The annual sale of 2-year-olds trained by students at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF) will be held online in early April. Officials were forced to suspend the colt-training course and move the UWRF Colt Sale up a month and online due to COVID-19.
Bidding on the shortened catalog, which features several reining prospects and some older horses among its 24 consignments, will begin on April 2 at dvauction.com. Bidding will close on April 4.
Typically, students will train the horses as part of their coursework, prepare and market them for sale and then sell them for their owners in May at the college’s equestrian facility just east of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Officials say COVID-19, which resulted in the college moving to online-only classes, made a live sale impossible this year.
UWRF Colts in Training Program Director and 2020 Sale Manager Nathan O’Connor thanked all the students who spent the past months caring for and training the sale horses.
“I appreciate all the hard work they put in this year, I appreciate the dedication and passion they have exhibited, and I am so very proud of each of them,” O’Connor said in a statement. “I am so very sad that they did not get to finish the semester and experience the live auction day experience, however, their perseverance in this stressful time gives me hope.”
Last year, the top seller was Sparkling Sailor, a black colt by Equi-Stat Elite $2 Million Sire A Sparkling Vintage and out of Sailors Starbuck (by Smart Starbuck) who brought $30,000. The colt’s half brother by National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Derby Level 4 Open Champion Platinum Vintage is cataloged in this year’s online sale.
This year’s online auction also features 2-year-olds by sires such as Equi-Stat Elite $3 Million Sire Gunners Special Nite, NRHA Triple Crown winner Not Ruf At All, $213,00-earner Smoking Whiz and versatile million-dollar sire Skeets Peppy.
Several ranch-bred prospects as well as some older horses also are cataloged in the auction.
For buyers to bid and purchase horses, they will need to preregister and be preapproved. Please go to www.dvauction.com to do so. Horses can be viewed online at www.uwrfcoltsale.com (2020 horses), www.dvauction.com and the UWRF Colts in Training Facebook page (www.facebook.com/uwrfcoltsale). Each horse will have a short riding video, a profile picture, a photo of the horse and student, pedigree research, short sale summary and a video of the horse walking. Any known unsoundness that a horse may have will be noted in the horse’s sale summary.
Since the UW-River Falls campus is closed to visitors, face-to-face viewing of the horses is unavailable. If a buyer is unable to pick-up their purchased horse by April 7, boarding will be available at the UWRF Campus Farm until you are able to do so.
Serious buyers may email or message the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/uwrfcoltsale) if they have a question about a sale horse. Questions can also be emailed to O’Connor at [email protected].
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