The Gifford Chronicles - Part II

Chapter 2. The Topeka Draft Horse Auction

When I last wrote three months ago, Gifford, then twenty months old and  had jumped a 4’ 4" gate.   Plenty has happened since but the most significant was his trip to the Topeka (Indiana) Draft Horse Auction in March.

Since his arrival, Gifford had worked his way into our hearts through his gentle manner and "Baby Huey" like personality … you just have to love that face and massive body. Predictably, Elaine was the first to utter the fateful words: "We should buy Gifford." After all, we had moved from single- to dual-horse ownership as a result of her rescue of Parker last June, a Belgian Warmblood previously used on the national Junior eventing circuit. Clearly, Gifford was another rescue candidate, at least in Elaine’s eyes, from either a life of hard work on an Amish farm or from the "kill buyers", who dispose of unwanted horses by sale to slaughterhouses.

It should be pointed out that while the owners and breeders of these Belgians certainly care a great deal about the horses they breed or buy for showing, they can not keep every horse that comes through their barn.  Taking horses to auction, or selling them privately, is how they maintain stable and show-quality, keep the numbers manageable (around 15 horses) and, hopefully, pay for their operation.  However, they do not, at least to my knowledge, develop the emotional attachments to their horses prevalent on smaller farms such as ours.  They think more of their horses as livestock. 

Anyway, THE PLAN for Gifford was to be sold in March.  At some point, I asked the owner what he expected to get for Gifford at auction.  Aside from curiosity, one of Elaine’s riding instructors had told us that she was thinking about getting a draft horse for her husband.  Perhaps Gifford could stay in northeastern Pennsylvania after all. When Gary told me $3,000, I knew it was more than Elaine and I could afford at the time having just built a two-stall barn.  A few weeks later all hopes were dashed when word came back from Elaine's trainer that she did not yet have space in her barn for a draft horse.  From that point on I waxed philosophical about Gifford fulfilling his destiny as a working draft horse and that our small farm would be insufficient to meet his needs and soon to be even larger body (likely 2,200 pounds and 18 hands high). Even Elaine was heard to join this chorus, although I knew her heart was not in it.

By late February, Elaine had clearly reached a new crescendo of anxiety. She started hitting the internet to find out everything there was to know about the Topeka Draft Horse Auction.  What were the facilities like? Would the Amish be there? Did "the killers" come to this auction?  She had not been pleased with the overall condition of Amish buggy horses she had seen on a recent business trip to Lancaster, PA, and the prospect of "our" beloved Gifford going to a working Amish farm caused her considerable consternation.

A week or so before the auction, Elaine suggested I ask the owner (who is also a good friend of ours) if I could go along with him, Gifford and Buddy (a four-year old Belgian also to be sold). This would allow me to see first-hand what the sale was like, I could bid on and possibly buy Gifford if the price was right, and, if he was sold to someone else, at least I could scope out the buyer to get a sense of Gifford’s fate. I could sense Gary was initially puzzled by my request, with good cause. On a four-day trip to the Pennsylvania Farm Show in 2000 I had gotten sick, rendering me useless as a helper.  During the 2001 Farm Show I had been kicked in the face by one of his stallions.  I usually come back from horse-related expeditions with Gary sick or hurt.  Knowing all of this, Gary nevertheless said he would welcome the company.



Amish carts lined up outside the Topeka Auction area.



By 11:00 AM, Wednesday, March 14^th, the horses were loaded and we were off. It is an approximate 625-mile/10 hour trip across Pennsylvania, Ohio and into Indiana to Topeka. It was well after dark when we arrived. Gary kept telling me we were in Amish country.  Who could tell?  It was too dark to see anything. After unloading and settling the horses, we ate dinner and went to his father’s house, where we would be spending the next two nights. As we always arrived or departed the auction complex and the house in the dark, it was not until we were leaving on Friday afternoon that I could actually see Amish farms and the countryside. 

The auction had started on Tuesday with the sale of Haflinger horses, machinery and tack. Wednesday had been devoted to Mules, Percherons, Shires and Clydesdales. Thursday and Friday were primarily for Belgians, with the former devoted to catalogue sales and the latter to non-catalogue. The show catalogue allows sellers to advertise their horse(s) in advance and provides basic information on lineage and other important information. From what I could observe, there did not appear to be much difference in either the quality of horse or price brought between the Thursday and Friday sales. Gifford and Buddy were slated to go off in the less-snooty Friday morning auction.



Gifford gets braided before the auction.



The auction typically begins each day at 8:00 AM and goes well into the night, often past midnight. Hundreds of horses are sold daily at a rate of 20-25 per hour.  Six or seven auctioneers, assorted spotters and other support staff rotate throughout the day and evening until the day’s work is completed.  Three hundred people sit on bleachers on three sides of the sale arena (the vast majority seem to be watchers, not buyers) while spotters respond to bids and the auctioneer rattles off a series of unintelligible words, punctuated by the final "Sold!"

Aside from watching the auction and tending to your horse, about the only other thing to do is visit the various vendors and eat. Because of the nature of this particular sale, most of the vendors featured BIG stuff – big horse shoes (the size of dinner plates), big and heavy harness and rigging, big stocks to hold big horses during shoeing, big shovels, and much more. In addition, there was horse-related art, jewelry, books and clothing. I also noticed draft horse people (not the Amish, mind you) seem to have a particular fascination with jackets, hats and shirts embroidered with pulling teams and names like "Ben and Sue’s Registered Belgians, Anywhere, USA". Truth be told, I got sucked in and purchased a baseball hat featuring a pair of embroidered Belgians.   I’ve since lost it.

Among the many things I discovered on this trip was that the Amish put gravy on any and everything – chicken, beef, pork, potatoes, biscuits, whatever. Gary and I ate three meals in the auction restaurant, manned but not owned by Amish. No matter what you ordered, it came with gravy. The food was good, but I must have gained five pounds while we were there.



Gifford and Buddy together just before Gifford was
braided for the auction ring.



My image of the Amish changed somewhat while in Indiana. Like most people, I had a stereotypical view – close knit community, religious, hard working, plainly dressed, clean living, disciplined.  Witness like, if you’ve seen the movie.   Although these notions were largely confirmed, I also found them to have a good sense of humor, become easily embarrassed, helpful, enterprising, and most of the men and young boys were heavy smokers (I do not recall seeing one Amish woman smoke). Horses attached to the well over 200 buggies patiently waited across the parking lot and most appeared to be in good condition. The children, of which there were many in attendance, were very well behaved, so much so I thought many times how bored, whining and annoying their "English" counterparts would have been in this environment.

The rest of this Chronicle, Part III, will be posted tomorrow.  I'd like to add a few comments.  First, it isn't unlikely that Paul will lose a hat.  For that matter, Paul will lose sunglasses, especially prescription sunglasses, faster than you can say "did you lose something?"  Second, we've learned alot about auctions since this one occurred, and we aren't commenting on any of that in these blog posts.  However, perhaps down the line we will share our knowledge of horse rescue, horse slaughter and auctions.  Remember, we were just getting into rescue in 2000, so this was all new to us at the time.

Aaaarrrrrooooooooooo!