The sacrifices, the strategy, and the style behind the industry’s most trusted voice
Everyone who has attended the auctions at Heritage Place or any of our nation’s
major race sales is familiar with a specific kind of electricity. It’s a blend of high-level adrenaline, pedigrees, and a rhythmic percussion of a voice that is well-known in the Quarter Horse racing industry. Auctioneer/Announcer Brian Rigby is at the center of that storm.
Rigby, who also owns and operates B A Rigby Auctions and the Professional Ringmen’s Institute, does more than just call out bids or showcase a horse from an auctioneer’s stand. He conducts an orchestra of commerce. He has spent over 40 years presiding over the most significant transactions in the racing world. But beyond his perch above the auction ring, Rigby is a craftsman. To hear him work is to witness a master class in psychology, timing, and tradition.
Origins of His Passion
Long before Rigby took his seat in the auctioneer’s stand, he was a student of the craft, observing the trade from outside dusty sale rings and local farm sales. Following a detour through academia, Rigby‘s journey from the ranch to the podium marked a return to his roots.
“I grew up on a 750-acre ranch called 4B Ranch, so named because there were four Rigby boys at the time, Bob, Brian, Bruce, and Brent,” shared Rigby. “Eventually there were two more added, but they never changed it to 6B. We raised Quarter Horses and Polled Hereford cattle and that is where I got my initial exposure to horses. Back then, my father would take me to the local farm auctions and all the horse sales within driving distance. We’d go to the horse sales, and I was always drawn to the auctioneer.
“I loved listening to a really good auctioneer,” he added. “I stored it away in the back of my mind, knowing that if I ever got the opportunity… I might like to try that. I never dismissed it. Fast forward a few years, I went to the University of Missouri and got my undergraduate degree in animal husbandry, hoping to get into vet school. That never happened, though. They wanted you to be smart to get into vet school. I was smart enough to get to a respectable level, but they were only accepting about 10 percent of the students that applied at that point, and I wasn’t in the top 10 percent. I went to plan B after graduating with my degree in animal husbandry.”
Rigby didn’t just stumble into the auction business; Following his Plan B, he strategically positioned himself among the best in the business.
“After I graduated, I went to work for Cargill, a big agriculture company based in Minneapolis,” Rigby said. “I still attended horse sales regularly while working for Cargill. I loved going to horse auctions and listening to the professional auctioneers. I still had a strong desire to be involved in some capacity with the horse auctions. One day, I was attending a Quarter Horse auction in Marshall Junction, Missouri, and one of my favorite auctioneers was selling the sale. There was a young ringman there, representing The Quarter Horse Journal. I watched him work. I spoke with him after the auction and learned that The Quarter Horse Journal would send up to three representatives from the publication to work as a ringman at qualifying horse sales across the country and Canada. The proverbial light bulb came on. After the horse sale, I reached out to Audie Rackley, then Editor of The Quarter Horse Journal and asked him if he had any openings on the horizon. He did not at the time, so I asked him if someone had journalism experience, would it be helpful to be considered for a position in advertising. He told me that it wasn’t mandatory, but it would be helpful. That’s all I needed to know. The next day, I enrolled in the master’s program at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism.
“I stayed in touch with the magazine, and two years later, finishing school and still working for Cargill, I got a call from The Quarter Horse Journal’s director of advertising asking if I was still interested in working for them,” Rigby added. “I was subsequently offered the position, and they didn’t have to ask me twice. That’s why I went to two years of graduate school, hoping this position would open. Sherri, my wife at the time, had been accepted into vet school and was a first-year student. I had the opportunity to move to Amarillo, Texas, to work for The Quarter Horse Journal and I was not going to deprive her of going to vet school. She remained in Columbia for veterinary school and I moved to Amarillo, where I worked for The Quarter Horse Journal’s advertising department for two years, beginning in 1979.”
During his apprenticeship period, Rigby studied…
