, she said she was selling the miscellaneous items she found in the auctioneer’s stand. Ah ha! Just like she’d seen at the farm auction the day before!

The Three Sisters in between their two walks through the sale ring.

I have learned that Jackson will often think about things we do together and then later share her impressions of the experience, often with her parents or grandpa. I look forward to hearing whatever she might eventually share about recreating a sale in the ranch barn!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2024