NILE Equis Raffle Horse

Hold onto your hats folks!! This year's Raffle Horse is going to be a good one!! DD ROYAL DOC OAK is the 2022 NILE Equis Raffle Filly!! She has been donated by Diamond D Quarter Horses, owned by Dakota Gaustad, of Scobey, Montana.

Dakota has liked this little filly since the beginning. She is a fancy, chestnut filly, foaled in 2020.He originally intended to keep DD ROYAL DOC OAK for his own program and add her to his brood mare band. Even as a baby, she stood out, and Dakota describes her as the “perfect combination”. He goes on to explain that she is big, stout, shapey, balanced, and will be a good mover. She will be a good ranch horse type and to top that long list of qualities, she has a cute head and is an attractive filly. Not to mention that pedigree!! We could spend an hour just talking about the star-studded pedigree this filly has. Both GAY BAR LENA and PADDYS IRISH WHISKEY are on her papers! She traces back to DOC BAR on both sides. We stopped counting hall of famers at SIXTEEN. That's right - she has 16 Hall of Fame (AQHA, NRCHA, NCHA, or NRHA) horses within the first 6 generations. Checkout this video for more details...

Dakota was born and raised in Scobey, Montana. He is a 4^th generation rancher, and his family’s ranch recently celebrated their 100^th Anniversary!! Dakota started his own cattle herd by taking a heifer project through his local 4-H program. He kept her first heifer calf and as the story goes, the rest is history. Dakota now enjoys the challenges of being a Montana Cattle Rancher. And he puts his good horses to use every day on that ranch.

Dakota attended the Natural Horsemanship program at Miles Community College, where he studied under Josh Bilbrey (past NILE Raffle Horse trainer). While attending college Dakota purchased his stud, VON ROYAL (the raffle filly’s sire) through the NILE Gold Buckle Select Horse Sale. He thinks it’s pretty neat to come full circle with his program and to be able to offer a fantastic filly as the NILE Raffle Horse to represent his brand, Diamond D Quarter Horses. Shortly after purchasing his stallion, VON ROYAL, Dakota started buying brood mares. SR BASSETTS MOON (the raffle filly’s mother) was one of his first brood mares. His first foal crop was in 2013 and nearly ten years later he’s established a solid program that produces top notch, versatile, ranch horses. Dakota sells colts at the Powder River Quarter Horse Breeders Association sale in Broadus, MT. He also sells older colts that he’s broke to ride at the REAL Ranch Horse Sale in Billings, MT. He’s excited to offer some foals for sale at the NILE Gold Buckle Select Horse sale this year too.

Dakota has big plans for his cattle and horse operation. He’s getting married this summer and he and his soon-to-be-wife, Jamie, will continue the tradition and stake out their own homestead! Next year they plan to bring Diamond D Quarter Horses to the next level by applying to become AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeders.

Reach out to Dakota to get more information about the high quality, versatile, ranch horses he’s raising at Diamond D Quarter Horses.