Post by TashGaia on Aug 4, 2008 11:32:39 GMT -5
I don't have time to write up a separate report, so here is the auction as I recorded it in my journal....
Sunday - August 3, 2008
Once again the first Sunday of the month rolls around and it is time for the horse auction down in Enumclaw. Today there were about 60 horses, and the prices were pretty darn low. This is only August and if the prices are already this low then I am worried about what they are going to be come winter. Ole Olson was there and he got about 20 horses from this sale and then he had another 30 or so in the pens from the Chehalis auction. I saw the folks from Mecca there, Julie and her family were there, Jude and Josh were there, Amy A was there, and Monica B was there too. Mary from Mecca got a gray Arab. Jude and I both got Appaloosas.
There were 5 Appaloosas there and this big tall bay broken blanket gelding who was only 4 years old was one of them. He was not trained and was brought to auction because his owner couldn’t pay his board bill. He is a little crazy and likes to bite folks, but was absolutely the most stunning Appy that I have ever seen in an English Sporthorse type way. I was going to buy him if he was in danger, but Jude told me she wanted him and so I decided to watch one of the others. It was very good that she told me she was going to get him because he was one of the last horses and if I had waited to save him, then I would have watched the other Appy go to slaughter and this way they both got saved. The other Appy is a three year old registered mare. Her real name is QuestionableTreasure but I don’t know what I am gong to call her yet. She is a short, stout, well put together mare with attractive roan coloring. Ron opened the bid at $100 on her because Ole held up one finger… no one else bid and he was winding down, so I bid. No one bid me up.
After the auction I had to stay and guard the horses while Jude and Josh went to get the trailer. I got the horses haltered up and brought my little mare back in the same area Jude’s gelding (Trigger) because the mare she was stalled with was mean and it was biting and kicking her.
Wow… I think I just named my new mare as I was writing this up… I will call her Heron. I try to name all my rescue horses after the horses from the feedlot who ended up shipping. It is my little memorial to them and I guess a peace offering. I guess it is like trying to tell the poor departed horses, “I’m sorry that I could not help you. You are not forgotten and your memory lives on in this new horse saved in your honor.” Heron was a big beautiful gray Thoroughbred mare that shipped last year. She was so beautiful, so muscular, such an all around quality horse that no one thought she would ship… and so no one looked at her. The poor pathetic horses all around her got adopted while the gray gem named Heron got overlooked because everyone assumed that someone else would help her. No one helped her. She shipped to slaughter in Canada. Everyone was shocked… I’m sure she was too.
Anyways, back to the auction… As I was sitting with the horses and guarding them while waiting for the trailer, I watched what was happening around me. We had two end pens and there is an aisle between them. Heron was on my left, Trigger was on my right, and I was sitting in the aisle with my back to the wall between them. The most depressing thing occurred when the mare and foal combo next to Trigger was split up. They were both very pretty well built paints and the foal was about 6 months old. The guys came to get the mare and take her away because she had been sold to the kill buyer. She was very nicely behaved while they haltered her and started to lead her away, but as soon as she realized her baby was not coming, she went nuts. She was screaming, and pulling and swinging her head and the baby was going crazy too. Finally they got her out of the pen and someone held the baby back so they could shut the door without it getting out. They led the mare away screaming and pulling the whole time. Well, within a couple minutes of the mare being taken away, while the baby was still calling for her in his little pen, here she comes back. The mare comes tearing back through the aisles with no halter or lead on her. She had pulled back so hard that she broke the halter and got loose. She tries to climb back into the pen with her baby, but the guy was right behind her and was trying to catch her. She did her best to keep her head up and away from him, but she was not willing to hurt anyone so eventually he caught her. This time they used panels and herded her back away. Once the mare was gone, the family who bought the baby came and took him home.
While I was waiting I watched as all the horses that Ole had bought were herded back into the back pen, and then the pen was emptied into the big semi trailer. There were a lot of real nice horses that went tonight… but for some reason about half a dozen horses were turned back away from the trailer. Maybe there were too many to fit, I don’t know. One of the ones who was turned back is a big black mare. She is probably a Thoroughbred and she is about 20 years old. She has some real strange markings on her and they look like they might be scars or something. The most memorable of those markings is a big white spot on the left side of her neck about the size of a big fist. That mare is such a lady. She was so incredibly well behaved and her note card said that she was good with children. She seemed healthy, sane, gentle, and beautiful… she was just 20 years old and no one wanted her. It is so sad because you just know that this horse has been well loved in her time and that she is such a gentle soul who loves those around her. I don’t know what is going to happen to her now, but she will probably just be held until there is room on another truck for her.
