Help Me Understand - Online Auctions

[floppyammy]

Ok COTHers. Help me understand what seems to be a growing trend. What is deal with the online horse auctions? I’m not talking about the kill pens and the shady dealers. I’m talking about the ones that seem to sell nice, well broke types that sell for good money. For example, HorseBid.com

Are that many people really buying horses sight unseen off video? Like buying a horse off Amazon? What about a PPE? Are people just trusting the horse is sound?

I’m truly trying to understand how it works. I am helping a friend search for a nice all-arounder. I see many nice candidates listed in these online auctions but can’t for the life of me believe that people are actually buying these through online auction, without trying them or doing a PPE. But it must be happening, otherwise they wouldn’t be so successful!

Does anyone here have insight, first-hand knowledge, or anecdotal knowledge?

[endlessclimb]

My former student did. The horse was consigned by a flipper. They overpaid for him, IMO. The horse has a sourpuss attitude that will never resolve - I’m guessing he was ridden VERY hard VERY early. He also has arthritis in his hocks at the age of 7.

I don’t know that I’d go that route, but I can’t talk too much crap because I have bought sight unseen.

[cayuse]

There was a horse floating around FB sale pages in my area that was from an online auction. It seems he was grossly misrepresented and completely unsuitable for the buyer with some soundness issues to boot. The online video and video from the person now selling him show a completely different horse. The current owners are selling now for basically nothing, more concerned about a soft landing. (I don’t know the horse but have seen the ads too many times). It was not a cheap horse.

[Spudsmyguy]

Not an auction, but a friend bought a gaited horse through the internet sight unseen. Horse was everything he was described as being and she rides him all over he countryside.

Anyone know anything about the auction in Middlesex, Connecticut? Seems there was an auction there on the 6th with lots of nice horses advertised.

[floppyammy]

@endlessclimb

I don’t know that I’d go that route, but I can’t talk too much crap because I have bought sight unseen.

I also bought a horse sight unseen, but it was during the height of COVID, and I was not comfortable with extensive travel at that time. I did do an extensive PPE with xrays, so I was more comfortable with my decision. Other than that, sight unseen is not for me. And definitely not without a PPE.

One thing I learned from that experience is that, although the horse was very sound and was represented very accurately, he wasn’t my type of ride, which took a lot of getting used to and was not something I had considered when purchasing without trying.

[floppyammy]

@Spudsmyguy

Anyone know anything about the auction in Middlesex, Connecticut? Seems there was an auction there on the 6th with lots of nice horses advertised.

I live in the Northeast and have not heard anything, good or bad about the Middlesex auction. I don’t know anyone that has purchased from them. They appear to be like one of a few places that all seem to operate on the same model - they go to the midwest or west and load up on all-around type horses and bring them back east to try and flip. There are quite a few outfits like that. Pond Hill Ranch in VT, Hemphill’s in Maine, Strain Family Horse Farm in CT, Chipaway Stables in MA. If you dig into the reviews, all the places I listed have both horror stories and success stories.

***Edited to add: a quick look at the recent Google reviews aren’t terribly promising.

[FLeventer]

I bought from a US auction, sport horse auctions, in 2018. I’m going to lean on buyer beware. The process was super easy but the horse was not well represented. It’s fine, I got a great deal on the horse. I would do it again.

I bid on the Blue Hors dispersal sale and the process was super simple and the vet reports and Xrays were very thorough. Same for the German auctions. I sent the xrays of the horses that I was interested in to my vet and the vet report. The auction house/vet answered my questions and I was able to go and ride the horses I was interested in. Unfortunately outbid on my top choice but got my second choice which was okay. It turned out for the best I think.

I recommend that you have a great eye, are a good rider, expect the horse to not be exactly what is in the videos, and expect that it might not be the horse for you in the end. You can get a good deal or get burned.

I don’t mind buying horses sight unseen, but it isn’t for everyone. The horse in the auction that I bought was up, up, up. I rode him and he was a very forward ride. He arrived and was very lazy after he settled. That’s fine, but I won’t keep him long term.

[clanter]

@floppyammy

Like buying a horse off Amazon? What about a PPE? Are people just trusting the horse is sound?

In the 1950s a person could buy a pony complete with tack from a Sears or Montgomery Ward catalog to be delivered by Railway Express

[floppyammy]

Thanks @FLeventer. I was thinking more of the online auctions where the horses are usually in western tack, being stood on, crossing rivers, carrying flags, being ridden while chased by the owner’s heeler dogs.

