The Most Beautiful Thing I Have Seen

No pictures, I had no camera. I was not in a place I would expect to take beautiful pictures. A picture could not capture the event that occurred that evening.

I was at a horse auction. Not a horse auction put on for show horses, or an auction for breeding quality horses. This was an auction for horses that were unwanted for various reasons, some were crippled, others were only there because their owners had no other avenue to sell them, and for what ever reason chose to get rid of their horse that day. These auctions are held once a month at the particular venue we attended. In the stands are a mixed bunch of people, some buyers, some sellers, some curious on lookers, and the meat buyers.

The meat buyers bid on any horse if the price is low enough. Yes, horses are slaughtered and most often used for food for zoo animals. They are also shipped over seas, to France, and Japan, among others, for human consumption. In a logical sense, I suppose there is really no difference between eating horse, or cow, or chicken. This link is not about what is "moral" to eat. This is about a beautiful event, which is about to unfold.

There were several horses there, we were looking for a pony. When at an auction, you can walk around the pens and see the horses before they enter the arena for sale. In one of these pens was a young appaloosa mare, she seemed to have a slight problem with one of her hind legs. Nothing serious, she wouldn't be winning prizes at shows, but was very gentle, and would make a good kids mount, or brood mare. She had a wonderful way about her. A lot of people were looking at her and saying what a shame about the one bad leg. There were probably forty horses at the sale, and she was just one of many.

Well, the sale started, we found a pony like what we were looking for. We were going to stick around and wait for a friend of ours for a while so were just watching. If you have never been to an auction, the auctioneer starts asking for a high price, and then goes down until somebody bids. Then other people bid, and the price rises until a final bid ends the sale. Most of the broke, good, horses went to good buyers, with the meat buyers buying horses around $300 - $500.

Then it came the appaloosa mares' turn. She entered the ring, her seller was not their. Everyone knew the same thing, this mare, this gentle mare, would be sold to the meat man. It was towards the end of the auction, everyone who wanted a "good" horse had already bought, and she was not going to a home.

The auctioneer asked for $500, knowing she would sell for less. Then a mans voice, from two rows behind me, shouted out "$700". Nobody said anything. The auctioneer, doing his job, asked for a higher bidder, nobody bid.

I stood outside after the auction and our friend asked the buyer why he bid so high like that, as nobody bids more than the auctioneer asks. Basically he was asked why he wanted her so bad. The fellow simply said "I didn't want her, but she is a lovely mare, and no way was I going to let the meat man have her."

Simple as that.

The most beautiful thing I have ever seen was a man pay $700 for a horse he did not want, simply to let her have a life.