We went to the local horse sale today. (This picture is NOT what it looked like - I just like the picture). We'd never been to a horse sale before, but we needed to get out of the house and I'm curious about the horses out here and what they sell for. I sure don't need another horse right now!
This one had an equipment sale for a couple of hours before the animals were sold. Actually, it was an auction. Most of the equipment was brand new, still in boxes or plastic. Some was pretty nice stuff, but most seemed to be knock-offs. Though I did get 3 heavy-duty hoof-picks for $2.64! There were 2 used saddles (looked used up to me, but I don't know Western very well), about a dozen men's shirts(!?) and some personal odds and ends. And there were some decorative wall hangings, some kind of Western Wrought Iron things.
Finally, the animals were brought in. First a little cream-colored nanny goat. She seemed to have been someone's pet; she kept trying to get close to the people who were trying to get her to move around. One of the guys was nudging her with a sorting stick - he finally had to kick her to get her to move. Next up were 2 calves with horns. I have no idea if they were longhorns or shorthorns, but they sold for a decent price. Oh, I forgot to mention - the floor of the "show" pen is actually a scale, so we could see how much the critter weighed. Next the horses. Nearly all of them were quarter horses. There were a couple of ponies, a mule, and lots of weanlings to three or four year olds. These were just herded in (one at a time) and moved around by guys with sticks. I was amazed that these young horses weighed around 900-1000 pounds already! I'm used to Arabians, and a grown horse usually doesn't weigh 1000 pounds! But one horse really amazed me! The quarter horse rump sort of curls under itself - it's very powerful. This guy had a second butt on top of his rump! It looked like a bubble! I asked a neighbor if it was a muscle or injury, he just pointed at the weight - he was over 1800 lbs! I tried to find a picture of a horse like that, but I'm not finding any.
The younger horses sold for about $300. Most of the youngsters looked ok to me, some had nice breeding but no papers. The adult horses didn't look so good. Some were obviously lame, others had poor conformation.
Then the auction changed again. The scale was turned off, the floor of the pen was steadied, and the next horses were ridden in and shown off by owners or handlers. I realized then that the first bunch had been going for meat prices. I hope the youngsters weren't going for meat. The ridden horses were quite varied. Some had "30 days two years ago" training, one paint was so well trained that he didn't need a bridle! The mule was 13, rode, drove and packed, got along with everything on the ranch. The prices were still pretty low; the paint only brought about $1800 and the owner decided to keep him. There was a mini-horse due to foal next week; she drove and rode and was very docile. She only brought $350 so her owner kept her instead.
