At the 131st Hanoverian Elite Auction in Verden, Germany, on Saturday (11 October), all 61 of the riding horses and all 43 foals were sold, with a price highlight of €180,000 (£141,966).
The system is different to that at many auctions in the UK; the minimum price at the elite sale is €10,000 (£7,887) and the bidding starts there, so there is no confusion over whether a horse has reached its reserve, as all bids are above the base price.
The top lot was the five-year-old gelding Bugatti, who went to a new home with Austrian buyers.
The leggy Benetton Dream x Sandro Hit son showed himself excellently in the auction, with active movement and a willing temperament.
There was brisk bidding, with customers from Iran, Indonesia, Italy, Ukraine, the USA and the UK, as well as a plethora of more local buyers.
The hammer came down again for the same Austrian contingency for the second most expensive horse — €150,000 (£118,305) for David — a five-year-old Dancier x Earl gelding. Five horses reached at least €100,000 (£78,870) and three jumpers under saddle found new homes with British clients.
All the horses by Floriscount achieved good prices, ranging from €40,000 (£31,548) to €145,000 (114,362) for a four-year-old black mare out of the dam-line of Michael Eilberg’s ride Der Designer (by De Niro).
The most expensive jumping horse was sold to Swedish clients and fetched €100,000 (£78,870).
The top foal, Dino by Don Frederic x Sandro King, also went to Sweden for €22,500 (£17,745).
The ridden horses averaged €38,524 (£30,384), a little down on last year’s average of €43,804 (£34,548).
The majority of the foals — whose price starts at €3,000 (£2,366) — made between €3,500 (£2,760) and €5,000 (£3,943), but the standout prices of Dino, C’Est La Vie (Cadeau Noir x Sunlight xx) for €21,000 (£16,562), Lacoste (Livaldon x Hohenstein) for €17,000 (£13,407) and Zauberlehrling (Zinedine x Cassini II) for €14,000 (£11,041) boosted the average foal price to €6,827 (£5,384), compared to €6,644 (£5,240) in 2013.
The first elite auction organised by the Hanoverian Verband was held in 1949. Today, the association’s annual calendar includes 10 sales.
