BCPS Notice Board
The 2010 BCPS Connemara Pony Sale 1/9/2010 - Report
The second BCPS Connemara Sale was held at Malvern on September 1st 2010. It was run by Brightwells the well known equine auctioneers. It was a beautiful sunny day and 86 ponies were offered. 51 ponies sold and the average price was £1,598. This represented a 60% clearance. The top price was £3,300 for Mrs A F Gibson and Mrs S J Williams 3 year old golden dun gelding Look Out Hazy Prince who had been successfully shown in hand and was a good jumper. He looked a really nice prospect for future M & M competitions in particular for working hunter pony classes.
There was good trade for geldings and the prices compared favourably with the Connemara Pony Sales at Clifden in August. The demand for Connemara ponies for showing, show jumping, eventing and dressage continues and recent international results, in particular the prominence of Connemaras at the European Championships, further demonstrates the versatility of this wonderful native pony.
Other geldings which sold well included Lot 142, Trudi Deja’s bay 4 year old, Aille an Preachan Lad who made £3,200, and Lot 168, Liam Diamond’s dun 4 year old Ballyshiel Tommy who had been champion gelding at Roundstone and Roundfort Shows in Ireland and made £3,000. Lot 157, Mr Gaughan’s Lough Fadda Charlie made £3,000 and his grey 4 year old, Lot 182, Beech Hill Arthur realised £2,800.The disappointment of the sale was the lack of interest in well bred mares and fillies. The majority of the buyers paid little attention to pedigrees and it was clear that they did not wish to invest in ponies primarily for breeding. It is probably indicative of the current financial climate. It has become increasingly more expensive to embark on a breeding programme and with the high cost of forage people are worried about having too many ponies on their land in the Winter months. If anybody was looking for a well bred female, there were plenty of options and several youngsters sold for ridiculously low prices. It was certainly the time to pick up a bargain in this department if you were prepared to wait for your results. There were some classy 1, 2 and 3 year old fillies to be bought. A couple of nice in foal mares made sensible money notably Lot 172, Henrietta Knight’s dun Philomena’s Pride in foal to Lecarrow King made £2,600 and Lot 149, PJ Watson’s Rosscon Jennifer in foal to Frederiksminde Hazy Match made £2,300, but they were in the minority.
The clear message from the sale was that those vendors who attended with the intention of selling sold their ponies at sensible prices. The ponies with high reserves did not sell, nor did the less well presented ordinary looking ponies. It was a buyers market but not a huge number of buyers! Future competition ponies were more popular than ponies for breeding. Maybe if a pony is valued highly by the vendor, it is probably best to sell it privately, but overall the Connemaras sold far better than the earlier lots in the sale which comprised of some lovely Sport and Riding horses.
Brightwells need congratulating for the excellent way in which they conducted the sale. The viewing facilities were very good and the vendors were given ample opportunities to show off their ponies. In particular the pre:sale parade in Ring 3 produced a fine spectacle and created plenty of interest with the public.; Hopefully this sale will gradually gain more momentum as the years progress and the current depression improves. Meanwhile it provides an excellent shop window for owners to offer their ponies for sale on the open market.