Sunday - August 3, 2008
Once again the first Sunday of the month rolls around and it is time for the horse auction down in Enumclaw. Today there were about 60 horses, and the prices were pretty darn low. This is only August and if the prices are already this low then I am worried about what they are going to be come winter. Ole Olson was there and he got about 20 horses from this sale and then he had another 30 or so in the pens from the Chehalis auction. I saw the folks from Mecca there, Julie and her family were there, Jude and Josh were there, Amy A was there, and Monica B was there too. Mary from Mecca got a gray Arab. Jude and I both got Appaloosas.
There were 5 Appaloosas there and this big tall bay broken blanket gelding who was only 4 years old was one of them. He was not trained and was brought to auction because his owner couldn’t pay his board bill. He is a little crazy and likes to bite folks, but was absolutely the most stunning Appy that I have ever seen in an English Sporthorse type way. I was going to buy him if he was in danger, but Jude told me she wanted him and so I decided to watch one of the others. It was very good that she told me she was going to get him because he was one of the last horses and if I had waited to save him, then I would have watched the other Appy go to slaughter and this way they both got saved. The other Appy is a three year old registered mare. Her real name is QuestionableTreasure but I don’t know what I am gong to call her yet. She is a short, stout, well put together mare with attractive roan coloring. Ron opened the bid at $100 on her because Ole held up one finger… no one else bid and he was winding down, so I bid. No one bid me up.
After the auction I had to stay and guard the horses while Jude and Josh went to get the trailer. I got the horses haltered up and brought my little mare back in the same area Jude’s gelding (Trigger) because the mare she was stalled with was mean and it was biting and kicking her.
Wow… I think I just named my new mare as I was writing this up… I will call her Heron. I try to name all my rescue horses after the horses from the feedlot who ended up shipping. It is my little memorial to them and I guess a peace offering. I guess it is like trying to tell the poor departed horses, “I’m sorry that I could not help you. You are not forgotten and your memory lives on in this new horse saved in your honor.” Heron was a big beautiful gray Thoroughbred mare that shipped last year. She was so beautiful, so muscular, such an all around quality horse that no one thought she would ship… and so no one looked at her. The poor pathetic horses all around her got adopted while the gray gem named Heron got overlooked because everyone assumed that someone else would help her. No one helped her. She shipped to slaughter in Canada. Everyone was shocked… I’m sure she was too.
Anyways, back to the auction… As I was sitting with the horses and guarding them while waiting for the trailer, I watched what was happening around me. We had two end pens and there is an aisle between them. Heron was on my left, Trigger was on my right, and I was sitting in the aisle with my back to the wall between them. The most depressing thing occurred when the mare and foal combo next to Trigger was split up. They were both very pretty well built paints and the foal was about 6 months old. The guys came to get the mare and take her away because she had been sold to the kill buyer. She was very nicely behaved while they haltered her and started to lead her away, but as soon as she realized her baby was not coming, she went nuts. She was screaming, and pulling and swinging her head and the baby was going crazy too. Finally they got her out of the pen and someone held the baby back so they could shut the door without it getting out. They led the mare away screaming and pulling the whole time. Well, within a couple minutes of the mare being taken away, while the baby was still calling for her in his little pen, here she comes back. The mare comes tearing back through the aisles with no halter or lead on her. She had pulled back so hard that she broke the halter and got loose. She tries to climb back into the pen with her baby, but the guy was right behind her and was trying to catch her. She did her best to keep her head up and away from him, but she was not willing to hurt anyone so eventually he caught her. This time they used panels and herded her back away. Once the mare was gone, the family who bought the baby came and took him home.
While I was waiting I watched as all the horses that Ole had bought were herded back into the back pen, and then the pen was emptied into the big semi trailer. There were a lot of real nice horses that went tonight… but for some reason about half a dozen horses were turned back away from the trailer. Maybe there were too many to fit, I don’t know. One of the ones who was turned back is a big black mare. She is probably a Thoroughbred and she is about 20 years old. She has some real strange markings on her and they look like they might be scars or something. The most memorable of those markings is a big white spot on the left side of her neck about the size of a big fist. That mare is such a lady. She was so incredibly well behaved and her note card said that she was good with children. She seemed healthy, sane, gentle, and beautiful… she was just 20 years old and no one wanted her. It is so sad because you just know that this horse has been well loved in her time and that she is such a gentle soul who loves those around her. I don’t know what is going to happen to her now, but she will probably just be held until there is room on another truck for her.
