Live Oak International, the country’s largest Combined Driving and Show Jumping event of its kind, will host the first Flanders Embryo Auction in the United States. It will take place Friday, March 16 at 4:30 p.m. EST in the VIP tent during their 2018 event in Ocala, Florida. Twenty embryos from top European show jumping bloodlines will be auctioned off via live streaming on www.clipmyhorse.tv.

The embryos offered by Flanders Embryo Auction have such interesting pedigrees that they would unlikely become available as foals or would have been purchased by buyers before birth. It is a unique opportunity to buy an unborn foal with an exclusive pedigree.

“We’re excited to host the first Flanders Embryo Auction on American soil,” said Juliet W. Reid, co-president of Live Oak International. “We host top-level international competition here, and riders, drivers and trainers are always looking for quality horses. But the price of horses has gone up so much that more Americans are looking in to breeding them as opposed to buying them later. This is a chance to do that.”

One of the 20 embryos is a grandchild of the famous grand prix mare Gazelle ter Elzen (Kashmir van ‘t Schuttershof — Diva ter Elzen by Indoctro) ridden by Kent Farrington. Gazelle has already produced the 1.40m jumping stallion King Kong (Darco), born in 2010 and ridden by Niels Bruynseels.

The full collection of embryos offered at Live Oak International can be found here.

Bidding for the auction will be possible in two ways—via phone to Flanders Foal Auction contacts Luk Van Puymbroeck (+32 478 43 61 63) or Gerald Lenaerts (+32 475 77 86 27), or at the Live Oak International showgrounds. New buyers who will bid by telephone will need to register several days in advance of the auction.

Started in 2011 in Belgium as Aalst International Auction, Flanders Foal Auction is internationally recognized as an elite auction of top-bred jumping foals from unique Belgian breeding stock. They run two traditional foal auctions in Belgium each year, and their first embryo auction was in February 2017 from Sharjah CSI*** in the United Arab Emirates.

“We saw success in the UAE for our first embryo auction,” said Gerald Lenaerts, one of the founders of Flanders Foal Auction. “We were looking for a place to host our first auction in the United States, and we thought that Live Oak International was a perfect fit — for its high level of competition and VIPs that attend.”

More information about the Flanders Foal & Embryo Auction, including buyer FAQs, can be found at www.flandersfoalauction.be.