AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Saturday, during the Working Ranch Cowboys Association's World Championship Ranch Rodeo, the AQHA will recognize this year's Bayer best remuda award recipient. The AQHA hall of fame and museum was the site for a reception honoring this years winner the Hawthorne Ranch from Maxwell Nebraska.

The term "remuda" means a group of working horses bred by a ranch specifically to work and pen cattle.

The Hawthorne Ranch is a 20-thousand acre ranch with a 15-hundred cow-calf operation.

The best remuda ward is presented each year to honor the contributions that ranch horses have made to the heritage of the American Quarter Horse Association.

"These ranches take a lot of great pride in the horses that they raise, their families have been raised on the ranch, and it's really a way for AQHA to honor the people, the cowboys, and the horses that have really helped form our association," said Leman Wall the Director of Corporate and Affiliate Partnerships for AQHA.

Any ranch that has five or more American quarter horse mares used to produce horses for ranch work and is a member of AQHA is eligible for this award.