We have been “sort of” shopping for a younger horse to go in a Four. Always need spare horses as one ages or gets temporarily sidelined. Shopping for partbred Cleveland Bays not terribly far from home, need to “believe” it will hit the 16-17h mark, though they can fool you! We have two that SHOULD have gotten that height but did not. It has made for some fun day trips going out to see them. Does seem that they are all fillies, but no one has geldings or colts advertised.
We had pretty much decided to go with a 2yr old, 3yrs in August, accidental breeding. Owner had sold his Cleveland except for the filly. She is nicely leggy, looks immature, leaving us hope she will grow more. Very friendly, just not trained to do anything, so lots of education needed.
THEN some Cleveland Bay friends said there is a purebred Cleveland going thru the Auction in Mt Hope Ohio. We read the sale blurb on him, watched his video, looked very nice. Called and talked to the seller, previous owner, got all the details. Both said he is the nicest stallion you will ever meet. Selling because he will only pasture breed, can’t collect for shipping which is where the money is. No one wants to pasture breed their mares!
DD said she would farm sit while we attended the sale. Husband said we might as well take the truck and trailer, save having to go back 5 hours both ways if we won him. Off we went on a nice sunny day! Funny thing about Mt Hope is that there really is no direct route, to get there on a bigger highway. Not bad 2-lane highways, but lots of wandering if coming from the northwest. We got there eventually, parked and went looking for the horse.
Have to say it is a rabbit warren of stalls, narrow aisles that do not intersect evenly, connecting buildings and no one to ask questions! We wandered for quite a while! Stalls did have horse lot numbers, often several on the same stall holding only one horse. We sure felt like Auction rookies! Ha ha Obviously OTHER people had no issue with their system, just us. We finally located the horse by the stall number, which was good because horse was tied face to the aisle, rump number to the back wall, could not be seen. He was in with a second horse, also tied facing aisle, sharing a hay net. He was pretty recognizable as a Cleveland, good breed representative. LOTS of hair, forelock to his halter noseband, mane to his point of shoulder and long curly tail. Many people like long hair, so maybe a good selling point, like Fresians with their long manes.
The seller showed up while we were looking, said it was fine to examine him up close, so we did. He then pulled horse out for us to check the other side. Seller talked about using him, his skills, attitude. Said he could work beside a mare or gelding, be turned out with either, but not both, which is common sense! Always a gentleman when you were using him. They would have horse out to be shown ridden and driven the next day. We said we would see them then and headed for the motel.
I dragged husband out pretty early, got the free breakfast and headed to the auction. I was worried we would have to park way out back with the longer truck and trailer, did not want to have to walk a couple miles everytime I put something in the truck! Being early, we scored a front row parking spot!! Then had to get a bidder number and start the waiting. The main sale arena is large, seats 7000 I was told. We walked to the warm up arenas, one mostly driven horses, huge. All kinds of driving horses displaying their skills, speed, gaits. Plenty of room to go fast! Ridden horses were outside the fenced area, also a nice size space slightly bigger than the large sale ring. Hillside to sit on and watch everyone go. Certainly a lot of action to keep your eyes occupied. This was the light horses, labeled Crossbred Sale Day. Just about any combination you could think of plus registered purebreds, AQHA, Fresian crosses, Standardbreds, Appaloosas, Paint, Pinto, half-drafts, a branded Noriker stallion, the Cleveland, a couple Cleveland crossbred mares and others.
Not having been to an Amish sale in years, “things are different now!” Quite a number of Amish ladies riding sale horses!! Total shock there. They wear leggings under long skirts, cowboy boots, some had spurs. Skirts got pulled up, legs modestly covered while riding. They definately had “SKILZ” with their horses! I was quite impressed with good horsemanship displayed. One Amish lady had her horse doing nice lateral work at trot and canter, horse also did 1-2-3 tempi changes, everything shown in both directions. Light on the reins and leg, horse was calm, quiet, both in makeup and sale rings. He was a good looking pinto color, refined, breedy appearance, sold pretty well! The ladies did not stand on horses or crack bullwhips like the male riders. We were pretty amazed at how quiet most horses were in the sale arena, took the tarp waving, standing on, whip-cracking without reaction. Only one younger horse hopped his rump up as rider swung his arm to crack his whip. Rider stayed standing on two hops, then came off to land on his feet. Husband applauded! Horse stopped and went back to guy, looked like horse was saying “We didn’t practice that enough at home!”
We did not think any of our own horses would have done well in the noise and excitement! Probably have a BIG meltdown going thru the sale ring. Guess we need to raise our expectations higher.
FINALLY the Cleveland was ridden into the ring, showed WTC as they took bids. Quite a few bidders. As the bidding slowed, stopped, we won the horse!! He went a bit over budget, but husbands “says” he doesn’t need any birthday, Father’s Day or Christmas gifts this year! Horse covers them all! Well that will make holidays easy. Ha ha
We got horse paid for, moved the truck much closer to the barn and brought him out. Horse is very respectful of your space, but it was a LOOONNG walk at dusk thru mobs of people, horses waiting to be sold, to reach the trailer. No horse talking, no reaction to being crowded, just going where directed. I filled a hay net with auction hay they were feeding him, hiked out to trailer, husband had horse loaded already. A couple nice people held the door upen while a truck behind lit up the trailer with headlights. Husband said horse is a u-aim-it-loader, get out of his way! Tromped right up the ramp, into the stall. Shut the butt bar, swung the gates closed, while I arrived to stuff hay net in to eat. He rode well, peed when we stopped for fuel.
Trip home was long after being up so early. Rain came, wipers gave up! Good thing the road lines were bright. Rains were intermittant, so no wipers was not a huge issue. Then despite blowing horn, a blasted deer jumped out in the road about 10 miles from home, ran in circles!! Yeah, we hit it. Not going to try stopping fast, put horse in the manger. Luckily truck is tall, deer went down between the wheels under. No steam, no loss of power, so we did not stop. Got home about 1AM. Parked the truck and trailer. Went in the barn, moved Lincoln out of the box stall to a tie stall, fed him. Picked up box stall poop, refilled bucket, more hay, unloaded Luke and walked down the aisle into his new stall. Our horses were noisy, Luke was quiet, gave the stall a once-over, got a big drink and started eating. We closed things up, left the nightlight on for Luke and went in the house to bed. We were whipped!
Luke’s good manners have remained in place, seems very nice in all catagories. Husband did some ground work with him, fitted a single harness. He is amazingly broad-chested, needed Bug’s old breastcollar. Everything else in a single breastcollar was way too small. Rest of harness parts fit fine, same size as Lincoln and Hawk. We dug out the 2-wheel cart, single horse 4-wheeler to drive him with. Then the rain came, too muddy after one cart drive to drive recently. Luke is learning bit contact does not mean stop, using his outside rein after a little confusion.
I think we got the sale unicorn! He is amazing. Not sure who trained him but they sure put good manners on him! We were told he drives single, pair and 4-abreast for farm work. Works beside mares and geldings without issue. Was used as a breaking horse. Just need some more good weather to try his other skills. 5 inches of snow Friday, is finally melting, back to mud the cart wheels will cut way into. So more turnout time with Wicker, they are getting very friendly.
- with pics of your new guy. 
So…
