DELLROY, Ohio – Bob Banta loved his reining Quarter Horses and although his untimely death two months ago at a reining competition in Painesville, Ohio was tragic, his memory and show career were relived with one last ride by trainer Rich Beidelschies and BH Irish Doc, Bob’s personal show gelding, at the Cactus Hill AQHA Quarter Horse dispersal auction in Dellroy, Ohio, Aug. 8.
More than 250 people attended the auction of the horses owned by Banta and his wife, Theresa. The auction was attended by reiners and horse enthusiasts from three states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
Prices strong. Top price was paid for Banta’s personal 5-year-old reining gelding, BH Irish Doc, which sold for $6,100 and will be continuing his show career for the new owner’s daughter. The 5-year-old gelding was sired by Bea Aech Enterprise.
Other horses sold included horses sired by Brigaboy, Smart Little Pistol, Dualin Gun, One Dun Okie and the Banta’s herd sire, who was a great performance show horse, Zans Freckles Hickory.
The top five horses averaged over $4,500, with the sale average for all horses sold at $3,250. “There still seems to be a lot of people willing to spend money on good quality AQHA Quarter Horses,” said auctioneer Joel Dutton from Dutton and Co.
“People like to buy horses off the farm because they know what they are getting and where the horses have come from,” he added.
Five of the horses sold at the dispersal auction were born and raised on Cactus Farm in Carroll County, Ohio.
Paying tribute. Also in attendance at the auction were some well-known horse industry people, including Al Zaleski of East Sparta, Ohio, his brother, Dick, and Larry Rose from Belleville, Ohio.
Al Zaleski may be the oldest and one of the last living members, along with his brother, of the original board that organized the Ohio Quarter Horse Association in the 1950s. Blair Folck, past association president and founder of the American Quarter Horse Congress, remembers Al Zaleski as being one of the founding members and being on the board before him.
Shirley DeLorean, current president of the Ohio Quarter Horse Association, said Zaleski was at the first recorded meeting Feb. 25, 1951, at Renners Tack Room in Canal Fulton, Ohio.
In fact, the Zaleskis, Harry Renner, George Pfaltzgraf and others had been meeting as early as 1949 at the Frontier Riding Arena at Canal Fulton, Ohio.
Dick Zaleski, in addition to his AQHA and OQHA involvement, was a member of the pro rodeo circuit during his younger years and considered by many as one of the best all-around cowboys in these parts.
The auction also drew Larry Rose of Belleville, Ohio who was one of the early participants of reining and cutting and is one of the top reiners in Ohio with a long show career of accomplishments.
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