I REALLY liked #12… and the one eyed mare REALLY tugs at my heartstrings. I’ve had a number of one eyed ponies over the years (all were rescues), and all of them were the most wonderful animals. I truly hope someone gives her a loving home.
Sadly I am just too far away to participate. That and I just recently placed my last rescue (5 star home – SO COOL), and my husband has stated that he would be much happier if we didn’t add anymore right now, so I’m out. 
I have found someone in MI that will be going to the sale. So she will be bidding on 3, 11, 12, 13, 14 for me. I also gave her permission to bid on any others with no big issues for me. So hopefully I get one or two brought back to me!
Tiempo- you have been paypal’d Please let me know it went through… stupid electronics
Do you have a camera phone? I will be impatiently waiting to hear saturday night… I wish this auction has a web camera. Oh well
#27 <— 3yo grey gelding
#5<— 2 yo grey gelding
are we noticing a trend??? Meh- tiempo it’s in your hands I will trust your judgement… but after seeing the pics those are the two I am leaning towards. Please don’t send me anything red or with gonads… so I guess I do have critera.
As a TB breeder, auctions are a normal venue to buy/sell horses. I don’t get this collusion of not bidding against each other. You are basically trying to screw the owner out of fair market value. I hope the buyers in Canada who paid from around five hundred to almost ten thousand for nice, well bred ponies (mostly ranging from about 6 to 24 and unhandled) are in attendance. I have no idea who these owners are or who the “bad guy” is, but I do hope that those trying to get a fancy pony for peanuts are thwarted by knowledgeable buyers.
I don’t believe anyone is trying to “screw” the owner. One poster mentioned that she may even be trying to buy a pony or two back for the owner. Do people look for deals, especially in this economy? Yes. But I believe every single person here is involved to save the ponies from Kill Buyers. And if that’s the case, why shouldn’t there be communication to avoid bidding against each other?
I don’t believe these ponies are “in danger.” There has been enough publicity that there should be a fair amount of willing bidders, and this is more accessible than the very similar auction last week referred to in the next-to-last post where ponies went for up to $10,000.
[QUOTE=Vitriolic;4242657]
As a TB breeder, auctions are a normal venue to buy/sell horses. I don’t get this collusion of not bidding against each other. You are basically trying to screw the owner out of fair market value. I hope the buyers in Canada who paid from around five hundred to almost ten thousand for nice, well bred ponies (mostly ranging from about 6 to 24 and unhandled) are in attendance. I have no idea who these owners are or who the “bad guy” is, but I do hope that those trying to get a fancy pony for peanuts are thwarted by knowledgeable buyers. :([/QUOTE]
At this point, there is likely to be enough buyers for all the ponies. As of two days ago, that was not the case. At that point we were encouraging people not to bid against one another in order to ensure that rescues would be able to take in as many ponies as possible. At this point, it looks like the market will prevail.
Please note that this is not a private sale; it is a seizure dispersal. This auction has NOT been advertised in such a way that knowledgeable sport pony breeders and trainers would be made aware of it. Other ponies from this seizure were previously sold as a lot for less than meat price.
PLEASE NOTE: Correction:, I misunderstood IHF when we spoke on Tuesday. The ponies she saw several weeks ago at the auction were not from this seizure.
Also, anyone who would like to use my posts to interfere with the lawful sale of these ponies will not be met with my cooperation.
At the risk of getting flamed…ah what the hell…
Vitriolic has a valid point. I don’t get this whole idea of placing “dibs” on ponies. This is a public auction. The owner deserves fair market value and since this is a public auction - the public should have the right to bid on whatever they please. This has become kind of like a bunch of kids yelling “shotgun” while racing to the car. While we all of course want these ponies to find good, loving homes, implying that someone may want a particular pony so no one else should bid on it is a bit ridiculous.
