PENDLETON, Ore. — Pace Raymond had to prepare himself to part with 10-year-old Sage.

The 17-year-old Helix resident was selling his first horse at the Pendleton Cattle Barons Weekend.

“It’s been a lot of work getting her ready for this show, a lot of country covering, and getting her ready to pay attention and do what she needs to do,” he said. “The most important thing for a ranch horse is for them to learn patience.”

Bringing Sage to market was a project four years in the making, and was emotional for Raymond, but he said he was buoyed by the knowledge he is the youngest horse consignor to ever attend the event, which was May 5-6 at the Pendleton Convention Center and nearby Pendleton Round-Up facilities.

Raymond has raised horses with his family all of his life and has watched his father sell horses several times, but it didn’t lessen the emotion of selling his first horse.

“To tell you the truth. I’m really nervous,” Raymond said before riding Sage into the practice arena May 5. “It’s pretty sad to see her go, but I’m really excited.”

Raymond sold his horse Sage on May 6 for $30,500.

Tri-tip and more on the grill

The competitors also were feeling that May 6 at the annual Buckaroo BBQ Challenge.

More than 25 teams from across the Pacific Northwest and Canada were in attendance to barbecue three separate five-serving meals consisting of tri-tip steak, chicken and short ribs donated from area and local suppliers. The number of teams in attendance meant the grilling contest came with bigger barbecue implications.

“We started this about 12 years ago, this is amazing, it’s fun to have something this big,” Buckaroo BBQ Challenge Director Jeff LaBoy said. “We need 25 participants to count as a qualifier to compete in Kansas City. Last year we were just two teams short, so we really wanted to be sure this year could be a qualifier.”

The Kansas City Barbeque Society is holding its fifth annual KCBS World Invitational Barbeque Competition on Aug. 12 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Having worked to fill the competition sign-up sheet to make the qualifier a reality, LaBoy said that he couldn’t have done it without the local partners supplying the meat and facilitating the event itself.

“Our sponsors make this possible,” LaBoy said, with Painted Hills Natural Beef of Fossil providing tri-tip steak and Hill’s Meat of Pendleton donating the ribs.

LaBoy is no stranger to the challenge, having spent the past several years participating in the event himself with the team Meat Your Maker.

“I’ll be biting my fingernails, usually I’m the one to do the tri-tip for my team, I love smoking tri-tip,” LaBoy said. “It’s hard for me to be on the sidelines, but I’m proud to help ensure this event can happen.”

As the competition began, each team gathered to hear the rules, collect their meat and take a complimentary shot of Pendleton whisky or apple juice to celebrate the spirit of the competition.

U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Joe Sullivan was the first of his team, the Grill Sergeants, to get cooking, representing his love of barbecue and the Eastern Oregon National Guard’s recruiting efforts.

“I’m the first to come in, but we’re recruiters in the area with some local guardsmen that are on their drill weekend,” Sullivan said.

Though teams were supplied with tri-tip and ribs, each individual team was allowed to bring their own chicken, down to the cut they’d prepare. Sullivan decided he’d be barbecuing chicken wings, which he admitted were not the best cut for the medium, but that his love for wings transcended those limitations.

“Once you have the raw materials you can do just about anything you want with it, which is why I decided on the wings,” Sullivan said. “You have to list all the temperatures for all of the different things, but once it’s cooking, it’s cooking.”

Working with smart dogs

Derek Westover, of Homedale, Idaho, has only been training cattle dogs for three years, but he said he felt the work now is in his blood. He brought Midge, a border collie, to this year’s Working Dog Sale at Cattle Barons.

“I grew up on my grandpa’s farm and ranch with 700 head of cattle over in Weezer, Idaho, and we never really had a good dog,” he said. “When I graduated high school and got some animals of my own, I thought I’d really like to get a dog and so I started learning about border collies and how to train them.”

It wasn’t long before Westover found his addiction to working with border collies, he said.

“It made me wonder how we got anything without a dog before, so I started competing with them, going to trials and whatnot,” Westover said.

“I love setting these dogs up for success,” he said. “Now I’m transitioning into setting up a business for targeted grazing, so I’ll need even more working dogs to help move the grazers around.”

Training working dogs for the ranch is not for the faint of heart, Westover continued, explaining a trainer’s role is to shape instincts naturally into a mold that can be worked with in a ranch environment.

“The easy part is getting them to work with the cows, they’re not afraid to get in there,” he said. “They’re predators, and their instincts are they want to go and kill something. We shape those instincts and let them work naturally. Border collies naturally want to go out and gather and bring the stock to you, so you just start from there, and then you teach them directions. Pretty sure they’re working off balance, and then you can start driving the stock, moving them inside the flanks and everything.”

Westover said border collies are an optimal breed for working in a ranch environment, capable of driving cattle up to 600 yards away from a handler and returning it on vocal or whistle instruction alone.

“They’re just the smartest animals,” he said. “They’ll outsmart you before you know it.”

Check out Page A8 for the story and photos of the Pendleton Cattle Barons Western Artistry Live competition.