I had fun looking through that catalog. What does TSS stand for?
Traffic Safe & Sound
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Yup. And they pay cash or in kind for virtually everything.
@baybrio, gently but firmly implore your friend to think hard – has she EVER seen any Amish driving a spotted horse? I know I haven’t, with the exception of something they’d taken in for training from an English client. And I’ve lived in Old Order country, dealt with them for business on umpteen occasions, and have a friend who grew up in (& left) one of the most conservative Amish communities. I mean, we’re talking about folks that if they are “progressive” and do drive, paint their bumpers black because chrome is too showy & prideful. Once, I bought 500 chickens from an Amish egg farm. The grandparents & grandchildren delivered them with the help of an English driver. I was shocked to see the grandmother’s dress was a brightly saturated shade of purple (well beyond an acceptable hue by the FEI dressage dress code, lol).
They don’t do bright colors or eye-catching combos therein. They don’t do light colored horses because, well, they don’t have the time & facilities to wash them. They really don’t do minis, either… So the guy claiming that he buys/sells lots of minis at this sale is a red flag in and of itself. They use full drafts/large pony drafts for farm work & Standardbred/Dutch Harness type horses for road travel at speed. All in dark, solid colors. That’s it. Maaaaaaybe there’s a few out there that would play with the kids with a mini cart. Most of them don’t have the time for that, nor does it seem to align with their general style of parenting, either.
Eta: re the Buckeye Morgan Sale, I’m seeing a lot of sellers based out of places like Millersburg, OH & Shipshewana, IN. Those are areas that churn out a huge number of Amish-broke horses (drafts especially) for the English market, with agents who tend to be Mennonite, former Amish, English who grew up neighbors of Amish & have been friends since childhood, etc. It’s true that some of them have a lot of money-- they don’t spend on much so it
adds up. They may be keeping some of these horses. What is more likely is that they are selling young, exceptional prospects to other, closer-in, more worldly Amish individuals (like those flashy Lancaster Amish daddies who are totally going to hell in a handbasket 
) who are better positioned to sell them to non-Amish at top dollar. Especially the draft horses. You might not like how they do it but they can & will get [quote=“CrazyGuineaPigLady, post:213, topic:759691, full:true”]
The same people who raised their own last year also set up processing dates for 2021 in advance or, like I mentioned, learned to do it themselves/have someone come to their property.
[/quote]
I think you may be overlooking a big part of the problem that I personally lay at the feet of elected officials taking campaign $$ from big ag – the USDA rules are designed to bury the small producers. For example, I can technically process & sell up to 2000 chickens myself under the state exemption for poultry. Sounds great, right? It does, until you realize that my insurance company does not cover me for processing my own. Ok, fine. We all just did it anyway & crossed our fingers. Until the insurance companies announced that now they will not cover me AT ALL FOR ANYTHING if they find out I’m processing my own birds. Most abbatoir don’t mess with chickens. “There’s a processor on the Eastern Shore,” my then-agent advised me. Well, they’re 4 hours one way, don’t want to turn on their equipment for fewer than 500 chickens, and don’t answer their damn phone. Ever.
Likewise, I can’t sell individual cuts of beef & pork unless it was processed under USDA inspection. (Note: All small abbatoirs are USDA inspectED. But for this, we need a USDA inspectOR physically standing there watching them process.) Again, no problem. Except only 2 out of the 5 abbatoirs in my area offer the option to butcher under USDA inspection. And, much as they would love to do it 5 days a week, the USDA inspectOR only comes 1-2 days out of 10. Second problem: these are not large facilities. I was already booking my butchering dates 2 years out well before the pandemic hit as I needed dates with both a USDA InspectOR, AND room in the smokehouse to hang bacon & ham .
Yes, you can get around needing the inspectOR by selling the whole steer instead of individual cuts. But that isn’t convenient for the consumer & doesn’t make me enough $ to break even. Yes, the idea of eating home-butchered chicken grosses some folks out. I can assure you that small, on-farm set ups are about 1000x cleaner & safer than a Perdue processing house. And much more humane.
The whole thing is f–king ridiculous 
. This is why I don’t farm anymore. It was costing ME money to provide good, wholesome, humane products to my customers.
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Topeka IN Pony Sale Flyer
Pony Auctions (topekalivestock.com)
I saw a lot of Hackney Crosses. Fancy high stepping drivers. Fancy high bidding prices.
A memory photo I have - two teen Amish boys flying down the road, pastel shirt sleeves blowing in the wind, in an open cart with a very fancy horse in hitch. Later I drove past the huge Amish weekend party down the road. They were in a big hurry to get there, in style!