Like for example:
Burrito​:fire: Platinum Equine Auction (youtube.com)

In the case of the sport horse auction and Blue Hors dispersal sale that you mentioned, there seems to be some sort of PPE representation, you were able to speak to a vet and go try the horses.

I just don’t get these online auctions where there seems to be no PPE and no chance to try the horse, unless I am missing something?

[steelerino]

Those Cowgirl Cadillac auctions blow my mind with the prices they get for some of those horses!

[FLeventer]

Oh my fault. I’m sorry. Yes, I don’t know about those. I guess buyer beware?

[Texarkana]

High end auctions are a reputable way of selling horses, but I don’t love the trend of horse sales shifting to “sight unseen.”

Granted, I’ve purchased most every horse I’ve ever had sight unseen. But I’m shopping at the lowest end of the market. If I’m paying more than I would for a car, I don’t want to take someone’s word.

[lightningevent]

@steelerino

Those Cowgirl Cadillac auctions blow my mind with the prices they get for some of those horses!

The prices that they get for mediocre at best horses is mind blowing to me. But at least theirs come with a “soundness guarantee” + they encourage buyers to get a PPE? It’s at least something.

(and I say that as someone who just bought a horse last week who I didn’t vet, but he was cheaper than most saddles nowadays, rather than the price of a college degree)

[Sarah616]

I had to go back and find an old post from a couple years ago in the HJ forum about one of these ranch horse auctions to make sure I had my info correct. The high seller was a 4 year old Friesian cross gelding (out of an unpapered QH mare) that sold for $190,000. A couple posters wanted to say “oh it’s worth it to have a horse that anyone can get on, etc etc” and of course a horse is worth what someone will pay for it, but I was mind blown by the prices some of those animals brought in.

[Edre]

A lot of the German registries have migrated to hosting their annual auctions via online - from a practicality standpoint, it makes sense. The phone-in bid system for non-local (including international) buyers was a bit inelegant, and really depended on who was on the phone with you for how smoothly (or not) the experience went. The online bid system makes it a lot more easy (and realistically, while they likely have to pay the site to host the auction - horse24 is where most of them are listed, I suspect they save money in the end not having to put on the in-person “event”).

Way back when they would stream their schooling sessions so while it is an online auction in the truest sense of the word, they have all the vetting paperwork available (account/registration required) and I just checked - at least one does still put up training videos of each of the auction horses. Some of this may be contingent on registry but Hannoveraner still makes it clear you can schedule an appointment to see (and test ride) if you are interested in one, prior to the auction.

This is how the april one is marketed from one of the registries.

[VodkaRedbullx2]

Either your comfortable with the risk or not.
I buy sight unseen all the time but I can handle what comes my way.

I do not recommend it for AA’s looking for their one and only horse. It’s very easy to be distracted by pretty or the excitement amd hype. It happens so fast.

In the last year I’ve had 2 customers purchase from hyped up auctions and were not good fits and 3 customers that bought from lower end hyped up auctions that horses weren’t a good fit.

You can miss things that will affect resale value so know how much you want to invest and cut off number.

[MsM]

Midddlesex auction used to have horses once a month some 40 years ago. As was mentioned, it was a lot of horses dealers brought in from the West. And many horses dumped from summer camps in the fall. No online back then, very little room to see them ridden if you came early enough. Local rental place used to buy horses there and just send them back though next month if they didnt work out. But some of them were really nice pleasure/trail horses.

I haven’t attended their revived auction recently but have seen Facebook ads. Looks similar, though at least some of them had videos. The auction just accepts consignments and it is buyer beware with the sellers. I hope the killer buyers are not as big a presence as they used to be, especially in the Fall.

[PamnReba]

In 2020 I bought a yearling AQHA filly off an online auction site. The seller had several in that particular auction, they all had the standard confo pictures and videos of gaits both directions at liberty and on a line in a round pen. And that was it - I mean, they were babies, right? I “won” her for around $600. She wasn’t located too terribly far from me, so I elected to go pick her up - about an eight or nine hour drive round trip. The only surprise I had when I first saw her was how she big she was! Definitely much taller than I expected a yearling to be.

She has been interesting to bring along, to say the least, but I don’t know that certain parts of her personality would have been evident if I had met her in person first. I would like to think I still would have bought her, she is just lovely. A handful at time, and amazing at others, but really just a gorgeous mare.

A nice thing is that I bought her from her breeder, who still contacts me occasionally just to see how she’s doing.

I don’t know that I would buy a riding horse like that, though - I’d really want to see if we were a good fit before handing over the cash.