Sandhill Cattle Co. is a partnership between Bruce Bridges, Tripp Townsend, and Riley Smith. Tripp is my brother and Riley is the hubs. Hope, my sister-in-law, is the Sandhill secretary and I do a few things at the end of the month. Summer, Autumn, and Trail are accomplished pen riders. So this is quite the family affair.
It was started back in 1998, Riley was a freshmen in high at that time. Lol!! Riley started working at Sandhill in the fall of 2003 as did I. We started dating in the summer of 2004, were married in November of 2005, and became partners in 2007.
The one employee other than Tripp and Riley is Keith Johnson. He started working for my dad around the time that I was born, which is 1981 if you just have to know. lol At that time we were at Channing. Keith went with us to Pueblo, CO and then back here to Earth. He had started back to work for my dad in Las Alamos, NM at the time he was killed. So, needless to say he is family.
Sandhill is a 4,000 head pre-conditioning yard. We also lease a couple of ranches around. One of those is J5 Ranch near Sudan, TX where we run yearlings and the other is the Cain Ranch where we run mamas and babies. The guys also straighten up cattle on our own grass.
We also love to ranch rodeo. Sandhill has qualified for the WRCA Finals for the past 10 or 11 years. Tripp has won reserve and top horse numerous times. Riley won top hand in 2009 and 2010.
