Wednesday, October 17, 2012

October 16th - 8:00pm

<p>Been really bad about writing blog posts and posting them the day things occur. Mostly just do to the fact some days have so, so much going on in them that I want to talk about. Today was a rain day so not a terribly busy schedule. Horses on the walker, horses off the walker, groom, feed, paint, ect. Which is good because a) I was exhausted after a night up battling a mosquito and b) I hadnt even thought about what to write about yesterday. But we had a decent amount of painting to do on the bars of the stalls. Plenty of time to think and have story time with Megg. Sometimes when we end up doing work that isnt overly stimulating mentally we'll get someone to tell a story. It could be about home, horses, the barn here, anything. Just a story to listen to. Weve ended up learning a ton about each other and it makes the work go faster. Lots of stories today. Yesterday, however, was the exact opposite.<br>
One of the big breeding farms here, Haras Windcrest, is closing their operation and auctioning all their stock. Sunday was broodmares and the younger babies I believe. Monday (yesterday) was all the two and three year olds with the addition of a few stallions. Martin offered that if we wanted to go, we could but would have to be in the barn at 6:00 to start riding. All three of us jumped on the offer so at 11:45 when everything had been ridden, walked or longed we headed out. I ended up on Luli, Puccini, Nixon and Georgia to warm up then longe for a bit. All four were quite good.
After the morning work we headed to the farm where the auction was going to be held. It was a similar set up to the other auctions Ive been to with the free jump, tables to watch from/eat at and food served. Really the only difference was it was during the day and outdoors. So at several points we got drizzled on. And when it suddenly got cold, Megg and I got to shiver. It was still very fun to see. One stud with Voltair and Quidam de Revel lines sold for over $60,000. Others barely brought a couple thousand. Several jumped amazingly and moved like a dream. A couple were still working off the fugly baby look. I loved one inparticular but Martin said he didnt pass the vet which is such a shame. We did end up with one that did pass the vet though! A very cute bay. Hopefully he'll be coming home in the near future! One thing about the auctions that is so interesting to watch is when they opt to have a horse jump again. The bidding opens up pretty quickly after the jumping starts.Once they get the main jump up to height, they dont just keep pushing the horse around to jump. They stop him and watch the bidding. If the price stalls a bit, they jump him again in hopes of pushing it up. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. If they put a really impressive jump out, the bidding may go up some more. A pole, crash or stop and bidding almost always quits right where it was. At one point, though, the stopped and just flat out took the horse out because both the bidders were on the phone. One from Mexico and the other from some other country. That was quite funny to me but not at all unusual. Everyone is on the phone talking to clients, owners and who knows who else.
At the end of the day, everything that was being auctioned had sold and everyone seemed decently happy. We'd ended up with the horse we wanted and had had an enjoyable afternoon in the process.
All the drizzling we kept getting, however, turnd into a gigantic rain storm here at home though. Its barely let up all day. We definitely wont be riding in our ring tomorrow. But hopefully we'll be doing something fun!




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