Home | About D-M | 2010 Horses | Sale Info | Breeding | Contact | Updates

Here at Diamond-McNabb

The Diamond-McNabb Ranch Horse Sale is a collaboration of two partners, the Diamond Ranches of the Diemer True family of Casper, Wyoming and Ken McNabb Horsemanship of Clark, Wyoming.

About the Partners

Ken is a lifelong horseman who grew up on the edge of the wild-horse country on the Wyoming-Montana border, both using horses for work and observing them in wild herds nearby. The whole McNabb family has an affinity for horses (and storytelling and adventure, for that matter), but Ken decided to make horsemanship his vocation early on. He began training horses for neighbors before he was 15 years old and apprenticed himself to Colorado master John Lyons at that young age. In the years since, Ken has spent countless hours in the saddle, many of them behind a microphone teaching participants in regional equine expos, horse shows, horsemanship clinics, instructional DVDs and through a national RFD TV show.

His TV show, Discovering the Horseman Within, is in its 6th season and appears weekly on the RFD satellite channel. Ken's methods are commonly ascribed to the "natural horsemanship" persuasion of training, working with a horse's natural inclination towards learning and rewards rather than relying on forms of coercion. He periodically competes in prominent horse-starting competitions including the 2008 Road to the Horse and wins at the 2007 Colt Starting Challenge at the Mane Event in Washington and the 2008 Trainers Challenge Colt Starting Competition in BC, Canada. In March, Ken made his second appearance in the prestigious 2010 Road to the Horse event in Tennessee! If you don't already know Ken, you can learn more about him at www.kenmcnabb.com.

Diamond Ranches are owned and operated by the Diemer True family. Diemer's father Dave first began raising beef cattle - and kids - in Wyoming's Laramie Range mountains back in 1957. The original True Ranches operation grew to include a variety of ranch locations across eastern Wyoming, including some farm ground and cattle feedlots. In 2006, Diemer simplified by moving to a smaller set of ranch lands at the northern end of the same mountains, acquiring the Tomahawk and Powderhorn ranches on LaPrele Creek southwest of Douglas.

Diamond Ranches and the operating company, Diamond Land & Livestock, LLC, still focus on raising beef cattle in a traditional cow-calf operation on these two ranches, plus a smaller unit in the Shirley Mountains. Together, the Diamond folks run in the neighborhood of 1,000 mother cows, mostly of angus and charolais breeding.

In 2006, the True family asked Ken McNabb to host an all-family horse clinic so that everyone down through the grandkids could be involved in Grandpa Diemer's 60th birthday party. Due to a forest fire, Ken, DeeDee and the boys relocated the clinic to the Casper home of the Trues and spent the week teaching, entertaining, debating and laughing with us. The two families developed an easy affinity for one another, so we did it again the next year.

After the second McNabb-True horse clinic, we went into the Beartooth Mountains with the McNabbs and their partners, Ron and Brenda Nelson, for a week of high country packing, fishing and horse training tips. Forced by a long rain to sit in camp for several hours, we had lengthy conversations about where we've come from and what we hope to accomplish in the years ahead. The seeds of the Diamond-McNabb Ranch Horse Sale were planted under damp tarps and thin wood smoke when we realized that Ken and his family have always loved the bustle and excitement of a quality horse sale. And the Diamond Ranches wanted to upgrade their horse flesh and working horse training beyond the ranch horses of years past. If we combined Ken's training expertise with the many miles and hours of work required in the Diamond cattle operations, a group of horses could get top quality training and real work experience from their daily ranch job. The result should be a ready-to-go horse that would make us proud.

(Incidentally, the seeds of the Diamond-McNabb home-bred horse were also planted that day, as we found that the McNabbs and Trues believed in the versatility and work ethic of the American Quarter Horse, but were disquieted by the increasing specialization and relatively narrow breeding of the animal. For more thoughts on the horses we are raising at home, see the Breeding page.)

The Ranch Riders

Horses offered for sale by Diamond-McNabb at the annual Ranch Horse Sale have been ridden on the ranches by the folks below. (More information to come):

Doug, Myran and Dusty Moore. Doug is foreman of the Tomahawk ranch and runs most of the overwinter cows and puts up most of the Diamond Ranches hay. Myran works with him full time and son Dusty part-time (when he's not in high school rodeo events, usually roping and cutting). Myran is often the nurse at the equine "sick bay" when necessary.

Leo Amador and Norberto Ramos. Both have been on the Tomahawk ranch for 20 years or more, and ride at least one horse each that will come to the sale. They are a little bashful about the public events but put lots of miles on during calving season and moving cows from pasture to pasture.

Fred and Christina Hiser. Fred is foreman at the Powderhorn ranch and runs many of the summer and fall cattle, plus wintering most of the saddle horses in proximity to the riding arena. Christina works with him full-time; both have worked on a variety of notable Wyoming cattle ranches, including Q Creek in the Shirleys and the Wagonhound Ranch in the Laramie Range. Their boys Nicholas and Dirk also ride a horse or two getting ready for the sale.

Ellie Burgett. Ellie is a full-time ranch hand on the Powderhorn ranch. Having worked on ranches for her entire life, she has ridden horses since before she can remember. Ellie prefers to ride outside and work cows while she rides. She especially enjoys getting to know the horses and their different personalities, her favorite being an all-around, versatile horse. Ellie was active in 4H and FFA for 4 years and barrel raced for 5 years before "settling down" - if you can call it that - she still fits in a barrel race sometimes. Ellie has ridden with Diamond-McNabb for 2 years now.

Ken and DeeDee McNabb. Ken and DeeDee ride in the cow work when they are in residence at the Powderhorn, plus they haul and train horses at expos, clinics and mountain pack trips the year around. Their older son Kurt is also riding at least one saddle horse. (Younger son Trent is making his case for a horse, too.)

Diemer, Tracy, Hailey, Hannah, Connor, Hollie and Kennedee True. While some of the True family may have desk jobs and distractions, others (Grandpa and the McNabb acolytes among the grandchildren) have dedicated themselves to getting an experienced horse ready for someone to take and use. Dividing time between town pasture, arenas and ranch work, these riders tend to show their horses a huge variety of situations, riding along a city street to McDonalds or playing horse games or roping at brandings. We've always done these things, but we've learned a lot from Ken about doing it better.

Invited Consignors

In addition, Ken has invited a handful of riders that he knows well, usually from working ranches north of us. Among them are the Swenson & Martin Cattle Company, Pete Transtrom, Jay Transtrom, Tim Transtrom, Carly Davis, Clancy and Ida McNabb, Eric Hess, Mike Lorash and Dez Tillett of the TX Ranch of southern Montana, among others.