APRIL 2016 • NEBRASKAland 35
Thoughtful breeding produced this week-old foal. Recipes are written for 21st century quarter horse herds.
Pitzer
Ranch
Located near the town of Ericson,
Nebraska, the Pitzer Ranch produces and
trains up to 400 quarter horses per year.
Some will become family pets, others will
work cattle and in the rodeo arena some
will become legendary.
Individual differences in biomechanics,
personality, and training set their paths
in becoming hobby horses, ranch
workers or competitors. Nothing is
random in producing quality quarter
horses. "You let the horse tell you what
it wants to be," said Brinkman. "If
they're good at certain things you go
that way. Some want to be sport horses
and some want to be family pets – the
trail horses." Everyone in the Pitzer
family rides new horses regularly,
looking for traits. The most exceptional
are destined for the rodeo circuit: calf
roping, barrel racing, steer wrestling or
team roping.
As quarterbacks and linebackers
perform only one position career-long,
so do rodeo horses. It's big business,
especially team-roping events which
dot the country year-round. The
roping community's competitor base
is huge and so are the prize winnings.
"Spending $50,000 on a horse is no
big deal to some folks because they
may win it all back the next weekend,"
Brinkman said. A fully trained roping
horse, a "finished horse" as they're
called, sells for up to $150,000. A
good trail horse is much less, but still
costs as much as a new pickup truck.
Equestrians want quality, and the Pitzer
