Arabian Horse Center Holds Successful Production Sale
The W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center raised $32,300 by selling eight horses Aug. 3 in its second annual online auction.
One hundred forty-four bidders from 44 states and three Canadian provinces were online for the auction. That topped the 122 bidders – horse breeders, trainers, and individuals – who were online for last year’s sale.
The center moved to having an online production sale last year instead of selling the horses off in private sales, as it had done in the past.
“We are very pleased with the results of our second annual auction,” says Jéanne Brooks Abernathy, the horse center’s director. “The change in strategy to this online sale has quickly resulted in more consistent prices and a greater percentage of the production sold. We are looking forward to continued progress in 2017.”
The auctioned horses were among 14 foals that were born on campus three years ago. Two were sold in 2013 as weanlings and the horse center is keeping the remaining four for student programs and future breeding. The eight horses sold all had a full year’s worth of training and were well started under saddle, unlike some of last year’s class. Cal Poly Pomona students are involved in every aspect of breeding, caring for, and raising the horses.
Although photos and video of the horses were posted online to view since July, many of the bidders visited the horses or called to get more information from the horse center’s Equine Operations Manager John Lambert in the days – and even hours – prior to the auction.
CP Paragon fetched the highest price at $7,600, going to a buyer from North Texas. Two other horses, CP Tytanium and CP Illumination, were sold for $5,500 each.
Addis Live Online, an Oklahoma-based company, handled the auction for the horse center. The company streamed the auction live on the Internet, with participants submitting bids from all over the country and an auctioneer calling out the bids and sales prices like a traditional sale.
The purposes of the sale are to provide the public with the opportunity to own some of the finest Arabian horse bloodlines in the world and to raise proceeds for the horse center. Almost all of the horses can trace their bloodlines back to the original Arabian horse herd that cereal magnate W.K. Kellogg owned and raised on his Pomona ranch. The breedings are made possible through the generous support of stallion owners in the Arabian industry, who donate breedings to the program to some of the industry’s leading stallions.
Under state regulations, all sales must be conducted by public auction to ensure transparency and that they are at fair market value.
All proceeds go to support the educational and outreach programs at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center.