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Cowhorses Inc.

By Kathy Peth

The woman wants a reined cow horse to show. She’s got some background, done some homework, tried a few, looked at horses available on various horse selling websites, priced some in her neighborhood, and she’s getting serious. She’s seen the website for Cowhorses Inc, and she emails Pat McCarty to ask about one of the dozen or so he has listed at the moment.

McCarty has 30 years practice fitting horses to people, and in the last few years he’s developed a system that shows buyers from their home offices what’s out there, offers them in three national locations, Idaho, Arizona, and Texas, and dispenses common-sense advice from his office. A non-pro reiner, McCarty, along with his Arizona partner Steve Wolfe, a thirty year veteran of the show world, specialize in offering the kind of horses they compete on themselves.

There’s experience in this outfit. McCarty grew up on a cattle ranch in Alberta, Canada, and he was riding saddle broncs when he got to Boise in December, 1981 and noticed the grass not only was showing, but was green. “Back home it was 40 below,” he laughs, “and I was supposed to be feeding cows… I never went back.” Steve Wolfe grew up in Washington State, son of the late Chuck Wolfe, who bought and sold horses for a living while also owning a tack shop near Seattle.

“We find her budget,” McCarty says of the woman looking for a reined cow horse. “She’s been looking at $20,000 - $30,000 horses, but thinks her checkbook comfort level is between $10- and $20,000. I ask some questions; has she ridden cutters? Shown a reining horse yet? Is she wanting a boxing horse to start with or in the market for a finished horse?

“She’s partway there in terms of experience, and I figure the horse she needs to begin with is in the $10-$20,000 range. But unfortunately this is the horse everybody is looking for, and I don’t have one just now. I tell her I will keep an eye out for a good horse for her. In the meantime, I ask her to send me information on the horse she’s currently riding; I can tell a lot about her preferences by the breeding of that horse.

“This is just good business; listen to the customer, find the need, and fill their need. It’s not rocket science…”

It still comes down to a buyer, a seller, and a horse, but otherwise the horse business has changed tremendously in the last 30 years. Used to be cash only, now you can arrange financing, or use plastic. Used to be you bought a horse you’d never seen before at auction, gambling on it being exactly as advertised, even when you went looking beforehand and couldn’t match the horse in the pen with the description in the catalog; used to be you had a few minutes to try the horse on slippery concrete with somebody else’s saddle. Or you bought from private parties who had lots of reasons to sell and maybe not a whole lot of incentive to tell you the horse eats blankets, does somersaults in the trailer, and jumps fences. Pasture fences.

“Mid-level horse auctions are declining, and today’s buyer is not auction savvy,” says McCarty. “We offer horses online that are pre-priced, ones you can research, watch videos of them competing, and we have multiple locations which gets you closer to the inventory to come in and do that initial ride and make a decision.”

McCarty spends a great deal of time and miles attending the major auctions. “You can try this yourself,” McCarty chuckles in his auctioneer’s voice, like 5 miles of gravel road. “You can get on a plane and go to Fort Worth (to the big futurity auctions), you can look at 1,000 head of horses, pick one and gamble that you made a good decision. I understand auctions, and if I get on a plane to Fort Worth, buy a load of horses, and bring them home; then I’m doing the gambling. Let my experience work for you – we take the guesswork out of it.”

Once they’re home the horses are evaluated, ridden if appropriate, and sent to professional trainers, shown by Open riders like Wolfe and in non-pro competitions by McCarty. Young horses are started and, depending on quality and demand, some are aimed at specialty sales, such as the performance horse futurity and select sales, while others go on the website and some go to regional auctions.

Marketing for Cowhorses Inc is well-rounded. Prospects, such as those yearlings from high-profile select sales, may be brought along and offered at other select sales as two-year olds. “We’re in attendance at most of the big sales,” says McCarty, “and historically we do very well. That’s our gauge of how we’re doing.”

Cowhorses, Inc currently offers fourteen horses on their website, priced from $8,500 to $40,000, ages 3-14, with videos available immediately on five. There are money earners, horses sired by I’ll Be Smart, Doc Per, Hollywood Dun It, Smart Chic Olena, Skeets Peppy and Dry Double, with maternal grandsires like Smart Little Lena, Smart Peppy Lena, Smart Peppy Doc, and Taris Catalyst. There’s some color, some chrome, geldings, bred mares, youth horses, beginner, intermediate, and non pro prospects.

“Today’s horse world is all about planned parenthood,” says McCarty. “Unless a horse’s sire is in every magazine I open, with a 4-color, full page ad, I’m not interested. And we look ‘around the corner’ when we buy prospects. Last year at the reining horse sales there were two hot young sires. I covered my bets and bought yearlings in both pedigrees.”

Cowhorses Inc keeps anywhere from 25 to 30 horses “in the system” at any one time, and sells 45-50 head a year. “It’s not like the old days when we used to trade 200 horses a year,” chuckles McCarty. “That’s not happening any more. We sell every age group, from weaned colts to aged horses, and the biggest market is in aged geldings.”