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The Amish have imported and own a number of Dutch Harness Horse Stallions in the US. Recently read one was sold from Holland priced well into the mid 6 figures ($400,000+). They seem to like pretty, high stepping horses. I have seen Harness Horse auction prices here into the mid five figures. Probably, sell off their culls, lacking in desirable movement or with luggage heads; inexpensively though.
Amish select sale and ranch horse markets are super hot right now–you can follow some of the auctions online. Think 14.3 hand trail horses for $20-$50, Gypsy Vanners for $50-70. I have never seen anything like it. I’ve started to follow it just for sport. It’s jaw dropping.
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It is a feeding frenzy. Looks like a lot of folks have a good outlet for their pasture drinks. I’m pretty much out unless I buy young, as in newborn or weanling. And I just want to make a good sized, nice trail/ranch/endurance mount.
Just moved to the UK, and from what I’ve read/seen the market is pretty crazy over here as well. Makes me glad I opted to ship my horse over this summer instead of trying to buy.
…also makes me think I need to export two colored cobs (Gypsy Vanners) to the US to sell and make cash money. 
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Just saw a 15-y.o. ex-GP jumper for $50K. Being sold as a confidence builder for up to 1.10-m jumpers. Though if you consider what it currently costs to lease a 3’3” type eq horse, for a year, maybe not such a bad deal. Not saying this is an eq horse, but that’s my known comp. Looks like it has a kind eye. USEF 5283871.
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Exactly.
When people try to persuade riders who want to show/win right now to try a rescue or an OTTB fresh off the track, it’s a non-starter. Those horses have a road in front of them before they are ready to win ribbons. They are a risk that they will turn out to be a good show horse in the end. That’s why they have a lower price.
When the market shows the price of a horse that is ready to compete/place/win at whatever level, it is for one that is ready to do that now.
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I saw an ad on CL I believe or may DH for a buckskin QH with some training on it, youngish, fairly good breeding but was “recovering” from a suspensory injury and would need significant stall rest and rehab going for $15K. I’m sure someone would love to have an unsound horse that they can’t even ride for months after purchase and all the associated vet bills.
Before all this went down with the skyrocketing prices, I think I’ve looked at 3 or 4 horses that were either:
A. Lame
B. Emaciated
C. Had teeth issues and a lice infestation
Lovely.
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Holy cow, that is truly insane/stupid.
It was FB yet again and…
her posts are pure comedy now
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I looked at one of her horses a couple of years ago and he was a nice enough sort but when her rider got on I saw something in the right hind, not quite right. He seemed to work out of it and I rode and liked him and decided to move forward with a PPE. I talked to the vet and told her that if there was anything she didn’t like to call me before proceeding. I get a call from her and she said he flexed way off (a 4 on a scale of 1-4) and it was the right hind. She said there had to be major issues going on in there but without x-rays, couldn’t really tell what it was. I told her to full stop on the PPE. One good thing, I did get my deposit back. I think she did sell that horse to someone else shortly after.
Was the place you went her place? I always sorta thought she was some sort… consigner… but since a lot of the pictures look like they are from different farms, I could never really tell. A lot from an indoor, but also other arenas and pastures, some lush and some that look more like the eastern side?
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Yes, down in central OR. She does do consigning and I think that’s her bread and butter. She may go to the different barns and take the sales pictures/videos there before bringing the horse to her barn? Or maybe she’s full and the owner keeps the horse until she sells it? I have no idea. Here’s a thought, maybe she doesn’t bring the horse to her facility until someone is interested in looking.
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Is this a seller in OR that frequently posts photos/videos of horses in an indoor arena jumping over a barrel jump? Often OTTB’s. Different people shown riding? Their horses look a little rough around the edges, presentation wise? If so; I’ve seen their ads for some time. 
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Yes to the state, the rest I can’t recall? Some of them look nice, most actually. Wide range of them, from AWS to Gypsy Vanners to TBs and QHs, from foals to teens.
I am amazed at what the Quarterhorse and Paint market is like, too.
I have been seriously shopping for 2-years and had a hellish time finding something competitive, natural moving, sane, and sound. You need $50k to get your foot in the door on a dead ass lame been there done that horse. No thanks.
One horse was so lame that the vet didn’t charge me for the PPE. How is that for sad?
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Wait. Are you my alter ego?
I ended up buying a much greener horse than I had intended, which fortunately has turned out great. But man, it was discouraging out there! Ridiculous prices for mediocre horses that, most of the time, were not sound.
My good friend has been looking for months for a Paint to do the all-around. She has $$$ to spend. So far nothing has made it all the way through a PPE. Yesterday she showed me video of a pretty mare and I had to point out, “Uhm, did you not notice that this mare is a little hinky on the left front?”
Bad enough that my friend is so desperate she’s losing her discerning judgement. But the fact that the owner/trainer either didn’t notice or didn’t care and made the video anyway…
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