Click My Heels and Head back to Kansas
There’s no place like home, but I don’t mind Kansas either. This vacation in Salina, KS has become an annual trip. Each October we make the 5 hour journey west to attend the Farmers and Ranchers horse sale.
We were just discussing how many years we’ve been going to the sale… 2022 was our 5th year. We’ve gotten some awesome horses out of this sale and had some memorable times, for sure.
Each year has been a bit different:
2022
Happy 5th Anniversary to us! Only a family of 3 attended this year. Crayton went on his own road trip to Nevada, MO to compete in the Missouri High School Rodeo. No futurity for us again this year, but we did get to town in time to watch most of it… from the truck cab with our friends Mel & Karen, because it was so cold and windy outside. The weather turned beautiful for the sale days and we were able to buy a couple weanlings and a yearling.
2021
With a sophomore starting on the varsity football team, we altered a few priorities. We still all made it to Salina for the auction Saturday and Sunday, but the Futurity was bypassed.
“Smart Mate Cat” shown above, was purchased from this sale in 2021.
2020
We counted down the days to this excursion after being stuck at home, craving a family vacation, after staying homebound since February and Casey & Crayton participated in the Ranch Horse Futurity.
We not only had fun showing and selling, we also bought “Vince” at the 2020 auction.
2019
We’d planned to check out the futurity events, but the weather was so bad that they’d moved it hours away to an indoor arena. We came home with some nice horses. Tinsel, Eldorado and Jigsaw.
2018
Casey rode a horse through the sale for a customer so we had part of our trip paid for. We couldn’t skip this sale, even if we’d wanted to. We purchased Cutter and Parker (Crayton’s rope horse) at this sale.
2017
We rolled in blindly but managed to make our first colt purchases- “Hondo” and “Yuma” which then competed and were sold in Salina in 2020 as 3 year olds. (shown above)
Traditions
During all of our trips to Salina, we manage to hit a few local restaurants and I do a little shopping. We relax at the hotel- watching TV and swimming in the pool. We visit with old friends and meet lots of great, new people.
Another main, trip attraction is the food court along the Kansas Turnpike near Topeka. How simple is that? It’s a small thing that we all look forward to and it has become a standard stop. We make a restroom pitstop, check on the newest purchases in the trailer and choose something to eat from the food court.
Yes, we wish we could click our heels and be right back at home but the commute, to and from, is part of the whole experience. Memories are made along the entire way and even if Kansas isn’t that exciting of a destination, it is still magical to me.
Related Pages & Posts:
What’s a Futurity?
Preparing for our Futurity and Trip to Kansas
Sold Horses: “Hondo” & “Yuma”
It’s a Journey, Not a Destination