Although Cowhorses Inc is primarily aimed at the non pro performance owner/rider who is already competing, there is a place for a backyard rider who wants to try the sport, says McCarty. “It makes me insane that people who want into our industry, people who present themselves to us in good faith, they hit a bad experience, feel they’re not welcome, and they’re off buying a boat instead. We need to take them by the hand, help them, explain the math – this is not an emotional decision, buying a horse to show, it’s a business decision.”

Part of the process of professionally buying and selling horses is matching horse to rider. McCarty laughs as he says he’s been known to discourage sales or downright refuse to sell a buyer’s choice. He explains: “My greatest example, and you hear it all the time, is a buyer who wants a young horse for his kid, so they can ‘grow up together…’ My answer is: Neither of them will life long enough to grow up. Short of saying, ‘Are you NUTS?’ or ‘What, you don’t like your kid?’ I suggest they buy an old seasoned horse that can teach the kid to ride.

“I talk people out of horses constantly, because I don’t want the grief. If it doesn’t look like the combination is going to fit, I won’t do it. The customer won’t be happy and they’ll tell people they aren’t happy – and I want satisfied customers.”

McCarty tries to educate his novice buyers in the basics of showmanship so they know up front that they’re probably not going to buy just one horse and go from a beginner rider to an experienced competitor marking 72s on the same horse. It’s more likely to be a progression.

“Old Dobbin is going to work today,” says McCarty, “but if you’re moving along like you should, you’ll be done with him in about six months to a year, and then you’re going to need something else. We can get you a horse you can mark 68s on, and he’s going to cost “x.” When you can consistently mark 68s on him, you’re going to need a 70 horse, and he’s going to cost “y.” And when you can mark 70s consistently, you’re going to need a ‘2 (72) horse, and he’s going to cost “z.” That’s kinda how it is, and we need to tell people the deal up front.

“If you’re here to play, understand that you’re going to have to step through some horses.” He chuckles. “And if you’re just wanting to be a petter, let us know and we’ll get you a good one to pet…”

So where do these horses come from? McCarty is a frequent buyer at NRHA, NRCHA, and NCHA sales, but the bulk of his prospects come from trainers. They’re colts that for whatever reason aren’t going to the futurities – they’ve spent nearly a year under saddle and on cattle, but maybe they’re not as mature, not as far along, or not quite as spectacular as the few that actually go to the futurities. “A trainer is going to start 20 horses,” says McCarty, “and maybe take 4 to a futurity. Where are those other 16 going? I want ‘em. Believe me, 10-15 months in good hands, thank you, I’ll take ‘em.”

The communication works both ways – trainers call McCarty and Wolfe looking for non pro prospects for their students, as well as to clear out the barn before the next season.

That’s the match-up part of the process. But the horse industry is now going further. Cowhorses Inc is at the forefront of offering financing in the horse buying process. “We take cash, check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and we finance,” says McCarty. There is a screen on the website that will take a prospective buyer through the financing process.

“We require 40% down payment,” says McCarty. “This makes sure people commit to this horse. We’re mostly dealing with people who are really good credit risks, so the agreement is they’ll insure the horse, sign a contract on them, and at 40% down, they’re a partner already.

“Let’s say a monthly payment, at maybe 12% interest and a maximum term of 36 months, is $475. People may balk at that, but I go to the same shows they go to, and I can’t do it for $475 – that’s not getting there or the motel room, that’s just entry fees. So if you are spending that kind of money to show on the horse you have at home that you can’t win on, you should make a commitment to get in the game.

“We’re not in the business of lending out money to bad risks, but offering financing makes good business sense – people finance refrigerators and futons, why not horses?”

Reputable horse sellers also encourage in-depth pre-sale vet checks. The object is to provide reassurance that the horse, on that day, is sound with no lurking problems. “I often spend a good chunk of the day at the vet’s,” says McCarty. “I’m a big proponent of ‘let’s do it now;’ you’re making a sizeable investment so let’s spend a bit of money now to make sure we won’t have any problems that will come back and bite us later.

“The prospective buyer usually decides what level of pre-purchase exam they want, and typically they stand the cost. However, I can see the day coming in the not-so-distant future when a certain number of x-rays will become part of the marketing package on horses, and be paid for initially by the seller – the consumer confidence will more than offset the cost.”

There’s never been a guarantee in buying a horse – they are after all animals that can die for no reason while the check dries – but the advent of baby-boomer interest in horsemanship and competition has substantially increased the use of business methods in the buying and selling of horses.

New horse owners who are taking advantage of the increasingly popular classes aimed specifically at riders “of a certain age” at horse shows and performance horse contests are feeding a boom in business-like transactions to get them a horse whose ability is already known to fit their goals.

“In my world, I call it High-Tech Trading,” says McCarty. “We’ve had to change the way we bought and sold horses, because the world around us is changing.” Cowhorses Inc is out in front of such ‘high-tech trading,’ using the internet and a careful financing program to offer horses of proven bloodlines and show history to riders new to the industry.

Pat McCarty and Steve Wolfe are looking for a good non pro reined cow horse for the woman who called – it’s what they do, and do well. And they enjoy every step of it.