Money and horses changing hands in an auction setting has long been a tradition in Summersville.
The popular activity has received a boost of late, as a family from Alton has refurbished the arena and barn facility on Highway 106 just east of Highway 17 and started a new monthly sales series. Under the name Summersville Stockyard LLC, the series is operated by long-time horse traders Todd Hornback and his father, Bill, with support from Todd’s wife, Jacqui, Bill’s wife Frances, and Todd and Jacqui’s daughters, Savannah and Cheyenne.
Beginning with last week’s inaugural event, horse sales are scheduled to take place on the first Friday of each month and small animal and goat sales on the third Friday. Each sale starts at 6 p.m.
After purchasing the vintage facility in 2010, the Hornbacks have since repaired badly worn sections of the barn and paddocks, and spruced up and painted the auction arena. The family moved from the Charlotte, N.C., area in 2006 and run a sizable cattle farm near Alton. While they have significant experience in the livestock auction field, this is their first round of actually running the show.
“We’ve had livestock our whole lives,” Jacqui said, “and my husband and father-in-law have been buying, selling and trading ever since they could walk, I guess. We’ve been in and out of stockyards our whole lives, but we’ve never really owned one.”
“We might be crazy, I don’t know,” Todd said. “But my dad and I have done this kind of thing forever, and we had the opportunity to do this and just decided to go with it.
“It’s a labor of love – very laborious.”
At the microphone on auction nights is experienced auctioneer Kip Hiatt, while other friends and acquaintances of the Hornbacks carry out various administrative and service-oriented tasks.
Todd figures the Summersville facility was built sometime in the 1940s and slowly deteriorated as the decades passed. His family’s first order of business was to give the barn a much-needed and well-deserved facelift – including welding and woodwork – and install bars in paddocks to help retain goats.
“Nothing had been done in it for 25 years,” Todd said, “and we’ve done a lot work of remodeling and updating. A lot of work – but it needed it.”
“Some parts of the barn were literally falling down,” Jacqui said.
The Hornbacks’ move to southern Missouri resulted from a combination of connections to relatives in Joplin and visits over the years to various parts of the state. Landing where they did involved an unusual twist of fate; when they were searching for a farm to buy and looked at one at Alton, its owners decided it was a done deal before it ever was.
“They told us we were the ones who were going to buy it,” Jacqui said, “and they wouldn’t sell it to anyone else until we did. The lady said it was in her heart that we were the ones for it. I guess she was right, because here we are.”
Jacqui said the move west also involved a desire to get away from the more hectic lifestyle they were used to in North Carolina.
“There were so many people,” she said. “It was like herding cows all the time – everybody was just pushing and everywhere you went there was just non-stop traffic. And we didn’t even live in the big city.
“I miss my family back there, but I love it out here and I wanted my girls to have a country life like I had when I was a kid.”
Each first-Friday sale will kick off with tack (including dozens of saddles, pads, bridles and other gear for horseback riding) and western wear and décor. Then the horses will be paraded one at a time in front of the crowd, including both registered and unregistered. Todd said 75 or more could be regularly available.
“There will be all kinds of breeds,” Jacqui said. “It all depends on what people bring.”
The small animal and goat sale isn’t new to the facility, but it hasn’t hosted for a long time. Attendees on each third Friday can expect to see everything from goats and sheep to hogs, chickens, rabbits, calves and even some cattle and farm equipment.
“It could be anything and everything,” Jacqui said.
“Whatever people bring that’s farm-related, we’ll sell it,” Todd said.
Todd and Jacqui both said they’ve enjoyed their first eight years in Missouri and they’re looking forward to watching their family’s new business venture unfold.
“We just hope the community will support us,” Todd said. “The barn has been here for so many years, and it’s a great asset to the community. And it saves people from having to travel so far to other barns, so it offers convenience.
“We’ll try our very best to do a good job.”
Summersville Stockyard’s toll free number is 877-932-4160. For more information, call Todd Hornback at 417-217-0681, or Bill Hornback at 417-217-0682.