I applaud the efforts of Iron Horse Farm and Baxtersmom. Really - I think it’s great that members of the horse community are trying to organize this effort. But let’s not let attempts to spearhead an organized effort backfire. Yesterday I posted all of the information from the auction flyer that I picked up in town the other day. On that flyer was contact information for the organizers of the auction. Let me remind you - I actually live in Manchester and travel to the surrounding communities and counties frequently. These flyers are EVERYWHERE. With the same contact info. on them that I posted. Yet I was asked to remove the phone number for the contact person so she “wouldn’t be overwhelmed with calls”.
Well guys - it’s her job. That’s why her number is posted on the flyer. Which is posted all over southeastern lower Michigan. So what are going to do - put out another flyer asking people not to call her so she’s not “overwhelmed?”
People have a right to contact the auction organizers themselves - plain and simple. If it were me I wouldn’t want to go through an intermediary - I would want to see the ponies on my own. Period. That’s just the choosy buyer I am.
Let’s not sound like a bunch of kids that say “I want that one so you can’t have it”. Let’s not let our well-intentioned efforts blow up in our faces. Let this auction run as it should. The people running it are local horsepeople. Yes, we want to save these ponies from the kill buyers - but let’s not thwart what really SHOULD happen at auction - competitive bidding with what will hopefully be a positive outcome for the seller.
Again, this is just my humble opinion. Ya’ll may want to disagree. That’s cool. Like I said - flame away. I just had to get it off my chest.
THanks for saying it fargonefarm-
I’m not trying to screw anyone… I’m just trying to be a net so one doesn’t fall through the cracks. If I don’t get a pony. Oh well. I’m just a sucker for a grey.
Alison, to be clear, you were asked to remove the phone number because FHI and I were in the process of trying to make arrangements to view and catalog the ponies BEFORE THE PUBLISHED VIEWING TIME. We did not want her to be so inundated with calls that she would be unwilling to work with us.
The contact person was NOT aware of the efforts that were being made to disseminate this infomation online; you are correct that it is her job, but if you have any respect for that job (and if you knew what efforts she’s made to ensure the health and well-being of these ponies, you would), you would also respect that she has other responsibilities beyond answering phone inquiries from horse-sick kids in Idaho.
As for the ponies:
IHF and I are most concerned that the “special needs” ponies be homed.
If someone is considering them, please let one of us know. We may be able to try to raise funds to defray some of the medical costs.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think the point of everyone meeting before the sale was to make sure that the ponies don’t go for a fair price. By all means if there are two “rescuers” who want the same pony I think they should bid each other out for it; no one should feel like they can say, “Don’t bid on pony X because I want it!”
I thought the point of meeting was so that people who didn’t know each other didn’t bid against each other, each thinking the other was a kill buyer.
[QUOTE=Catersun;4242627]
Tiempo- you have been paypal’d Please let me know it went through… stupid electronics
Do you have a camera phone? I will be impatiently waiting to hear saturday night… I wish this auction has a web camera. Oh well
#27 <— 3yo grey gelding
#5<— 2 yo grey gelding
are we noticing a trend??? Meh- tiempo it’s in your hands I will trust your judgement… but after seeing the pics those are the two I am leaning towards. Please don’t send me anything red or with gonads… so I guess I do have critera.[/QUOTE]
I just checked PP and it didn’t come through, give me a call if you need to, I forgot to save your # to my phone.
I think so- but the one thing that has happened, due to the great work of IHF and Baxtersmom, that many more people have become aware of the sale. In addition, I would bet that the breeders of fine Welsh ponies have been alerted, and they would show up, too.
When this first started, it was thought of as a rescue operation, which it kind of is, but it has (nicely) morphed into something else. That’s nice. Lots of nice people for lots of nice ponies!
I also think not bidding against each other makes sense if it’s to save a pony from a bad/no home. If someone who is going to love, or more importantly, take good care of the pony, I believe that we would all support it and be happy for all involved.
But, if 2 people are bidding on the sweet grey with the leg issue, and we all know that it needs stall rest, extra vet care, and careful watching, therefore costing the person who gets that pony more then just the fees at the auction in future vet bills that you can pretty much bank on (sorry…) :). I honestly believe that’s our only issue in working things out on the Coth BB- doing the best we can for the ponies.
