Sacramento Horse Auction

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Jennifer Mallory cowgirl_30_98@yahoo.com
Well, people haven’t commented much on the Sacramento 
Horse Sale, but I’d thought I’d give my humble observations 
to what I hope is a continuing event.

First, the speakers were wonderful and I wish I could have 
listened to them all.  Bazy Tankersley of Al-Marah was 
unable to attend due to health difficulties, I wish her 
godspeed and good luck.  Hope to hear from her.  But 
Becky Hart gave some of her always-appreciated 
insights and I noticed more than just a few people taking 
notes.  We always learn something from Becky.

Julie Suhr was witty, wonderful and simply a joy.  I, amongst 
others, I’m sure, light candles at every Mass wishing she could 
speak more at the Convention and these events.  She had the 
entire crowd in rapt attention and several, myself included, had 
tears in our eyes from both laughter and admiration.  
The Lady is Simply a Treasure.  

Marion Schlinger had a great talk about riding LD and 
Endurance as pleasure rides and not races.  I noticed that 
many people were riveted to this topic, seems there 
were more than a few pleasure trail riders out there wanting 
to break into the sport and not knowing how different it 
was from their current way of trail riding.  I overheard 
several people talking about how CTR/Endurance 
really isn’t any faster than they’re currently traveling – 
let’s give it a try!  Hope AERC got a few applications 
filled out from that talk.

Rita Swift brought sobering news to the potential closing of 
a local horseman’s camp – due to lack of use.  A call to arms, 
so to speak.

But, of course, you want to hear about the horses!  Ok, here 
is where I’m going to tick off more than a few people, but to 
hell with it.  I’ve been burned on this list so many times, it’s 
getting to be an enticement more than a repellent.  

I thought, for pre-screened horses, there were a couple that 
had no business being included in a distance horse sale.  
The one with the saddle sore that was lame under saddle 
comes to mind.  The critter was sound when he was at 
liberty, but you should have heard how quiet the stands 
were.  Or the one with the terrifically weak loins.  Now, 
I realize that there are very successful distance horses out 
there that are conformational disaster areas, but a couple 
of these guys looked like they were on the downside of 
their endurance careers.  

A couple of horses had starting bids that were far too high.  
They never got a bid, and probably for good reason.  I was 
starting to wonder if it was “Take Advantage of the Silicon 
Valley Economy” syndrome.  

There were a couple of sleepers and a couple of wonderful 
prospects.  One young horse under saddle was one of the best 
movers I had seen and had a very sane opening bid.  Was 
*shocked* to see that more bids weren’t put on him.  Steal 
of the sale, if you ask me.  There was a Gentlemen’s Quarterly
-type horse there (read: gorgeous), but probably wasn’t as 
much an endurance prospect as a show ring prospect.  There 
was a part-bred there that probably could have qualified for 
Greco-Roman wrestling, he was truly massive.  Another 
broad-chested one that was solidly started and could probably 
have done absolutely anything asked of him, including climb 
Everest and obliterating cows.  If *that’s* what his daddy 
throws, I know who I’m breeding my mare to.

All in all, there were the good, the fair and the ugly.  I overheard 
a couple of the people that screened and/or put on the sale 
complaining quite bitterly that people just don’t know how 
decent these prices were.  Some fit that description, some did not.

Summation:  I looked at 75 horses all up and down California, 
Oregon and Washington before I found my current horse.  If I 
had access to this type of sale, it probably would have been my 
only stop.  Personally, I hope they continue this sale with the 
speakers.  It was great fun, got to learn some new things and 
boy, wasn’t it fun to pick on a couple of the catch riders they 
had on the sale horses!  Puh-leeze, guys, learn to post!

Jennifer Mallory