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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Davenport horse auction.

This morning I thought Wildairo was out. If I'd have got the binoculars I would have seen he was on his side of the fence. In my panic I grabbed a plastic bag and filled it with grain to lure him back in. He was where he should have been and I was so relieved because my legs had gone all wobblely because I thought he was on the loose.

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The other part of his shelter is Brad's wood working shop. The panel is sturdier that it looks. Wildairo spotted the bag of grain and wanted it.

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Wildairo had no problem walking into the shop for the first time. Nothing really bothers him, except strangers. I loved the clip clop sound his hooves made on the cement floor. It brought back memories of cobblestoned stable yards in England.

The BLM called yesterday and left a voice mail, wanting to know how the mustang I adopted was doing. I have two of the little darlings! I have a call in for Angela Link.

Saturday we went to Spokane and while driving past the livestock sale yards, I saw many horse trailers parked outside and had to go and see what was happening. They were having a horse auction. We stayed for a while and watched. A man was leading ponies and mini's in and a woman was buying them really cheap. They were going for $25 and $30. Some of the regular size horses were going for $800 or $900. I liked the way people would ride their horse in and show them off. The auctioneer would give them as much time as they needed to tell us what their horse could do. One guy was showing off how clever his horse was (or he was) with roping and he roped one of the auction workers head to prove it. A little girl was sitting on her horse backwards and the horse stood calmly. When she took his saddle off the auctioneer reminded her she should have undone the back cinch first. A lady was trying to sell her professional pack mule. Even though he had no steering she attempted to ride him. It was all pretty good fun.

I was concerned about some of the horses fates. There was a very good looking grey Morgan cross mare with a lovely conformation and very pretty head. She seemed very easy going and very well behaved while being ridden. She went very cheap, I think under $200.

One teenage girl tried to sell her unbroken 6 year old gelding. He was a tall palomino. Her mother yelled out she wasn't interested in him anymore and told her to pick up his feet. The girl would only pick up his front feet and I think she was scared of him. The top bid was very low, $150 I think, so they said 'no sale'. Thank goodness. I hope she pays someone to break him before she tries to sell him again.

I'm going to avoid these auctions because I can see myself buying something and I've decided from now on the only horses I'm going to acquire are going to be BLM mustangs because I just love them so much.

4 comments:

Lea and her Mustangs said...

We don't go except to buy some tack or stuff before the horses. Just can't stand it. You go within 2 miles of our house when you go to Spokane.

arlene said...

We'll have to stop by sometime for a visit. I'd love to meet your horses.

Linda said...

Thanks the information about the sale. If you don't mind, I want to copy some of it onto our MDH forum--the women there were curious about the sale. I've never gone, though it's close to my place, too. I know the Kill Buyers are there for the horses that go cheap--so I'm glad the girl took him home, too.

arlene said...

Yes, you can copy it.

We didn't plan to go to the sale and didn't stay long. I wish I had taken notes. When we sat down the ponies were being led in and when I realized how cheap they were going for, I started to panic and almost had Brad get us signed up to bid. A woman with a little girl was buying the ponies, so I hoped they were going to a real home. The man who was selling the ponies was selling them cheaper than it cost to geld them or anything else for that matter. I think he had been breeding them because he led in what looked like a mare and weanling. Keep in mind I could barely understand what the auctioneer was saying and it wasn't till half way through I remembered I wear glasses now.
The auctioneer was trying to get the seller to say all the things the horses was good at and that made me feel better. One teenaged horse went for a good price. I can't remember how much, but Brad said to me "that's a good price for a horse his age".
I can't understand why the woman with the grey morgan cross took the mare to the auction instead of putting an ad in the paper. The mare was super. I told Brad she'd be a good mare for him to ride.
All in all, I'd say the auction wasn't as scary or sinister as I thought it would be because of the auctioneers good attitude. He was trying very hard to sell the horses based on their abilities as riding horses. Also he was in no hurry to push them through the ring.