Working Ranch Magazine March/April 2025

ranch horse BY KATIE HUTTON Gentle Is As Gentle Does Prepping your horse for the sale.

rom the densely timbered mountains of northern Idaho to the wide open prairies of Montana, Flora Binninger has been riding a winding trail from Pony Club to Elite Ranch Horse Sales. Her mounts have changed with the length of her inseam but like many kids, Flora Binninger holds a special place in her heart for

horsemanship from Buck,” said Flora. 11 years later, she is now working for his daughter Reata and her hus band Gabe Clark on the OW Ranch in Decker, Montana. After Flora gradu ated High School, she loaded up the trailer and headed southeast to try her hand at cowboying. While Flora grew up doing Pony Club, her main focus was arena work and colt starting before she learned to do “cowboy stuff” like trailing 1,200 pairs through Montana and Wyoming. For the nineteen-year-old working on the OW Ranch for the last two years, the

where it all started, with a pony.

dad, Jon Binninger, an outfitter and packer, and his wife Hannah, started attending clinics alongside their kids, Flora and her younger brother Clem. “We went to as many as we could each year. I’ve learned so much about

When Flora was a nine-year-old she had a wreck on her pony, which accord ing to her was an “eye-opening” expe rience for her family. “It ended up being a really good thing because it led us to find Buck Brannaman,” said Flora. Her

RICK HUTTON

2024 Pitchfork Ranch Horse Sale

66 I MARCH 2025 WORKING RANCH audited readers run 21 million head of beef cattle.