Not as many lots forward as was advertised and a
distinct lack of foals in comparison to other years

but those that were there couldn't have been more
extreme ends of the scale there were conversations we overheard all over
the place that micro chipping has had a direct impact
The contrasts were from the well bred flashy sorts to the bedraggled skinny little souls who went for a few guineas...it doesn't bode well for their future.
To give credit where it's due our auctioneers did move the persistant crowd
from the exit way...threatening (but only threatening) to stop the auction
if the exit was not cleared. They really are a  nuisance these die-hard
old boys who won't do as the auctioneer bid...he (auctioneer) ought to really
to stop the auction one day and be done with it...maybe they ( crowd) would really
learn then.it wasn't as if there wasn't space in the public circle around the auction ring either.
The auctioneer also refused to sell a mare away from her un-weaned foal in
the ring, we were pleased to note that...the vendor of course was
grumbling and gnashing his gums and maybe did sell them away from each
other in the car park afterwards! Well done Auctioneer.
We did buy a skinny pathetic 2 year old colt outside the ring. I
remember him going through; he got bid to 40 guineas but didn't sell.
The owner was at the pen when we were leaving, we went to look at the colt
and ended up buying him. He's safe and will make a good sort ending up
about 14.2hh - we'll have no trouble homing him though he’s full of worms and of
course scared stiff of most things right now.
While we waiting for our trailer to arrive from home we watched a
sickening scene unfold. A big old coloured mare with a young, maybe 4
months old, foal at foot had stood all day in a pen with a couple of
others. The man taking a whole group of foals decided to split this foal
from its mother. He and a boy manhandled the foal into their lorry
away from its mother, she was going crazy, the foal was screaming for
its mother. The foal jumped the lorry partition and came crashing down
the ramp but managed to get past the men (flailing sticks and fists) and
got back to its mother. We were furious, and tried to buy the foal and
mare but the man quoted a ridiculous price...so we couldn't help them.
The ironic thing then was that the man then loaded the mare and foal
together as they were both going back to the same place anyway!!!  Why put
a foal through that kind of hell in the first place...?