Saturday, May 23rd, Black Forest Shires & Gypsy Horses of Platteville, Colorado, held their dispersal sale. A serious group of bidders were there to try to obtain some of the finest imported and U.S. bred Gypsy, Shire and Drum horses. For those of you who haven’t heard of Drum horses, they are defined as a colored Shire.
The sale started out with the Gypsy horse mares and foals. A couple of mares had foaled before the sale, and a few more looked like they were likely to follow. The farm was allowing mares very close to their due dates and the mares that foaled the chance to remain on the farm until they and their foals were strong enough to travel. A Drum horse mare, Pippen, who foaled 12 hours before the sale, was “no saled” due to the fact that her foal was weak and they felt it would not be fair to run her through the sale.
The centerpiece of the farm, Babydoll, a 1998 Gypsy mare imported in 2002, inspired some spirited bidding that made her the sales highest selling horse. The final bid of $60,000 saw her heading back to the U.K. Their premier breeding stallion, LK’s Legacy, a 2003 stallion imported in 2004 and an own son of the famous stallion Lion King, was the second highest seller at $46,000. Sixty-three Gypsy horses went through the sale for a total of $903,850 with the average sale price being $14,347.
Monarch, brought in with with his teammate and 1/2 brother Rebel, was the highest seller of the Drum horses, bringing in $21,500. He also has the distinction of being the offspring of two Breyer model horses (Galway Warrior and Gladwin Lucky Grey Lady, aka “Gracie”). The four Drum horses sold totaled $61,500, with an average sale price of $15,375.
The yearling colt Greyson, a son of Gracie, was the highest seller of the Shires. He brought $10,000, with the five remaining Shires bringing the total sales to $37,850, for an average sale price of $6,308.
The imported bowtop wagon did not sell, but two colorful, imported Gypsy drays and a two-wheeled Gypsy flat cart (also known as a Bradford Cart) did sell, with the Bradford Cart bringing $24,000. An imported set of Gypsy harness sold for $2,400.
Black Forest ended up selling 73 horses for an impressive total of $1,003,200, bringing a median price of $14,000 per horse. I know that the sellers were sad to see their horses go, but they can also be proud knowing that the new owners can establish themselves in the Gypsy horse industry with the very best of stock.
The Sale Ring 
hi nice blog 🙂
I’d like to know what happened to cause the sale of all Jeff and Christine’s beautiful horses. I have watched them grow online for several years now and am saddened over what has happened.
Sherry, I’m in the same boat with you. I’d like to know what happened to make them sell all these beautiful horses. What a sad event. I noticed Jeff mentioned he’d be starting life over ‘with my son at my side’… wonder what that means???
s
Before you get too broken up about it, read this:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/animal-services/black-forest-shires/black-forest-shires-and-gypsy-5f356.htm
Also, just curious, why would you (meaning BFSGH) sell your best mare back to the UK for $60,000 & then continue to list it for sale on your website for $47, 500 obo?
http://www.gypsyhorsesource.com/us1/babydoll.htm
Could it be they had “planted” bidders in the audience in order to artificially inflate the prices of the ones they wanted to sell, keep the ones they really wanted (like Babydoll) & also finish the sale with an unbelievably high figure (over $1 million).
A few years ago I probably would have believed this, but just check out any horse classified site, more and more Gypsies are going for around the $5,000 – $6,000 mark – a rarity in previous years. And with the horse industry taking a real dive this year, I think they will only get cheaper. Gypsies are beautiful but they are a fad that is beginning to draw to a close. I predicted this years ago. It only makes sense that with such a beautiful breed & so few available in North America that prices would at first be insanely high. But everyone wanted one & as the market saturates, the prices will drop, even in a fair economy. And with the economy hitting a big downturn, this only speeds the process.
If you can hold out for a year or two, my prediction is that you will eventually have your pick of Gypsies for around the $3,000 mark. In Europe, they sell for much less than that.
Oh, by the way, word around the forums is that the Bartkos are divorcing and that was the reason for the sale.
I think they were sold because Christine got sick and then died March 10, 2010
fairly beneficial stuff, all in all I imagine this is worthy of a bookmark, many thanks