ASHA Special Feature: An Open Market for Dreams & Possibilities
The American Saddlebred Horse Association has adopted the marketing hashtag #asbdreams. This might have started as a marketing campaign, but just as its creators hoped, it has come to stand for so much more. To date, it has proved the most successful and widely used hashtag for the breed.
We believe the hashtag’s wide use is because no matter what horse you have, the competitions you attend, or the disciplines you enjoy most, the American Saddlebred represents a dream and our collective passion for pursuing the possibilities with our much-loved breed.
Across the equine industry, these aspirations of dreams and possibilities are represented strongly at sales offering premier breeding horses and prospects. For instance, we commonly see the American Thoroughbred community thrive on developing their stakeholders from the sales ring to the winner’s circle.
For decades, top American Saddlebreds were presented to the open market in the legendary sale rings of Newmarket, Shannon Run, Tattersalls, Superior Sales, and the premium dispersal sales of the 20th century. From these sales the best stallions, broodmares, and prospects were put forth by consigners to cross, build, and stimulate the bloodlines and breeding programs that have been critical to the viability and advancement of the American Saddlebred. Today we are seeing the same opportunity presented at this year’s Robertson Equine Fall Sale.
Do you know what CH Fox Grape’s The Tiger Lily, Our African Violet, CH Jessie Cole, Fox Grape’s Forget Me Not, CH Nutcracker’s Ballerina, It’s No Wonder, Vegas Moon, CH Winsdown Edgecliff, Von Dexter and many other champions have in common? Their dams and granddams were purchased through sales. These show ring stars started as a dream of an American Saddlebred lover going to a sale looking for everything from their first gaited horse to their foundation broodmare.
CH Jessie Cole
Louise Gilliand of Winsdown Farm is a loyal sale supporter who has founded and maintained her program on our American Saddlebred sales. It was seeing the World Champion sire Phi Slama Jama going through the sales ring as a young horse that sparked her interest in getting back into our breed. From there she religiously attended the sales and gradually built the band of mares and stallions that would give her the stock that allowed her to sweep the 2020 Iowa State Futurity, and continue to raise quality horses for the show ring and beyond.
What started with successful sale purchases of Jammin’ The Blues at Newmarket, and Pride Of Ridgefield at Tattersalls, led to her beloved stud Winsdown Hi Octane. Her successes have continued with recent purchases of Delta, Delta, Delta, which brought her Winsdown Highlander, the sire of this year’s Winsdown futurity champions.
Winsdown St. Andrew (Winsdown Highlander X Winsdown Lady Mary), 2020 Champion at Iowa & Texas Futurities
“I am too shy to buy horses direct and like having the selection at the sales,” Gilliland says. “Almost all of my stock that I founded my program on has come from sales. I have also built my customer base by selling horses at the sales as well.”
Sales have proved the chance for Gilliand’s to pay it forward for other breeders, one great example is the relationship built with Tre and Emily Lee.
Emily Lee purchased her first broodmare in the 2009 Tattersall Fall Sale. On Oct. 30th, 2009 ,Lee was signing the ticket for Windsown It’s About Time, a mare consigned by Winsdown Farm that would go on to start Lee’s breeding program. For them, she has produced champions such as 2020 WCC Vegas Moon and It’s No Wonder. The mare has already made a strong start to becoming a legacy producer for the Lee’s as the grand dam of 2020 RWC Parting Storm. This success story has also brought more purchases of Winsdown mares at the Robertson Equine Sales by other Prospect Lane customers.
WCC Vegas Moon (Northern Vegas X Windsown It’s About Time)
Many have become familiar with hearing the Fox Grape prefix, but do you know much of this program's success started with the search for a suitable first gaited show horse at Tattersalls? Every year production sale horses from Callaway Hills were presented to the public for the rare chance to take home horses of proven abilities and sought-after bloodlines. So, it was no surprise when a family looking for all of those factors were on sight in 1997 to find a mare with the prowess for a successful show career and lineage to be a building block in a future breeding program.
