Thursday, August 4th, there was an auction of 22 Arabians on a farm south of Schomberg. A friend of mine, Sandra, toured the farm where the Arabian horses were stabled on Tuesday, with her vet.
Whenever she glanced at a horse twice he would go to the animal, check its teeth (discretely), give its body a once over and quietly move on.
Thursday afternoon I opened the email from Sandra that had a bit of an explanation about the history of the owner of the horses and some photos taken at the current farm.
A few minutes later I left a voice message at Sandra’s work, then called to leave the same message at her home which is about eight minutes northwest of here. Sandra picked up the phone as she was heading out the door, aiming for the auction preview which started at 4:00. The message: “Count me in for $500. If she found a good use for it, great. If not, I’d like it back.”
My $500 found a home. An eight-year-old black mare (initially Sandra thought this black Egyptian Arabian was five. She’d confused her with another black mare…) went for $350. Apparently the auctioneer would start at meat prices on some horses and go downwards. If someone bid near that price, he optimistically surged upwards. The black mare received no bids until Sandra panicked, fearing that a low price would mean “meat market”. Another $50 went to homeward travel. Another hunk went to taxes and a smidgeon helped pay for the inoculations the vet gave the mare Saturday when Bill, me, Ann Clifford and Ciara McKnight went to see the new addition to Sandra’s herd. (My role was done: up-front money to get the horse in safe hands. Now Sandra has a horse-for-life to love and care for.)
More to come.
