Today's sale news

The morning NCHA sale looked all right to me--I did not see all of it but a fair amount.

One I was looking forward to was The Squeaker--I think of him as much like my ol Grandpa horse---he is half his age and won 280K instead of 130K, but with the change in purses over the years, it is pretty comparable. And the Squeaker is only 14 right now and Gramps is 27, but they both sold at this sale (Gramps was 22). The Squeaker brought about 18K, and I cannot imagine how much fun he must be--it looks like a drunk monkey could win money on him. That may not be true, but he looked great for a grown man, and it is amazing to me that any cutting horse can even walk by that age.

The thing that caught my attention other than having seen his name forever was that he is bred so much like my Squeak--same dad, obviously, but their mothers are also very closely related. His dam is Haidas Queen out of Docs Haida and my Squeaks dam is Haidas Seeker whos granddam is Docs Haida. When you put it that way, it does not sound so close does? I just get excited to see HOW powerful Docs Haida is, even generations away, and I do not think she gets the credit she should.

Now I am having the happy evening---watching the yearling sale on the big TV, dogs are resting on the couches, the pig is cleaning the floor, I am chatting with my cohorts online about every horse that does through and even better, all the work is done (thanks LeaAnn!) This sale is making it obvious how the industry is changing----there is no longer any room for people like us--who have really nice mares, but will never be able to afford the great ones, and even if we could, would not be able to pay for 6 breedings in a year for that one mare, and the accompanying ETs. There has not been a horse go through here that is not out of a super mare who needs no introduction--even the list of sires that matter is shrinking. I think the new sale highlighting up and coming sires is a great idea, as we need to change this. The prices on the get of the great ones is coming down, but they are still new luxury car and even new house money, and you cannot blame people for paying it, as they are as close to a sure thing as you can get when dealing with living things with brains (or no brains as the case may be), but it is sad to see that the days of playing at that level are not in the next few years for us.