The 10th annual sale was another resounding success for Ponoka’s Top Gun Horse Sales.
“The 10th annual was a big milestone for us,” said Top Gun Horse Sales owner and operator Jordan Dodds. “We traded a lot of horses.”
Held April 8 at the Calnash Ag Event Centre, with the preview the night before, the top-selling horse of the day was “Bex” from McKendrick Stable.
A 2017 buckskin QH gelding and all-around family lesson horse, Bex sold for $50,000 to a local family.
Dodds said the bidding was “record-setting,” with some of the highest sales ever.
The top five average was $42,000.
He said this sale was one of the best set of horses he’s seen and the horses “just get better every year it seems.”
With 181 horses in the catalogue, buyers came from Alaska to Oklahoma, from Vancouver to Nova Scotia and “everywhere in between,” said Dodds.
There were about 4,000 buyers at the Calnash for the live sale, and over $15,000 tuned in online.
That compares to 117 horses auctioned last year, with the top seller going for $55,000, although there were only 250 online bidders and 500 people through the doors.
After COVID restrictions ended, the sale was able to have a live preview this year and in 2022, with a “phenomenal” response, said Dodds.
“They can come, look, touch, see it and love it,” said Dodd. “(Buyers) literally come from all over.”
The sale was so popular in fact, there was a traffic jam trying to get into the centre for a good four hours, he said.
Dodds gave a “hats off” to the buyers, consigners and the Top Gun Horse Sales crew.
“We couldn’t do it without you,” said Dodds. “Get ready for the 11th annual sale.”
READ MORE: High seller at Top Guns Horse Sales goes for $55k
