Just saw that Highlife Farm is being auctioned off on July 28th. The listing (which focused on the property) said that several horses will be auctioned off as well. Does anyone know if and when the horses going to auction will be listed?
This is what I found when I clicked on it regarding horses:
http://content.williamsauction.com/docs/331694/Horse_Prelim.pdf
Poor old Barcelona! She was there from the beginning. I hope she finds a safe place to land.
No wonder I never got any responses from anyone. I emailed about Highlife’s Bulgari Boy several times. What happened?
[QUOTE=Perfect Pony;6405631]
No wonder I never got any responses from anyone. I emailed about Highlife’s Bulgari Boy several times. What happened?[/QUOTE]
He’s part of the 7/28 auction.
All I have is speculation, but I used to work there (very briefly) when the Sims’ first came into their money. They had two stallions (Conneticut and Highlife) 3 broodmares and a mini stallion and went through 3 barn managers in less than a year. Trainers were a revolving door over the for years too. They aquired a bunch of horses and were building like crazy while the economy and property values were inflated.
It looks like they were standing seven stallions in 2010, and NOT stallions that were outside owned and boarded there, but their own personal stallions. The horses they were breeding were nice, but you have to sell a LOT of semen and/or babies to support the facility that they built, and people haven’t been buying as much. They were set up to be a world class sport and boarding facility, but they never managed to keep good trainers very long…
The economic situation has been hard on a lot of more established farms and their breeding programs. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long. I just hope the old broodmares and their 26 year old mini stud will find good homes.
I find it really sad when people with a little bit (or a lot) of money go crazy with it, I have seen it many times and the horses don’t benefit. My first horse was a half-Arab that was a casualty of the implosion of the Arabian breeding “industry” (my uncle bought her at the dispersal auction of Jim Neighbors farm). She was around 6 years old an unstarted, and I think he bought her for a few hundred dollars.
It’s part of the “growth” culture of the US Economy, but it’s ugly IMO when applied to animal breeding programs. I have less and less respect for volume breeders and morally would rather deal with a smaller breeder who has a plan for every single horse that hits the ground.
Does anyone if Diamond Stud will be in the sale? I sure would love to get my hands on that horse. Timing is just not right for me now.
Does anyone know what happened to Diamond Stud? I thought he was a very nice stallion, and he isn’t on the list of sale horses.
Do it Sara!!:winkgrin: I will buy a breeding or two hehe.
And Prezioso S was having some recent success in the GP under Lauren Hough, wow he’s on the auctition list too, so sad. Poor thing.
This auction comes as no surprise to me either, Joan was, how to put this, well quite a piece of work.
They had a good run, about 15 years…
Dreamscape may know about Diamond Stud, they are/were agent for HL.
There are some nice mares…Rikorella is the dam of Rasta, the approved stallion.
I also hope the oldies have a nice landing.
Several of their stallions (including Connecticut, Pilox and Diamond Stud) are standing at a farm in Canada. Looks like the kept the best and left the rest. You can however get your hands on Diamond Stud’s mother if you want to take the risk on an aged broodmare.
Which is Diamond Stud’s mother?
That is the understatement of the year. I only worked there for two months (as a favor to one of their barn managers - I left the day they fired her) and I honestly only lasted that long because my friend was begging me to stay.
A few weeks later I stopped by (as a favor to a trainer who hadn’t been fired yet) because the trainer asked me to pick up some dresses she’d borrowed and return them to the fired barn manager and Kenny threatened to call the police on me for trespassing… I was asked onto their property by one of their employees!!! Nice horses, shame about the owner.
I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise that even though they managed to keep the best stallions they couldn’t scrape together a retirement fund for poor old Bucky (the mini stud) - He’s 26 years old, for God’s sake!
[QUOTE=Donella;6406461]
Which is Diamond Stud’s mother?[/QUOTE]
Jeunesse D’or - and she’s not so terribly old - 15 now. I think she may have been a youngster when I was there… They had a few babies and the name is very familiar.
[QUOTE=JWB;6406471]
That is the understatement of the year. I only worked there for two months (as a favor to one of their barn managers - I left the day they fired her) and I honestly only lasted that long because my friend was begging me to stay.
A few weeks later I stopped by (as a favor to a trainer who hadn’t been fired yet) because the trainer asked me to pick up some dresses she’d borrowed and return them to the fired barn manager and Kenny threatened to call the police on me for trespassing… I was asked onto their property by one of their employees!!! Nice horses, shame about the owner.
I guess it shouldn’t come as any surprise that even though they managed to keep the best stallions they couldn’t scrape together a retirement fund for poor old Bucky (the mini stud) - He’s 26 years old, for God’s sake![/QUOTE]
:eek::eek::eek: That sounds like them, Kenny was a plumber before they got into horses, am i remembering that correctly?
Sounds right - I believe they inhereted the money in a will from someone who they were granny nannies for… Must have known how to be nice some of the time but I never saw it.
Hey, they lived the highlife (no pun intended) for a few years. Wonder what they’ll do now!
Gag, I need to close my laptop before I say something about J & K that will get me in trouble… HAHAHAHA but i could write a novel about this place, as i am sure you can too JWB.
[QUOTE=JWB;6406458]
Several of their stallions (including Connecticut, Pilox and Diamond Stud) are standing at a farm in Canada. Looks like the kept the best and left the rest. You can however get your hands on Diamond Stud’s mother if you want to take the risk on an aged broodmare.[/QUOTE]
They were standing at Dreamscape Farm last year, I think. But I don’t think they are there this year? Maybe another farm this year? Not sure.
I find it suprising that Prezioso is being put in an auction. I would think a horse performing at that level would be better sold through other channels.
The bigger they come the harder they fall. So sad for all the horses involved. I remember the auction in Wellington, most horses had 6 figure reserves and nothing sold.
Are there reserves on these horses?
