Advice on buying at the Addis Auction… We have gone to this sale and bought horses a number of times, so I have a good bit of stuff to mention.
First of all, the sale is split into sections. The Preferred Sale in on Friday, and these horses can have a reserve put on them by their owners. If the horse does not reach its reserve price - which they do not announce - the horse does not sell. The General Sale is on Saturday, and these horses do not have a reserve put on them. There is a minimum bid of $500, which Bill requires to rule out the bill buyers. There are normally a LOT of horses at this sale, and it takes someone who will do her homework to sort things out. They have a very good equine vet at the sale who has x-ray equipment with him and does a good pre-sale vet exam. They will start to list the horses online before the sale catalogue is mailed. Their web site ishttp://www.addisqeuineauctions.com and there is a contact email to request a catalogue.
You have not said what sort of horse you are looking for; i.e., you want a bay gelding at least four years old, or a chestnut mare between the ages of six and ten. Are you just looking for a nice horse? A specific type of horse? I would strongly suggest that you try to narrow your preferences down so that you don’t end up looking at 250+ horses!
As the horses start to be listed, study the information, find those which interest you, and contact the owner for additional information. Ask them to contact the horse’s regular vet and authorize the vet to release complete information to you. If they won’t do this, cross that horse off your list. Ask the owner if they have sold horses thru this sale before, and when; if they have, get in touch with Bill Addis and ask what the horse sold for, so you will have an idea of the typical price range for a horse from that farm. Also ask him if there is anything he can/will tell you about the seller. Ask the seller for refrences from people who have bought horses from them before. The more info you have, the more you will be able to make an informed decision.
Make sure you get your financial info to Bill well in advance of the sale, by the way. If you know how to go that sort of stuff, you can download the sale listing into an Excel file and then sort it, taking out some of the stuff, and print out a list of the horses that most interest you. Or you can mark the catalogue, and take it with you to the sale. I do both. It also helps if you have a friend whose judgement you trust, who does not have an emotional investment in seeing you get a horse, to go to the sale with you. If this isn’t possible, you might want to find someone at the sale to mentor you a bit.
I STRONGLY urge you to plan on arriving at the sale on Wednesday evening. Have a good breakfast Thursday morning. You will be on your feet a lot, and the barns can be cold, so dress in warm layers and wear your most comfortable warm boots. When you get to the sale, if you haven’t been to one before, expect a bit of sensory overload. Just take a deep breath, jump in and walk thru all of the barns. I have found that about half the time, a horse that seemed great on paper just sort of fizzled out when I looked at it, and some of the ones that I hadn’t considered jump out and ‘speak’ to me.
Walk thru the barns, then go have lunch and think about something else, while your subconscious works things over. Then go back and look at the horses that interested you again. Ask for permission to go in the stall with the horse, and see how it acts. You may want to start setting up appointments with the sellers to see a horse lunged/worked/ridden and even to ride yourself if you are looking for a finished horse. Just remember that it takes a LONG time to look at a big number of horses.
When you have your choices narrowed down a bit, go have dinner, and make some notes. Ask yourself what you liked the most and why. When the time comes to bid, don’t let yourself get carried away, but don’t be too timid either.
And take a lot of money!
