Monday, October 5, 2009

Saturday Horse Auction

I decided that I've missed a lot of local horse auctions this summer and wanted to see what people were dumping off at the local horse salebarn.

We arrived around 4-4:30pm and they were still on tack. I have yet to figure out when to show up to see the horses go through without having to sit for hours watching the tack portion (or missing the entire horse sale).

I figured that there would be thin horses. I was surprised. All but one horse had decent feet. Only the babies looked like they needed some TLC. I didn't stay long enough to see what the prices went for. We looked at each horse and then stopped in to see where they were at... still on tack so we left.

What was standing waiting to run through included:
  • Two weanlings that desperately needed to be wormed. One had super runny boogery eyes and the other had some hair loss around its eyes. I didn't look to see if they were colts or fillies.
  • One palomino gelding that had a hernia. Very pretty but you could tell he'd shut down and was trying to forget where he was at. Made me think he'd been there before. He wore a pretty halter
  • One sorrel and one black standing in a pen. Both fat and furry. Both wore halters but the black's halter was broken. I think the black was a mare but I don't know for sure.
  • One yearling/two year old (I can never tell) paint. More interested in eating the poor quality hay than watching what was going on.
  • One yearling that desperately needed to be wormed. Along with him/her was a shetland/mini (I can never tell). I didn't see what either was (gelding/stud/mare)
  • One shetland who was rather irritated that he was tied. He was the only one tied out of the entir bunch.
  • One sorrel and one black bay. Black bay was super curious and came right up to search for treats. I figure he was either two or three. He was the only one with cracked/dry feet. Really liked him. (I don't know if they were geldings or mares but it's easier for me to say he for some reason).

There might have been one other horse but I can't remember now. I figured for a cold, drizzly day there would be more horses. I was glad to only see the handlful. Usually drizzly days bring out all the weird people who spend their entire day at a horse sale but never buy a horse.

Of course it made me sad to see a horse trailer pull out empty, knowing that he simply dumped his horse and drove away. I don't think I could ever have the heart to leave an auction with an empty trailer.

I really wish I would have stayed to see what the prices are currently at. I also need to find out if they will be having two sales a month or if they are going to back down to only one sale a month. Last year was the first year they did one sale a month during the winter months. Good for me so that I can actually enjoy my Saturdays instead of trying to figure out how to plan a trip to Kramers AND get everything else done while sitting there in the cold.

I really was surprised to see so few and to actually see most in fairly decent condition. I've gone in the past around this time of year and seen WAY too many thin horses standing in line. It does make me wonder. I KNOW those thin horses aren't getting fat. I know they are standing out in some pasture starving. I really wish there was something more I could do to help.

I'll be going this Saturday to the Sioux Falls Regional Livestock Horse Sale. I'm not sure I'll go to the catalog sale but I may try to make it for the non-catalog portion. I'm curious to see what the catalog, non-catalog, and loose horses go for.

I can't decide if I should drag along a trailer or not. I am sure Mike will kill me if I bring home yet another horse (especially after this weekends fencing adventures!) I am for sure going to list prices. I have the last sale that occured back in May. I need to hunt those papers down and then see if there is any correlation in price. Obviously there will be lower prices now going into fall but I'm curious to see none the less.

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