I agree that the purpose of the meeting beforehand is so we know each others faces as rescuers and not meat buyers. The notion that you are going to get the pony you ask for is so far fetched. How many people are going to attend that aren’t even on this site that you don’t even know about.? I am in one of the biggest horse communities and the word has spread fast. I know many locally will be attending. So may the best man (rescuer) win and just give the pony a good home. I may be going home with an empty trailer but that will be ok as long as I know the ponies all went to good, loving homes…
[QUOTE=Tiempo;4243010]
I just checked PP and it didn’t come through, give me a call if you need to, I forgot to save your # to my phone.[/QUOTE]
I forgot the 0… DUH let me see what I can do to fix this… this is what happens when I do things in the wee hours of the morning.
edit: All fixed… I really should know better than to do things at 3 am. really… I should.
I partly agree with this…yes people should and will bid on the ponies that they want. However, since there are ponies that might not get bids it’s nice for people to know why someone wants a particular pony and if someone really does not care of ther then color they can pick another…if tht makes sense. I will use my self here and flame me if you want. I will bid on Kada to whatever price is reasonable becuase I had his brother and have always wanted him…but, it’s not gray it’s the fact that I loved his brother whom I sold…but, If I were just looking for color and temepermant I’m sure there are other grays that would be suitable.
bottom line, lets hope allthe ponies find home…I think my group is willing to pick up 4-6 but, will need a layover spot for the night for some of them which I think I may have…but, if anyone has one let me know. We do have a 2 horse and don’t ming making several trips home on Sunday. Thanks
The auction here in Ontario was much different from this. It was an auction of imported well-bred ponies who came from a well known and respected breeder who unfortunately had a stroke. Some ponies had training and some were very well known and established stallions. The ponies were either Welsh or British Riding Pony and the sale wouldn’t have happened if the breeder didn’t have a stroke.
A friend of mine bought the highest selling pony who is a stallion for $9600. He is a proven producer and quite a looker.
This auction seems to be more backyard bred ponies. None have very special bloodlines and they seem to be mostly unhandled.
Wow. I started this tread to help some ponies and the vitriole is just amazing. This was a SEIZURE. For whatever reason, these ponies are currently the property of the State of Michigan and are being auctioned without papers. There is no “owner” to SCREW. I posed this to bring awareness that in the past, in Michigan, as recently as 3 or 4 weeks ago, unhandled, unpapered ponies were selling at auction for $20 each. I posted so that maybe the normal auction contingent of KBs and uneducated Michiganders with enough land to tie a pony on and a kid weren’t the only bidders on what could be some nice projects. However, in their current state, the local backyard horse owner that shows up to buy a pony fora kid, will likely not get what they are looking for and the ponies are the ones who suffer at that point.
It is great that the farm owner where the pones are at is willing to show them to people,however, I think that there is a huge difference between distributing a bunch of flyers with your phone # on it locally in a small farming community and having it posted on a worldwide BB that has had over 5000 readers. They weren’t prepared for that.
Although a lot of effort has gone into getting weight on these ponies and getting Coggins pulled etc, it remains that these are largely unhandled ponies. I absolutely think that we now have a sufficient # of people that we won’t have to worry about KBs, but I don’t see anyone else fighting over an unhandled cryptorchid stallion.
If I hadn’t have picked up a pony from the Ontario auction, I would very much be considering picking one up at this auction!
Good luck to everyone going and I wish even more luck to the ponies at this sale!
I think the concern is that some of these are nice ponies, and if people want to bid against each other it seems kind of… well, normal 
But, I can see the other side too- with all of the excitement this thread has created, it’s possible that people could bid these ponies up to more than they are really worth (honestly, even nice well bred unhandled young ponies aren’t worth THAT much).
But if you notice, only a few of them have a couple of people interested- the older, nicer ones. I think IHF is looking out for the rest. And I think it’s awesome.
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