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Article:The First of Its Kind:The Ins and Outs of Hosting North America’s First Select Online Foal Auctionby Ann Daum Kustar

Warmblood Stallions of North America

—Warmblood Stallions of North America 2014

2 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2014 issue

Picture this… a tousle-haired techie pitching a ridiculous concept called the World Wide Web to a slick-haired suit behind a desk… Fast forward a few years… now we have a college kid explaining to a banker why he needs a loan to start a photo-sharing service where the pictures disappear forever seconds after they’re snapped … now that same college kid turning down a $4-billion-dollar offer from Google to buy his little app: SnapChat.

So now imagine a traditional German-parented North American Warmblood registry hosting an online foal auction, complete with i-phone-compatible bidding and daily Facebook updates. Well… why not?! The Rheinland Pfalz-Saar International (RPSI) decided to give it a try, and the results have been quite interesting.

Live auctions have traditionally been the method-of-choice in Germany for selling collections of sport horses. The European verbands, or registries, host these auctions as a way to help breeders market their horses and breeding programs, as well as the registry itself, and thus continue breeding. So while the registry-hosted foal auction hadn’t been tried before in North America, the idea was a familiar one.

But how to get 30-some mares and foals from all over the USA and Canada and a group of bidders together in one place to make it happen? Impossible! The distances, costs, and risks to the sellers are just too high. But add the internet and a liberal

dash of Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media to the concept of the traditional foal auction – and you have a mix that just might have the Europeans sitting up and taking notice.

The RPSI’s 1st Annual Select Foal Auction in the fall of 2013 really started about a year and a half before that, with a ‘what-if-we-could…’ kind of conversation, discussing the possibili-ties, strengths and potential drawbacks of offering this kind of marketing to breeders.

The registry knew that live auctions for sport horses in North America have had a mixed reception in the past. Some suc-cesses, and a lot of disappointments. The distances are just too huge, and many Americans think of horse auctions as suspect, a kind of dumping ground. While those opinions may be chang-ing, what has certainly changed is how the internet now affects everyday life, even for horse people.

The most important piece of the puzzle for the RPSI, and what separates a registry-sanctioned select foal auction from any other kind of online sport horse auction, is the selection process itself. All foals entered have been personally inspected, and those in the Select section were individually invited to participate, creat-ing a unique collection of foals being marketed in a truly mod-ern way. The other puzzle piece that fit everything together was the availability of great quality photos of all the foals, taken by

The First of Its KindThe Ins and Outs of Hosting North America’s First Select Online Foal AuctionBy Ann Daum Kustar

Left to right: Covert Affairs DSF (Checkmate x Calimero) Breeder: Jennifer & Armin Arnoldt, Dreamscape FarmDarihanna MH (Damarco x Colman) Breeder: Michael Murphy, Murphy Hill FarmSF Some Like it Hot (Smoke Tree Snapdragon x Dewan) Breeder: Solomon FarmBurlesque (Beaujolais x Bordeaux) Breeder: Natalie Cwik, Tenacious Acres

3www.WarmbloodStallionsNA.com • Online Stallion, Breeder, and Trainer Listings

JoAnn Cohn of the RPSI, from every site along the inspection tour and offered free of charge to members entering their foals.

In the end, the planning and hard work paid off for many of the foal owners and shoppers.

Jennifer and Armin Arnoldt of Dreamscape Farm in Langley, BC Canada consigned and sold two of their RPSI branded foals in the online foal auction – Bon Voyage DSF by Bon Balou, and Covert Affairs DSF by Checkmate. Armin explained what at-tracted him to the idea of a Select Online Foal Auction.

“North American breeders need a better way to market their product. In Europe, the registries help with this, and it works out for everyone. But auctions in Europe work because they are nice and close. Here to enter a horse in a regular auction you need to take a holiday from work, get a hotel and travel across the country – and then hope the thousands you’re spending will actually pay off!” Armin said.

“I thought this auction was a great idea, and had a really good result. With an online auction, what can you lose? If they don’t sell, so what? You get some exposure and marketing from it all, at a little price – how wrong can you go?”

“What’s important to remember about this auction, though, is that the foals are pre-selected – just like in Europe – and that makes it more than just an online auction. You know what you’re getting, and that the person on the other end of the phone actually has seen the foals, evaluated the foals, and knows the breeding programs they are coming from.”“We breeders in North America want to do things a little more like in Europe – right? Well, here people are actually on the in-

ternet and Facebook even more than in Europe – so I think the Germans can learn from us on this whole online auction thing!”

