WooHoo, Off to Kansas to the Draft sale

Well, I am off to Kingman Kansas first thing in the morning to the Draft Horse and Mule sale up there. I haven't been up there in probably 10 years. I am anxious to see what kinds of horses they will have there this year and I am taking my credit card (in case I find one that is just too good to refuse ) LOL. Me, Dad, and Linda are going mainly to find some collars to fit John and Bessie as it is about time to break them to drive and all our collars we have are WAY too small. I will try to get some pix if I see a really nice or unique horse. I hope I get to see the Amish people that we made friends with years ago. Their daughter and I practically grew up together. We would play together up there twice a year for a few days from the time I was about 3 until the last time I went.

Anyway, off to bed. Be back in a couple of days.

That sounds like so much fun!
I hope you have a great time. I will be looking forward to seeing some pictures.
I love draft horses. I used to have one but unfortunatly had to sell him whilst i was going through terrible times. I miss him terribly but im sure one day i will be able to get him back...
If you end up getting a horse i would love to see pictures of them 2
Have fun !!

Smrobs, have fun and good luck but don't spend too much money.

Have fun!

lucky. lol. im jealous.

Okay, I have returned!! Nothing much interesting at the sale, my Amish friends were in Kentucky attending a wedding so I didn't get to see any of them :(. There wasn't nearly as much variation up there as there used to be. Most of the horses and mules they had were just crap. Fugly mares with no papers that were in foal to fugly jacks with no papers........guaranteed to make fugly mules with no talent or useablity. Although they did have several standardbred Amish cart horses for sale, I didn't get a pic of any of them. Nice horses though. I did get a pic of the 2 biggest horses at the sale, a pair of Belgian mares that one stood maybe 17.3 and the other was probably 17.2 or so. The darker one was wide as a bus though.
Sorry the pix are kinda crappy, I was a little too far away.


If I remember correctly, they sold the pair for about 1500, both are broke to drive but their feet were god-awful.

This was by far the nicest setup at the whole darn thing. VERY broke team of gray mares that had been used by the Amish to farm all their lives. I think they were 10 and 11.




The Amish kid was showing them off for I think his grandad and did a very good job of it. They sold for 3000.

I didn't get any other pictures but I probably should have. I looked around at some of the riding stock and it was all overbitted, head slinging, no stopping junk with poor confo so I didn't even see anything that tempted me.

There was one nice pair of well-matched belgian mules that came through that were pretty well broke (not perfect but manageable) and they bid them up to 1800 per mule but the owner no-saled them. He was asking 5000 for the pair. Ha, he must not be watching the horse market.

All of the other stuff that sold averaged about 150 to 300 and was a steady line of fugly jacks and mules and half broke mares. We didn't even stay for the whole thing cause there was absolutely nothing of interest to look at.

Needless to say, I feel just slightly disappointed but at the same time anxious. We got to talking with a friend of ours there that is one of the auctioneers and he was telling us about a "select" horse sale that is held twice a year in Stillwater, OK. They do not permit kill buyers and the horses go through a "sifting" process by judges before they go into the sale ring. Then the judges tell the buyers exactly what they think of the horse being sold. I have been debating about selling Koda for a while but I was afraid that he would end up in the kill pen at a regular auction so this might be just the thing to find him a nice home as someone's trail or ranch horse. He may even make a decent show horse with the right kind of riding. And if he no-sales, I could always put him up on craigslist or something.

So the trip was not a total loss and we did find some collars and hames that should fit John and Bessie so maybe soon, I will have some driving pix too.

And just a side note, I know lots of people have a bad taste in their mouths from seeing horses rescued from Amish farmers but I just wanted to say that not all of them are like that. Every horse I saw up there (that belonged to an Amish person anyway) was well fed with well kept feet and very broke. I'm not talking about the horses they brought in to sell either. I am talking about their own personal cart horses and drafts that I saw around.

Im sorry that your visit wasnt how you remembered it. But the pictures of the horses you posted were gawjus. The grey mares seemed amazing. Wish i was there myself to see them. And atleast you came away with some info and what you went there for. :)

I just spotted this post. Sorry the sale was a disappointment, I always wanted to go to it but never have. If you do go to Stillwater for that other sale and need a horse camp, look into Lake Carl Blackwell. It has nice horse camping with some corrals and pretty trails if you want to make a weekend out of it.

The only thing about this sale that I am looking at is that they require the horse to be there like 48 hours before the sale and then they are monitored by security to ensure that they aren't being drugged or anything. So I don't think they would be allowed to leave the premises. But I prefer it that way, makes it easier to find a good home for a horse that you can guarantee sound and broke.