Hi all, It was a very busy weekend and I am exhausted from all the activities. It started with the potluck and we had a pretty good turnout. Sue McCoy organized it and it gave us a chance to meet each other and that started us off with instant new friends to discuss the auction with. We were told that paper work was in order for the registries and after DNA testing the horses will allow the ones with papers to be tranferred. Many horses were R registered only and we all realized it was because DNA is not required from AMHR. I think it is time for R to start requiring DNA just to avoid this situation.
After the confiscation some horses died or had to be euthanized.
The horses had great care and looked much better. #7 was the biggest shock of all. If you looked at the pics he was skin and bones and he looked almost back to close to normal weight. I heard they had given him testosterone and the miracle of food to eat made a huge difference. These horses will still need a lot of care but they have had a big jump start towards a better life. The babies had lost the dead look in their eyes, been wormed and lost the Biafra look and looked like what is sitting in our ranches.
It was really hard to get a good look at them as they had holding pens and they were pretty close together. They had food and didn't lift their heads and there was police tape so you couldn't get too close to the pens. I don't remember but I think they gelded 6-8 mature stallions.
Friday night was the Meet & Greet that I hosted and Dr Buckmaster and Anna Clay from Equamore couldn't make it at the last minute. We had a large group that consisted of 2 rescues from California and Betsy Bueno and Mary from Angels for Minis stepped up and had Anna's notes on the horses and gave a great presentation. Diane Dorrigan got up to talk about SoMini, our local fun support mini group in So Oregon, and once she had her hand on the microphone she took off and did most of the MC work for me(I know you will read this Diane,lol). She did a wonderful job also. Terry Branham, our field rep for Pinto had inspected the minis and talked about the ones that were eligible for pinto registration and the auction company did announce which ones as they auctioned them off. It was a fun-filled night with good food and friendship. The speakers were informative and I'm sorry you guys missed it.
Saturday was the auction and there was somewhere between 500-600 people there if not more. I know the bidding numbers were close to 500. Kandi Crow's "friends" were there and bidding on some of the horses. Sherriffs were taking pics of them and I hope they follow up. The contract said if anyone buys horses and they end up back in Kandi's hands it is a misdemeanor. Kandi has already been caught buying chickens and goats from the local livestock auction. The county confiscated her property and there was a rumor going around that Kandi may be headed to Colorado so heads up, this may not be the end of her.
I think the average price was $500 and up. Very few went for the 300s, many in the 400s but there were also many horses that went higher. The rescues bought a few and had buyers for some of the horses(and donkeys) but went home with empty trailers. They made it very clear to us they were only there for the horses that didn't get bid on. Emotions were high and the horses went into homes. I know there were 5 different rescues present. I have to say I didn't know we had so many rescues in our neck of the woods. It looked like they were networking so maybe the horses on the West Coast have new friends they didn't know they had.
It was an exhausting but rewarding weekend and I think I will go take a nap now!
