Ranch Horse 101 Features Leading Horsemen AQHA Best Remuda Winner Craig Haythorn among featured speakers

(Houston, TX) – Craig Haythorn, president of Haythorn Land & Cattle Co. of Arthur, Nebraska, will highlight a list of leading horse experts during the Ranch Horse 101 session of the International Livestock Congress, February 20-22 in Houston, Texas.

Haythorn, along with wife Jody, will share their techniques for marketing and promoting the ranch horse which they have perfected over more than a decade. Haythorn Land & Cattle Co. carries the distinction of being the first ranch honored with the American Quarter Horse Association’s Best Remuda Award and is the largest breeder of Quarter Horses in the United States, and the third largest in the world. The 90,000-acre ranch is a working ranch breeding Black Angus, Hereford and Longhorn cattle as well as foundation-bred Quarter Horses, and was a pioneer of the now popular ranch horse sales across the country. The ranch, while steeped in tradition, has also embraced modern technology by being the first to video stream its horse sales on its Internet site. The Congress will be the first time the Haythorns have shared this information with the public.

According to Beef magazine, ranchers in the United States own more than 300,000 horses. While the horse has been replaced somewhat as a tool for managing beef cattle herds in the U.S., it is still a viable tool for many ranches in South America, Mexico and Australia.

Also featured during Ranch Horse 101, will be a panel discussion regarding ranch horse competitions to include American Quarter Horse Association Director of Shows Charlie Hemphill, Working Ranch Cowboys Association Vice President Gary Morton, North American Equine Ranching Information Executive Director Norm Luba and Richard Morgan of the University of Louisville School of Equine Business. Other topics include the prevention and recovery of stolen horses presented by Jody Henderson of Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers, a look at alternative ranch income sources by Dr. Craig Brubaker of Time Walker Ranch and a horse safety demonstration by James Davison of Fredericksburg, Texas.

The International Livestock Congress will be held February 19-22, 2002 at the Warwick Park Plaza Hotel in Houston, Texas, during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. For more information or to register, go to www.livestockcongress.com or call Julie Kimball, Executive Director at (817) 367-6563.