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Norfolk, Nebraska Horse Auction Report |
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| This is the information that I gathered at the Norfolk, Nebraska auction held on 13 Apr 2008. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| My Observations:
Hi everyone,
I have a quick report on the horses that were at the auction at
Norfolk, NE today.
It was a very rough day for me. I was only allowed to go and
watch/record the auction. I was under strict orders not to buy
anything (threatened with divorce papers. lol). I got to the
auction at 11:30 am. For the next 45 minutes I wandered the pens
in the back looking at the horses and trying to take pictures without
being noticed. I really wished that I had a camera phone (I
don't even have a cell phone! lol). I managed to take 6 pictures
before being spied by one of the managers who then began following me around with a frown. I suspect he was not happy with me taking
pictures. And he had good reason to be worried! While I
wandered around, I noticed that not all the horses had hay and only
about a 1/3 of them had water. The water that was available was
shared between two different pens (the fence ran down so far and then
the water tank was just under it). I saw a few underweight
horses (6 would be the closest number.) And of those only one really
seriously concerned me. He was showing quite a bit of back bone
and hips. The others were just starting to show the neglect they
had been suffering. Then there were three or four horses that
had hooves that were so overgrown that they looked like elf shoes.
One stallion had extremely cracked hooves that were vertical cracks on
both hoof from top to bottom and the one had an additional crack that
was horizontal on the one half. Most of these guys were limping
a little, but I feel that once they had good farrier care, they would
be fine.
The part that just drove me nuts was the one guy that worked there.
He was riding a horse (with a sale tag on it...he also rode it in the
ring, so it must have been his) chasing the loose horses down to there
pens. Now normally this wouldn't bother me as long as he was
walking them and using his horse to herd them along. Instead he
had a long bullwhip that he would crack at the horses. Ever
horse in every pen along the way would jump into the air when he
cracked that stupid whip. He had them in a state of panic!
To make matters worse, I actually saw him take the whip and hit a
horse with it because it was not going exactly where he wanted it to.
The poor horse was trying to avoid him, the people in the walkway,
other horses, and being nipped at by horses already in the pens.
It is no wonder he was scared and not moving very fast! i wanted
to drag that guy right off his horse and give him the butt kicking he
deserved...of course I had my shadow behind me (the manager...who
followed me up until I went into the building to find a seat near the
ring!).
I saw a few horses that I really would have loved to bring home.
One was an adorable little donkey. He just looked so sad.
He was laying down on the concrete in his pen. You could see the
marks where his halter used to be on his face...it looked almost as if
the halter was starting to grow into his face. Then there was
this sweet stallion. He had a very matted mane and tail and
looked like he had not ever been touched. As I watched people
walk past him, he just stole my heart. he would be standing
there with his head almost to his knees, but when someone would head
in his direction, he would lift his head and look at them, the closer
they got, the higher his head would go. Finally he would prick
his ears forward with this hopeful look. I don't think a single
person that I saw go past him, even stopped for more than a second.
As soon as they saw his condition and stooped to see that he was
indeed a stallion, they would move off. Not one kind word or
pat. So I walked over to him and held out my hand. he
sniffed it and then rubbed his head against me. I stood talking
to him for a minute and rubbing his neck and face. When I went
to leave, he followed as far as he could and then let out a soft
whicker. I made sure after that to give him a pat whenever I
went past him. Then there were these two hugely pregnant mares.
They looked as though they would drop any time! They were both a
little shy, but curious and eventually they let me rub their noses.
As the horses went through the ring, i tried to take as many notes as
possible about them, but sometimes they went so quickly! I think
for me the most horrible part of being near the ring was watching
the 2 year olds (some just turned wo this year!) ride through the
ring. Then when they got to the loose horses, the guy running
the rin selected a long piece of pvc piping...probably a1/2 inch in
diameter. He would smack the horses to get them moving.
The guy on the other side would kick dirt at them to spook them into
moving. But the absolute worst thing I saw was when a horse came
into the ring and his weight had not been caught by the scale.
They ran him back out onto the scale. He was terrified and
didn't want to go back in the ring. The one guy beat him with
his pvc pipe and when that didn't work, he gave it to the other guy
and while he beat on the horse, the first guy grabbed the horse by
both his nostrils and pulled him into the ring. The horse was
shaking and jumping and looked so terrified that it made me sick.
I just don't know how people can be like that.
There were some kind of fun moments. One guy got up and stood
balanced on his horse while swinging his rope...he almost fell which I
kind of have to admit I was hoping he would because the horse did not
look happy. Then there was this beautiful john mule. He
was about 17 hands tall. The guy rode him in with his daughter
riding double. Then the daughter slid off his rump. The
dad rode him around a bit, then slid of his rump too. He got up
from the other side. then got down again. He crawled under
the mule's belly. Then he crawled between his front legs.
Then to top it off, he crawled between his back legs! The mule
was just 3 years old and the guy said that he was only green broke.
I have to say he looked like a pro for his age!
The sale started at 12:30 with tack. They sold roping steers at
2:10 (I think there were about a dozen of them). The riding
horses started at 2:20 and the loose ring horses started at 5:45.
The final horse went through the ring at 7:50!
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Total number of horses at auction: 183
Buyers number 133, 707, 211, and 230 were suspected kill buyers. 211 – worked for the sale barn and also sold two horses. 230 – unsure on this one. He was wearing a hat for another livestock auction, so may be a horse trader. Buyer number 133: Bought 18 horses (The horses he bought are highlighted in blue.) Buyer number 707: bought 23 horses (The horses he bought are highlighted in green.) Buyer number 211: bought 23 horses (The horses he bought are highlighted in yellow.) Buyer number 230: bought 12 horses (The horses he bought are highlighted in purple.) Total for possible kill buyers: 76 horses Stats for horses bought by possible kill buyers: Horses weanling to 2 yr old: 16 Horses 3-4 years old: 12 Horses 5-6 years old: 1 Horses 6-9 years old: 6 Horses 10-15 years old: 5 Horses 16-20 years old: 0 Horses 20+ years old: 1 Horses of unknown age: 35 (most of these looked in the 5-15 year age range) Condition of the horses bought by kill buyers: Horses that were underweight or neglected: 1 Horses that were ridable: 15 Horses that were lame: 0 Horses that had an unknown riding ability: 61 (most of these were 2 years old and under)
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Pictures from the auction (sorry they aren't very good):
The Sad donkey. Paint Weanlings
The one gray mare had an injured forehead. The roan stallion with the Can you see the bay who was tied? seriously cracked hooves. The rest of the horses were loose.
These were the skinniest horses at the auction. They were all in the same pen.
This picture is pretty hard to see, but the sad donkey is in the back of the truck! The cage (for lack of better word) was sitting inside the bed of the truck. It had no top to it at all. The sad thing is that he backed up to the loading dock right after I took this picture. They were going to load in more of something!
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