<p>Hundreds of horses were auctioned off at the Hermiston Horse Show Saturday afternoon.</p>

Crowds surged through every doorway and filled the arena at the Northwest Livestock Commission Co. Saturday for the Hermiston Horse Sale Extravaganza. From several western states and Canada, they were buyers, sellers and horse lovers meeting old friends and watching the show.

Its kind of like a family reunion, said Hermiston resident Larry Bonnett. Its a happening.

More than 375 horses were registered for auction at the sale, about 200 on Saturday and 175 today. Polly Peasley, 45, drove through snow and ice from Omak, Wash., with two of her trained geldings. She was lucky to get the last vacant room at the Hermiston Best Western on Friday evening.

This is one of the better sales, she said, … Im hoping to bring home at least $2,500.

Peasley said her horses would most likely enter the arena sometime late Saturday night. They were numbered 704 and 705; at 2 p.m. the auctioneer was on 523.

Emily Widmer, 15, traveled from Canby with her family to sell her first horse, a young mare. A member of a 4-H horse club, Widmer said she has three horses now, one too many.

Im trying to get something out of her, she said. But the horse market is really down this year this is kind of a last resort.

The low horse market was a common complaint at the sale. Hay prices are sky high between $200 and $250 per ton as is the cost of diesel and grain. People arent buying horses for the heck of it, anymore, said Bonnett, who attends the horse sale every year. But he disagreed that horse prices were unnaturally low; a good horse will usually bring a fair price, he said.

Horse prices are dictated by the quality of the horse and what you can do with it, he said.

Northwest Livestock Commission Co. owner Gary Miller, 74, watched the auction from a chair in the second row. The horse sale existed before he bought the business 32 years ago, he said, and probably dates to the 1940s when the arena was built. The company also hosts horse sales in May and October and weekly cattle sales.

We always have big crowds, he said of the horse sales. There will be 4,000 to 5,000 people here.

Steve Hutchings, 27, and his father brought eight horses to sell from Adrian, a tiny city in Malheur County. Unlike other sellers who kept quiet as they led their horses through the arena, Hutchings bantered with the auctioneer, hopped onto a horse behind his father to show how easygoing the horse was and snatched off a saddle so his girlfriend, Alicia Pratt, could ride bareback.

While preparing a registered quarter horse for sale in the corrals next to the arena, Hutchings said he was happy with the prices he was getting so far. He said he sells trained horses at sales around the West.

Ive been doing this all my life, he said. Just carrying on the family tradition.