Owners: Mitch Hughes, Chantil Richards, James Richards and Justin Richards
Location: Summersville, Mo.
History: Texas County Stockyards, LLC., has been in business in Summersville, Mo., since the 1950s. In April, Mitch Hughes, Chantil Richards, her husband James and son Justin took over the sale. Chantil and Mitch worked for the previous owners, and Mitch leased the small animal sale before taking over the facility.
“Mitch has been around sale barns his whole life,” Chantil said. “Our families have been good friends for several years, so when the opportunity came, we bought it. It is a family business for us with my husband James and son Justin, and our daughter Caitlyn helps out too. Mitch’s kids (Colton and Tucker Hughes) are here too; they were basically raised in a sale barn.”
Services: Texas County Stockyards holds monthly tack and horse and small and caged animal sales. The monthly horse sale is held on the first Friday of each month, and the small and caged animal sale is held on the second Friday.
An on-site vet is available for Coggins testing, and hauling and holding facilities are available before sale day.
In addition to the regular sales, the new owners will hold their first special gaited horse sale on Aug. 20 and a consignment sale on Aug. 27. To serve the horse owners in the area, even those not selling during the gaited sale, Chantil said Texas County Stockyards will have an equine dentist on-site, as well as a farrier.
“Those are services we want to provide to the community,” Chantil said, adding that the barn’s location near trail rides and other horse-related venues makes it ideal to offer those services in one location.”
Chanil does a great deal of social media marketing for Texas County Stockyards, giving as much detail as possible about the horses consigned in and effort to find the best new owner possible. “Sometimes horse sales have a bad reputation, but we have more people who come buy a horse and take it home to ride or as a pet than we do anything else,” she said.
Future plans: Chantil said the gaited sale is the first of other specialty sales planned, with hopes of special stock horse sales, continued gaited sales, and a Christmas tack sale. She also said she is working with the Amish community in the area to gauge if there is interest in starting an Amish-made products auction in the future.
“We would like to have some kind of a sale here once a week,” Chantil said. “We are all very passionate about the sale and working together to make it successful.”