CH Fox Grape’s The Tiger Lily ((SA) Dorian Wild Temper X Callaway's Carnation (BHF))
Peter and Lynn Via sought to select a prospect to take Owen Weaver into the five-gaited division. Owen remembers the purchase of Callaway’s Carnation (BHF) fondly.
“They purchased her to show as a young horse and then to give to me as my first gaited horse,” Weaver said. “My mom was so excited to breed her, and she went on to become an amazing broodmare for our farm.”
Her success in the ring, as a dam, and as a granddam, has been impressive and very rewarding. Above all Weaver reflects on the lasting impact that one sales purchase has had.
“She is still alive today at 26 with her last offspring expected to enter the ring in 2021,” Weaver said. “One sale purchase has resulted in three generations of winning horses for me and we will have more!”
As Gilliland found, sales are a great way to get your foot in the door. You don’t have to have the contacts or clout to schedule farm visits across the country and you won’t have to negotiate back and forth between multiple parties or behind closed doors. They are the rare place in our present horse industry where everyone has a fair and equal chance to get the horse if the interest and funds are there. The Saddlebred stories of Von Dexter and CH Callaway’s Cumulus are some of those sales ring to show ring dreams.
The Svennes family followed their son’s Christian passion for horses into a youth career of showing Arabian and half-Arabians. With Christian's transition from junior exhibitor to busy college student, his family looked for another way to stay involved with the show horse community. Their interest in starting a small breeding program grew and they headed to the 2013 Robertson Equine Sales to look for American Saddlebred mares to breed both full and half-Saddlebreds. Svennes was the winning bidder of The Party Line FF who, in her first trip to the breeding shed for them produced Von Dexter, an exciting young three-gaited horse. Von Dexter took them on their first trip as exhibitors to the World’s Championship Horse Show.
Von Dexter (Sir William Robert X The Party Line FF)
CH Callaway’s Cumulus for most brings to mind a grand country pleasure driving horse who was the horse to beat for the better part of a decade. What many might not know is this Country Pleasure Driving Horse of the Decade was a Tattersalls purchase that was to start a dedicated horse show mom’s #asbdreams journey. Susan Aschenbrenner and CH Callaway’s Cumulus had a show career and partnership most American Saddlebred lovers dream of. Aschenbrenner had loved horses and supported her children’s show careers and equestrian endeavors. In 2006, they went to the Tattersalls sale looking for a horse that could compete at a higher level. They came home with a promising two-year-old. After a period of great adversity fighting health issues, the young CH Callaway’s Cumulus finally started his show career. Quickly, Susan recognized he could be the perfect partner for pleasure driving and the rest is history.
CH Callaway’s Cumulus
“The best part was seeing it be Mom that was the one that had our first horse that was nationally competitive,” said Susan’s daughter, Kristin Aschenbrenner. “She supported all of our dreams, and it was great to have her find her own.”
With all the cancellations, limited traveling, and consolidations of other Robertson Equine Sales we are seeing the stage set one great sale full of fantastic opportunities. Robertson Equine Sales President Jimmy Robertson said the sales catalog is full of proven – and promising – horses and ponies.
“(We have) two current world’s champions, a host of exceptional broodmares and stallions, a crop of stellar Hackney ponies — and those are among more than 200 entries that are as appealing as we’ve seen in one sale,” Robertson said.
If you are in the market for a horse who could change the trajectory of your life, shop our sales, support the future of the breed, and chase your #asbdreams. You might just find you own that future champion, and champion producer, with the fall of the gavel!
Important 2020 Robertson Equine Sales Fall Sale Updates
In a Challenging Year, Robertson Equine Provides Large Offering of Extraordinary Consignments
Robertson Equine Sales Outlines New Phone Bidding Procedure, $25 Rebate For RVP Online Viewing Fee