excerpt
…they did the easy thing: Joel decided to sell the oldest of each of
the sexes from each of the age groups. He thought that perhaps
the older the horse, the better idea the buyer would have of what
he or she would be getting. Besides, the last thing he needed to be
doing was procrastinate over which of the horses to sell.
The catering van was busy. They could have used a second
caterer, but sooner or later, everyone got fed, and then at one
o’clock on the dot the sale began. Roy had already given a warning
at ten- and five-minutes to the hour. By 12:30, the bleachers
had already been jammed and the buyers had taken to standing
on the roofs of the barn and nearby sheds to get a good view. Just
to the side of the round pen, sitting behind a table that was elevated
on the back of a hay wagon sat Roy, Dr. Morgan, and Sally,
one of the ladies from the auction mart. In the ring were four
spotters who would watch for bids from the crowd and call them
to Roy. And so it all began.
After welcoming everyone to the sale and introducing the staff,
Roy introduced Tanya and Harry, who would be riding the horses
in the ring. Joel had planned to ride the horses, but at the last
minute, he decided he would be of better use to be available to
answer questions about the breeding and training, so he had
asked Harry to step in and ride, an offer which Harry proudly
accepted.
To Joel, it seemed that the minute he finished with one prospective
buyer who was asking about which mare this or that
three-year-old was out of, or how a particular horse was coming
along in its training, another buyer would approach with more
questions. Hmmm, he thought. This could be a good sign.
“The first horse in the ring today, number one in your catalogue,
is an own daughter of Topsail’s Legend, out of a granddaughter
of Doc Bar. This three-year-old mare has been raised
right here on the ranch and has been in training for the last
ninety days. You have already seen how nimble and quick she is
from the demonstration so where would you like to start the bidding
on this nice looking, big hipped, three-year-old sorrel mare?
Libros Libertad 