Looking for young warmblood (4+ yrs old) auction recommendations

[drop_shot]

I am about to start shopping for a new project in the upcoming months and for a variety of reasons, my trainer and I are seriously considering going the auction route. While I am waiting to start shopping, I wanted to see if folks had certain auctions that they would recommend buying from. I’d like to take some time now and get a better understanding of each auctions’ end to end process before I am trying to put in bids.

At the moment, I am primarily interested in pursuing green Holsteiners, but I’m open to other warmbloods as well.

TIA!

[findeight]

You might want to edit your title or just start a new thread. Adding info like breed specifics, what discipline, age, training, etc. might get you a better response. As would adding what kind of auction, like young stock consigned by breeders, horses in training or public auctions of whatever gets consigned no questions asked.

Just asking what auctions you should consider will make many, if not most, readers think “none” and visualize a novice looking for a “rescue” horse at the stockyards or similar and not bother to open your thread.

[drop_shot]

Sure, makes sense. Thanks.

[Xctrygirl]

So what guarantees are there to give back the horse if there are health, soundness, eyesight or other problems ???

I mean… how would that work if you buy a horse from across the country and it’s got “issues”

Who pays to ship it back? What ability do you have to recoup your losses?

Em

[drop_shot]

I would assume the answers to those questions would vary depending on the auction, but those are questions that I have as well.

[Peggy]

I have friends who got horses from auctions run by Team Nijhof and by Belgian Horse Traders. All bought as jumpers. Ages 4-8. They have been happy. Not the route I would take but seems to have worked for them.

[drop_shot]

Thank you! I appreciate it. I’ll check those ones out.

[Tha_Ridge]

@Xctrygirl

So what guarantees are there to give back the horse if there are health, soundness, eyesight or other problems ???

Some of the European auctions, albeit not all, only accept horses with certain vettings performed by their in-house vets and full sets of rads.

[AndNirina]

We got a very nice one from the Dutch Horse Trading auction. They seem to run monthly, this month’s auction closes tomorrow if you want to get an idea of the horses being offered. I can’t say enough good things about the transaction and the horse himself.

[Polydor]

The Alberta chapter of the Canadian warmblood has an annual fall auction weaklings to school masters. Held in early October.

Canadian Warmblood Auction

P.

[Ace1]

That is a very nicely done site. I am certainly not shopping, but my eye proved that once again, I have ridiculously expensive taste. The horse is lovely, so appropriately price, I would assume - with about five hours to go in the auction.

I also love that mares are “merries”.

[AndNirina]

Yes! We’ve been VERY happy with the one we got from this auction. I found the sellers to be helpful and responsive, I inquired about a few and wound up with a nice one. A barn mate of mine is bidding currently on today’s auction. I found that the prices really went north at the very end of auction, so keep watching if you’d like to get an idea on pricing. Once the auction closes you won’t be able to go back and see how much each horse sold for.

[AndNirina]

And it’s taking all I can for me not to bid on one of those cute “merrie” hunter ponies. Chanting “I don’t need a pony” over and over in my head.

[IPEsq]

I think you can request vetting reports in advance of the Holsteiner Verband auctions, and if you are there, you can also schedule some test rides before the auction.

[StormyDay]

@Xctrygirl

So what guarantees are there to give back the horse if there are health, soundness, eyesight or other problems ???

I mean… how would that work if you buy a horse from across the country and it’s got “issues”

Who pays to ship it back? What ability do you have to recoup your losses?

Em

I know a woman who bought a 2YO from somewhere in Germany from an auction. It was a very well bred horse. Physically, very healthy. Mentally? The poor thing was a basket case. It had never been turned out. It was terrified of stall doors. They needed really hard sedatives for the farrier. It didn’t really know how to lead, and was already approaching 18h.
It did eventually mellow out (kind of. The trainer was the only one riding it, the owner did not have the skills to deal with its fear issues) and was a cute horse but she, in retrospect, realized she considerably overpaid when all was said and done and should have done more legwork to figure out what sort of situation the horse was coming from.

Her experience has always made me very leery of auctions in Europe.

[IPEsq]

If you are looking at 4yo and up, they should be ridden for the auction videos and also have some training you can observe. The breed registries also have a selection process, especially for their more “elite” auctions. Still tons of risk but perhaps a little bit mitigated.

I’ve followed some auctions out of curiosity in recent years, and the quality horses do not go for bargain prices even at auction.

[drop_shot]

Quick update on my horse buying journey. I ended up finding a lovely 4 year old in Belgium through Facebook. This was my first time buying something off of just video and I could not be happier with how it all turned out. He is exactly how he was presented, if not even better. I’ve had him for a little over a month now and have an uncontrollable grin every time we canter.

Also, if anyone is looking to import, I highly recommended using Horseflight. I know other folks on this forum have been very complimentary of them as well, but they made the process incredibly seamless.

[Atlas_Shrugged]

There are some nice ones out there in the 35-40K$ price range at that age

[2tempe]

@Xctrygirl

Any time you buy, particularly outside US, there are risks re health, soundness, temperament, etc. I bought a horse from Spain, thru known person, good reputation, yada yada. Horse PPE went well, had my vet involved. It went off to be gelded, somewhat slow to heal, then arrived in Germany for flight with a weird eye problem, not new. Short version of much longer story is the horse had auto immune disease, cranial nerve problems, was close to blind in that eye and went down hill during his 30 days at US vet hospital. I had to put him down. Even with “promises” and “I’ll make you whole”, an international contract and problem is VERY hard to litigate.
I know of many stories that have been great or very good; never occurred to me that it could go so wrong.

[Nevada10]

I’ve bought a few horses from the Hanoverian auction. My advisor, Stefan, was wonderful. I chatted with him about what I was looking for, how I ride, how much I can spend, my goals for the horse, etc. He was wonderful and very honest, even when it came to the horse’s flaws. I had my vet in the US review the X-rays on the horses I was most interested in. You can request additional vetting and photos/videos.