11th December 2000 - Money does not equal the world:
Serve Well
Year
after year auctions of young sport horses become more
popular for the rich bourgeoisie of the horse world.
Preselected auction mounts virtually guarantee health,
quality, movements, beauty, pezzaz and status for the
elitist buyer. No more spending hours making phone calls,
exchanging video tapes and travelling around Europe
to find that one special horse which matches your desire.
No, you plan a 3-day trip to Vechta, Verden, Munster,
Medingen or Hagen, watch the daily parades of the collection
and make your choice. Auctions are supposed to make
horse shopping easy, but anything is more true than
this.
The 3 to 5-year-old equines have to endure six weeks
of heavy training, of try-out sessions with experienced
and less experienced riders and of gala evenings in
order to lure a bigger crowd to the auction. The horses
are often fatigued and mentally down after this process.
Nevertheless, the sky seems not to be the limit for
the bid prices: 400,000DM for Wienna, 500,000DM for
Royal Olymp and 600,000DM for Diamond Dream. Many loaded
foreign buyers travel to Germany to purchase and import
at least half the collection, not knowing that they
are pushing up the prices for amateurs and making it
impossible to buy a "good" young dressage
horse for a reasonable price (20,000 DM). But that's
the way the market works.
Once
in a while you get proof that money does not equal the
(equestrian) world. How oftendo price highlights disappear
into nothing, left behind with a broodmare career or
schoolmaster retirement. Once in a while you get proof
that the cheap horses can make it to the top. One example
is Serve Well, a Hanoverian mare by Sherlock Holmes
who got sold at the Verden Equitop auction for a moderate
9,500DM. Under Elmar Lesch, she won the 6-year-old eventing
horse class at the German Young Horse Championships
in Warendorf.
Year
after year auctions of young sport horses become more
popular for the rich bourgeoisie of the horse world.
Preselected auction mounts virtually guarantee health,
quality, movements, beauty, pezzaz and status for the
elitist buyer. No more spending hours making phone calls,
exchanging video tapes and travelling around Europe
to find that one special horse which matches your desire.
No, you plan a 3-day trip to Vechta, Verden, Munster,
Medingen or Hagen, watch the daily parades of the collection
and make your choice. Auctions are supposed to make
horse shopping easy, but anything is more true than
this.
Once
in a while you get proof that money does not equal the
(equestrian) world. How oftendo price highlights disappear
into nothing, left behind with a broodmare career or
schoolmaster retirement. Once in a while you get proof
that the cheap horses can make it to the top. One example
is Serve Well, a Hanoverian mare by Sherlock Holmes
who got sold at the Verden Equitop auction for a moderate
9,500DM. Under Elmar Lesch, she won the 6-year-old eventing
horse class at the German Young Horse Championships
in Warendorf.
