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 