Meaghan's Days in Germany: Vechta Elite Auction

This past weekend was the Vechta Elite Auction. It was incredible, I have never seen anything so well run as this auction. There is nothing like this in the United States! It is such a great idea if run properly. Here in Germany, and Europe as a whole, horse auctions are thought of as prestigious and respectable, a stark contrast from the "one step from the slaughter house" type auctions held in the States.

The horses that are to be sold in the auction come to the auction hall three weeks prior to the main event. There are several riders employed by the auction hall that school the horses and prepare them for showing. I believe it is either a week or ten days prior to the auction that potential buyers are allowed to come and try the horses. There can be anywhere from 50 to 150 horses. In this specific auction there were 72 horses. Most of them are young horses ranging from 3 to 6 years old. There are several auctions that have foals, but this year's Vechta auction did not.

So the weekend of events started on Friday evening with the Gala Abend. This was a presentation of some of the best horses in the auction as well as some of the featured bloodlines. For this particular auction several Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall offspring were featured. So I got to see Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall in person, live! They were ridden by Eva Moller and Ulf Moller. They were beautiful! They came out together and did a Pax de Deux. Both stallions stand at stud here in the Vechta area! It was wild to see both of these well known stallions in person.

There were all sorts of interesting entertainment throughout the night. There were dancing lamas, 20+ racing ponies with dolls strapped on their backs that they let loose to race around the arena, and at the end of the evening the entire audience lite sparklers as Sandro Hit and Sir Donnerhall made their final laps of the arena. It was crazy!

Everything was decorated perfectly. There were flags flying from every country. A live orchestra sang the national anthem and provided music before and after the auction. There were dinner tables set up around the arena and a white picket fence that separated the arena from the tables. The auctioneer was at one end of the arena in a decorated podium. There were several men dressed in designer suits standing in the arena throughout the auction looking into the crowd for different bidders. It was live bidding so everything moved very quickly. The riders would come out and do a little walk, trot, canter and then some of the riders if they knew there was a bidding war or a silence of bidding they would ride over to a specific bidder and let the horse nuzzle them a bit. It really was a great show!

The second horse to be auctioned off was by Stedinger, a prestigious young stallion owned by Ann Kitchel of the United States, was sold for 160,000 Euro, which is just under $250,000. It was so intense to see the price board jump with each new bid. Everything went so fast! It was really an exciting event.

Of course all Germans love to drink, so as the auctioned wrapped up around 7pm and the real festivities began. There was a large party for all tickets holders complete with dance floor and DJ, and several different drink options. Lets just say that some people in Vechta can really throw a party because when my roommates and I left at 2am things were really just getting started!

Here are some pictures of the Gala Abend, and the Auction Hall. Enjoy!