The last statement below is aboslutely the best reason to acquire an
auction horse and is wholly admirable. HOwever, comma, it is a HUGE gamble,
since there are unseen issues that can surface later that have nothing whatever
to do with build or a kind eye, such as health history (worms, illnesses,
troubelsome foalings in the case of a mare), poor genetics (despite the
occasional quality looking horse from conformationally tragic lines:)); mental
and training issues that surface as a horse is challenged both mmentally and
physically - and make no mistake, endurance IS as much as mental sport as
physical. Many well put together horses, such as my own Raffon mare, had real
issues with the stress and strain of the actual event. In ehr case, she has
worked through a great deal of this, and yet she has been a long time coming,
and is now in her late teens with a few years left to actually enjoy her better
but still challenging competition ...style:). Indeed, the high priced
horse is not going to be better suited and certainly not by virtue of its
initial cost. That said, I want to know that a horse i Buy (even though I prefer
to breed our own) has had health and farrier care, quality feed and training,
and was at least the result of reliable breeding practices and lines. That costs
money to someone, generally the breeders, and it does have to trickle down
somewhere. If it costs me more to "buy" the training years and medical work, it
is worth to me rathe rthan lose a horse, which we did on one pelassantly
inexpensive mare a few years ago - who died as a result of a worm infestation
from a few years before we even met her. It was sad.
I do not
see the auction as that big of a "gamble" if you have a good eye for a
well built horse with a kind eye. Sure, the horse you pick may not
turn out to be suited to endurance; but the high priced horse may not
either! And you will have better luck getting your money back out of
the "reject" than the pricey one. And you might just save a good
horses life.
