I went to the sale and this was the first time I had returned for a couple of years. Janet and Ronnie run a very nice Auction. The facilities were clean. I liked the area where the sale takes place. We arrived to find all stalls with buckets of fresh water furnished, clean shavings and very helpful employees.
As far as the horses go. I saw some very nice mares with foals by there sides and some heavy in foal. I did see out of just over 100 horses only a small few were underpar so to speak, not sick, but very poor.
It broke my heart to see those horses in such poor condition. While I know sometimes circumstances beyond our control enter our lives unexpectingly, I find no excuse in someone allowing there horses to become so poor. To run them through a sale with expectations of getting something back is inhumane when your horse shows obvious signs that it is in need of much more than a pat on the back and a bucket of water. I personally would have given my horses away or placed them with a rescue group. Please don't get me wrong, there were only a few that were in bad shape, most appeared to be much more cared for.
Prices however were funny to say the least. Seems that most people were after AMHA registered horses, some wanted both AMHA and AMHR, while others didn't seem to care one way or the other, or whether they had papers at all. Pintos seemed to have brought the most money. Averaging around $500-$800 depending on Black / White or other. Some very nice bred mares should have brought more, but did not, which was sad because those mares should have been selling for over $1500 and did not.
I took a few of my own, I no saled them all, as there did not seem to be anyone interested in my "B" size Mare. I was certainly glad to bring her home. She will be bred to Swirl this spring. I did hear allot of conversation about how big my horses were. Well out of the 100 plus that was there, only a small fraction was over 34".
I think all in all, everyone had a really nice time.