Bad sales ring behavior

[Toccet02]

what's the worst behavior by any horse you've ever seen?
I'm actually amazed that so many are so calm.

[serenarider]

I would not say it was bad, BUt I did see a colt jump out of the ring into the crowd one time. It was a bit of a cluster **** to say the least

[Cathy D]

I didn't actually see this happen, but I heard about a weanling colt that literally flipped over backwards out of the sales ring and landed on his back in the seats. Talk about people scattering. The auctioneer promptly knocked him down "Sold". Amazingly, no one was injured except for a few seats!

[Toccet02]

what, the auctioneer figured he was sold because he leaped into the arms of his purchaser?

[dray33]

always wondered if it ever happened. i sit in the third row in saratoga, and im usually watching each horse with a scant eye.

[Cathy D]

It happened at Timonium, and I think the auctioneer wanted to knock him down quickly before the bidder could run out of there! Can't imagine anyone else was going to bid on him after that.

[Toccet02]

That's so evil. "Congratulations! You're the owner of a mentally traumatized horse with possible back problems!!!"

[Crystal]

One at Saratoga about 5 years ago, tried to climb the auctioneer stand. Like almost got his front feet up to the microphone..

[ageecee]

Im surprised a lot more horses dont act up in the ring. For the most part they are well behaved and calm all with a speaker blaring with an auctioneer rattling off numbers..

[Gillies-Fillies]

I recall one in-foal mare at a Tattersalls Quarter Horse sale.

The facility is set up with seats on three sides of the sales ring, and auction-goers standing all along the open chute where horses are walked up to the ring. All the commotion was too much for her and she tried to tell her handler by bouncing around a couple of times.

When that didn't work, she went up... up... up... and over. The handler had to climb the wall of the chute to get out of her way as she went smack on her back.

Even still, she attracted a lot of interest and went for a nice sum.

[imnumberjuan]

I have seen a few bad actors at the Alberta yearling sale, though one consignor I have noticed constantly has horses that disagreeable to entering the ring and are constantly rearing and wheeling.

As for the calmness of horses with the racket of the auctioneer, I think Tesio made an interesting obersavtion with regards to horses responding to noises in Chapter ten of Tesio - in his own words , page 218, "During the bombings of Milan, the racehorses locked up in the boxes of San Siro, each in his own personal cell, were never excited by the bombs exploding with crashing roars close to the stable. Either the horses were hit, and had no more time to reason and deduct, or they were not hit, and deduced from the experience: There is a lot of noise, but nothing hurts me. And they concluded: It's not worth the effort to worry about all that noise."

That has always stuck with me and I remember it whenever people comment on the calmness of the animal despite the auctioneer. I think its similiar to horses responding to hearing the "Call to the post", a standardbred owner claims she had one gelding who whenever he heard it would lather and put his "game face on" - regardless if he was on the track or in his stall hearing it from a TV in the tack room. A side note I tease her mercilessly about getting into "real horses".

Anyone else's thoughts?

[dray33]

I was always fascinated by that too, juan. If I'm not mistaken, Tesio recounts his observations of horses in open fields, and how they never seemed flustered by thunder. I noticed that horses in the ring, many of them DO get nervous. They are agitated by the sound of the auctioneers voice... and I have to say, sometimes I am too.

[imnumberjuan]

dray,

That part immediately follows the section I quoted.

I wonder about their, the horses, reactions the next time they go into a ring? As creatures of habit - I would think the second time through the ring would be less stressful. I read an interesting book on imprint training new foals and the premise put fourth was you got the foal used to such sensations as the tapping on the hoof to simulate shoeing etc., so the foal would be receptive to such sensations in their life and interactions with humans.

The book is Imprint Training of the Newborn Foal by Robert M. Miller, and is quite good.

[magic code]

In the last couple of a years a horse flipped and died just after leaving the ring. I think it was a 2YO in training that sold for a good price.

Most horses are good in the ring - it's the outback where they can be naughty.

And for whatever reason, the horses that are the worst actors in the outback/ring/at the sale are the ones that were perfect little angels all through prep. The little shits through prep that spooked at everything are usually saints at the sale. Go figure.

[imnumberjuan]

magic that reminds me of a filly my trainer had at Hastings a couple of years ago called Regal Danielle - a bitch and a half on her good days, a trainers worst nightmare on her bad, but once she got into the starting gate she'd settle down and be competitive in a race.

Before one race she threw a wreck in the paddock as the paddock judge had just called riders up - and she was scratched in the paddock. On the way back to the barn "ellie" as she was called, didn't twitch a hair until she was back in her stall.