AQHA-Pfizer Best Remuda Award

America’s Horse November 4, 2011 – In honor of its good ranch horses, Tongue River Ranch of Dumont, Texas, will accept the  AQHA-Pfizer Best Remuda Award November 12 during the World Championship Ranch Rodeo in Amarillo.

The award began in 1992 and recognizes outstanding ranches for their efforts in raising American Quarter Horses, an important tool of their trade. 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.

It’s fitting that Tongue River Ranch will receive the Best Remuda Award during the championship ranch rodeo, since that’s a rodeo the ranch has qualified for nine times, more than any other ranch. Twice, Tongue River has been honored with having the top horse at the championship rodeo.

Those good horses that perform in the ranch rodeo arena also work hard on the 89,000 acres of ranch land that includes portions of four Texas counties: King, Cottle, Motley and Dickens. Tongue River Ranch was founded in 1898 by the Swenson family. It was purchased by Millard Morris of DeRidder, Louisiana, in 1997, and one of his first moves was to purchase 20 broodmares with the bloodlines of King, Poco Bueno, Doc Bar, Tanquery Gin, Freckles Playboy and Tenino Badger.

Stallions used on those Tongue River mares have included Paddys Irish Whiskey by Peppy San Badger; Pepcid by Peptoboonsmal; Natural Enterprise by Surprise Enterprise; Medicinal Mecom Blue by Mecom Blue; Cats Hillbilly by Highbrow Cat; and Seven S Shining Gold by Shining Spark.

Seven S Shining Gold is owned by Tongue River Ranch manager Tom Moorhouse, whose family ranch, Moorhouse Ranch, won the Best Remuda Award in 2008.

In the November issue of  America’s Horse, readers can ride along as ranch cowboys complete a day of branding aboard these good horses. Jim Jennings, a retired AQHA executive director who authored “Best Remudas,” a look back at the first 15 award winners, chronicled a day in the cowboys’ life at Tongue River. He writes, “At Tongue River Ranch, the ritual of spring branding has not changed much since the founding of the ranch in 1898. It’s done by cowboys on cow horses – good ones.”

Visit  www.tongueriverranch.net to learn more.

AQHA news and information is a service of AQHA publications. For more information on The American Quarter Horse Journal or America’s Horse, visit  AQHA Publications at www.aqha.com.

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Founded in 1940, the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest equine breed organization in the world. With headquarters in Amarillo, Texas, AQHA has a membership of more than 300,000 people in 86 countries and has registered more than 5 million horses in 95 countries.