In the end, the RPSI foal auction included 47 foals – 24 in the Select section, which was restricted to Gold Premium foals in-vited to participate, and 23 Open section foals, made up of Silver premium and above foals inspected and registered on the 2013 RPSI inspection tour.

The results for the inaugural year were encouraging. Nearly 30,000 page views, bids totaling over $148,000 (not all reaching the foals’ reserves however) and foal averages of: Avg. Total Price: $5,916.00 Avg WB: $7,341.00 Avg Pony: $4,791.00.

The surprises? First of all, the popularity of the German Riding Ponies and Kleines Deutsches Reitpferd foals – 60% of

the pony foals sold, as compared to 26% of total foals. Also, the way this group of foals started to feel like family – the registry team knew their details and pedigrees inside out, and were root-ing for each one.

The challenges? First of all, how to change the basic mentality of American auction shoppers expecting bargain-basement deals.

RHEINLAND PFALZ-SAAR INTERNATIONAL

Web: www.rhpsi.com Phone: (605)-685-3089Email: marketing@rhpsi.com

WELCOME TO THE 1ST ANNUAL

SELECT ONLINE FOAL AUCTION

RHEINLAND PFALZ-SAAR INTERNATIONAL 2013 CATALOGUE

BIDDING OPENS: NOV. 15TH & CLOSES: NOV. 21ST

BUTTERHOPSCOTCHCHICAGO FIRE BON VOYAGE DSF

Esquire (Eclipsed by Color x Quintender) and Epic (Eclipsed by Color x Caretino). Breeder: Katriina Ruotsalo Northern Legacy Horse Farm, Whitefish, Ontario. Esquire sold to a buyer in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.

4 This article originally appeared in Warmblood Stallions of North America’s 2014 issue

Select foal auctions are not dispersals, and these breeders are not desperate to sell at any price, as is sometimes the case in other types of auctions. Secondly, breeders need to set reasonable reserve prices on their foals, though that too is difficult as the baseline sales data for warmblood foals in North America is lacking. Third, the amount of time it takes to enter all of the data, and pro-duce the ads and auction site is truly impressive – running an online auction is not for the faint of heart! Finally, how to help the technology-im-paired among us get comfortable with the tools of modern marketing, such as signing up and bidding online, and uploading quality videos.

So in the end, will the RPSI do it again? Ab-solutely! As the Select Foal Auction becomes a standard fixture on everyone’s calendar, the sale results should improve with each passing season. What’s next? The RPSI Mid-Winter Mix Online auction has just opened January 10th, offering a sales venue for all ages of RPSI registered/inspected horses in the early part of the year. The RPSI is also hosting a Stallion Service Auction February 26th – March 9th, and an online Premier Riding Horse Auction in early summer of 2014.

The RPSI is excited to help bridge the gap between breeders and riders in this country, and through new programs like on-line auctions, help promote North American breeders and the outstanding sport horses and ponies they are producing. F

Above. Using an Interactive Google Map to plot sales data is a fun way to get people involved in an auction. Foal breeder location is listed, with an ar-

row leading to their buyer’s location. Covert Affairs DSF, for example, was bred by Dreamscape Farm

in Langley, British Columbia and sold to Cali-fornia; Burlesque, on the other hand, was bred by

Tenacious Acres Farm in Deerfield, Wisconsin, and she sold to a buyer in Langley, British Columbia!

Results for the Mid Winter Mix Auction (catalog at right) will be available in late January. Watch for

the RPSI Premier Riding Horse Auction in May of 2014! Visit the RPSI at www.rhpsi.com and on

Facebook for more information.

RHEINLAND PFALZ-SAAR INTERNATIONAL

Web: www.rhpsi.com Phone: (605)-685-3089Email: marketing@rhpsi.com

WELCOME TO THE 1ST ANNUAL

MID WINTER ONLINE AUCTION

RHEINLAND PFALZ-SAAR INTERNATIONAL 2014 CATALOGUE

BIDDING OPENS: JAN 10TH & CLOSES: JAN 18TH

SF DANZULUSH LIFE BON AMI

BELIZE

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