The American Quarter Horse Association will manage the 2012 AQHA World Championship Show Sale at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City.

The sale, held in conjunction with the AQHA World Show, has previously been managed by outside auction companies, but for 2012, AQHA and a committee of AQHA Professional Horsemen, breeders and sale experts will manage the sale.

Quite a few changes will be made to the sale:

• The consignment fee will be lower than in the past
• The commission rate will be 5 percent for both sale or repurchase
• There will be a penalty for selling a horse before it goes through the ring
• Results will be posted about 15-30 minutes after a set of horses has gone through the ring
• Sale order will be assigned randomly. The consignors of multiple horses will draw slots randomly, and then use the slots that they draw as they wish.

For the first time, AQHA is establishing criteria for the quality of horses consigned to the sale. Doug Hayes, AQHA director of business development, and the sale committee members will screen horses consigned on whether a horse can bring the base amount – $5,000.

“Much like a horse has to qualify to be able to compete at the world championship shows, due to the point system … these (sale) horses are going to have to be qualified in the form of pedigree and (they must be) a good individual, so that the sale can, in turn, become just like the show,” said Jeff Tebow, chairman of the AQHA World Show Sale Committee.

“The goal is not to have quantity; the goal is to have quality.”

The AQHA members on the sale committee have been carefully chosen to represent all niches of the Quarter Horse industry.

“We’re going to rely on that group, that committee, (to solicit and critique consigned horses),” Tebow explained. “That’s why on the committee, we have people in areas of expertise in most all the disciplines, and we’re going to rely heavily on those people to help solicit cow horses or reiners or ropers or cutters or pleasure horses or halter horses.”

A horse’s performance record, pedigree, dam and sire performance records, conformation and athletic ability will be examined before it is accepted into the sale.

In addition to elevating the caliber of horses consigned to the sale, the critiquing of horses is also a reassurance to buyers.

“I’ve been judging all over the country, and I’ve seen a lot of new interest in the Novice division, and I feel like the AQHA leveling program will also contribute to a much bigger audience for our horses in the sale,” said AQHA Professional Horseman and judge Suzy Jeane, sale committee member from Valley View, Texas. “If someone is interested and they can come to the sale and know that everything there is above board and really held to a higher standard, then they’ll be a little more comfortable purchasing horses there. It’s a big goal of mine to make sure that there’s a lot of integrity in the sale.”

Buyers aren’t AQHA’s only focus while organizing the 2012 sale.

“We want to instill that this is a place where the big breeders of our association can feel like they can go to that World Show Sale and put a good yearling, a good 2-year-old or a good horse in there that’s got the pedigree, and it’s got the bloodlines and has the quality, and it can bring what it can bring privately,” said AQHA Professional Horseman Ross Roark, sale committee member from Monahans, Texas.

“We can’t have the sales without the consignors – they’re the most important element,” Jeane said. “If they don’t understand how the sale works or don’t feel like they’re special and their horses are special, then we’ve kind of fallen down on the job.

“If you have a quality individual, we want to make sure that you get just as much money for your horse as some of the big guns,” she added. “Just because you’re not a big name doesn’t mean you don’t have a very valuable horse. We really hope that this year we can give everybody a good place to go.

“A valuable horse is a valuable horse, no matter who he belongs to.”

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