by Steve Grinczel
Published: Friday, March 26, 2021
KT Krista gave birth to a bright-eyed filly on St. Patrick's Day. Twenty-four hours, or so, and a long trailer ride from Montgomery, Ind. later, Belgian mare No. 975, was in the sale ring at the Topeka Draft Horse Sale and getting things done—the way moms so often do regardless of circumstances.
After dazzling the standing-room-only crowd, Krista basked in a spirited round of bidding, which ended at $14,000 last Thursday afternoon, before being reunited with her perky foal.
After a year of postponements and restrictions, the annual four-day auction sprung back to life right on schedule, in some ways better than ever. Stately black buggies filled one parking lot and another featured a string of horse trailers from Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Quebec in that order (from left to right).
"We had a great group of consigners," said auction co-owner Rick Welsh. "I would say it's one of our bigger spring sales in quite a while, and the quality of horses just continues to get better and better. We had a bigger catalog than we've had normally in the spring.
"The breeding programs just continue to get better and it shows."
Last year's spring auction had to be rescheduled twice and wasn't held until June in front of sparse crowds.
The return-to-normal event not only was worth the wait, it didn't miss a beat and could have had an even bigger turnout if not for limitations still in place on travel across the border.
"We generally get quite a few of Canadian buyers down, and sellers as well, and that's definitely still restricted," Welsh said. "There are a few who made it. I heard some guys say it's not an issue to come down and others called to say they couldn't get down, so I'm not sure how that works.
"It seemed a little extra full today. It's exciting and I feel like the sale continues to grow."
In fact, Welsh said, the Topeka Livestock Auction plans to add a new building this summer.
"We're really looking forward (to that)," Welsh said. "It will be back and behind to replace some of the old buildings. The building is going to be built for stalling for all the horses before and after the sale. I know that our consigners are really going to appreciate that."
A total of 842 horses sold, including 702 Belgians and 90 Percherons. The overall average price was $5,538, with the top 10 averaging $23,900.
This appears to be a good time to be in the draft horse business, according to TLA horse consultant Dewayne Beechy, who sold his own horses for four years before joining Welsh's staff just under two years ago.
"I would say the market is stronger and the demand for draft horses is higher than it has been for a long time," he said. "It's been really good all spring all over the country, actually. There aren't so many available and that drives the price up.
"With the border being closed, I feel that has made some of the difference on the show horses, but as far as farm horses and so forth, those have been really, really good. I feel that if the Canadian border opens back up, I think we'll see a really strong market this fall, too."
Business as usual hardly made for a humdrum affair for consigners, buyers and vendors selling their wares. The majority of horses from this spring's sale went to Amish people for brood mares and farm work, according to Beechy.
"It was definitely fun to see the sale arena packed with people and the bidding was very aggressive," he said. "I think overall everybody was pretty excited to get back to normal."
The $5,000 to $15,000 middle market, between what the show-horse folks are willing spend and the low end, is typically what struggles first during tough economic times.
"I thought that area was very good," Beechy said. "We sold a lot of horses for over $10,000 this year. We didn't set any new records, but the averages were better overall than what it has been. I was thinking all along that there would be one that'd bring $40,000, $50,000, but it was the one thing we didn't have. But, the others were amazing.
"Our Percheron sale on Wednesday was better than it probably ever has been in the history of the Topeka Draft Horse Sale. There was a top of $30,000 and another one of $25,000, and overall average was higher than it has been. That has really picked up and we're getting a lot more local support from our Percheron breeders."
Jerry Yoder and Ryan Yoder's 3-year-old Percheron mare was the show's top seller at $30,000 and was purchased by Ura Gingerich of Hillsboro, Ohio. Ryan Yoder and Michael Yoder's 6-year-old Percheron mare fetched $25,000 from Ervin Weaver of Massillon, Ohio.
David Yoder and Ryan Yoder sold the top Percheron stallion, a 1-year-old purchased by Chris Schwartz of New Haven, for $20,000.
The show's No. 2 overall seller was a 6-year-old Belgian stallion consigned by Allen Miller of St. Charles, Minn. and bought by Kevin Wagler of Montgomery, Ind. for $28,000. A 3-year-old Belgian stallion consigned by Aaron Miller of Munfordville, Ky., sold to Paul Steury Jr. of Reading, Mich. for $22,500.
Eight Belgian mares sold for at least $20,000 with the 3-year-old of Ivan Mast, of Fredericksburg, Ohio topping the list at $25,000 paid by Marlin Miller of New Paris. Ray Schrock of Burton, Ohio, consigned a 4-year-old purchased for $25,000 by Shannon Miller of Hillsdale, Mich., and the 3-year-old consigned by Neil Miller of Fredericksburg, Ohio went to Aaron Miller of Millersburg, Ohio for $22,000.
The top Belgian gelding, a 5-year-old consigned by James Nissley of Wawaka, went for $18,000 to Ray Houston of Richmond, Mich. Jesse Yoder of Millersburg received $14,000 from Dublin Valley Farms of Fredericksburg, Ohio, for his 3-year-old Belgian gelding.
Wade Otto of Topeka consigned the top two Percheron geldings, a pair of 3-year-olds that went for $7,200 each to Christian Lengacher of New Haven.
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