For 20 years, we have been making auction history filled with unforgettable moments. Our anniversary auction is not only a reason to celebrate, but also the perfect opportunity to take a look behind the scenes,at the records, numbers, and facts that make this auction so unique.
... in 20 years a total of 396 horses have been in the auction collections? At the first auction in 2005 there were 12 horses in the collection, including one foal.
... the auction event in Goch now welcomes more than 700 guests and buyers from over50 countries? The guests who travelled furthest came from New Zealand. 297 people attended the 2005 auction.
... the highest hammer price to date was 1.8 million euros?
... in 20 years more than 37,800 auction catalogues with a total of over 3,200 pages have been printed?
... the after-show party goes on into the early hours of the morning and there are hot dogs as a midnight snack?
... Holger Hetzel’s mobile phone battery is already empty by noon on auction day, and in the early years extra phone lines had to be laid for landline calls from the telephone bidders?
... in the small indoor arena where the auction was held until 2012, the horses were presented under the saddle in an area no bigger than a lunging circle?
... the Sport Horse Sales event was held in the big indoor arena for the first time in 2013?
... the first ever live broadcast of an auction featured Holger Hetzel’s Sport Horse Sales in 2007?
... over 4,200 metres of cable and 208 metres of trusses are laid or suspended for electricity, lighting and sound every year and that the power went out once because somebody used a hairdryer?
... Holger Hetzel’s little notebook with pencil (!) contains all the information about the auction and usually gets misplaced several times during the auction (causing a few anxious moments)?
… Holger Hetzel views and tries out between 80 and 100 horses a year for the auctions?
... we always get very emotional at the sound check on the evening before the auction in the fully decorated venue?
... the small auction team, including cameraman and photographer, has been the same for 18 years?
... former auction horses have won medals at Olympic Games, World and European Championships and national championships?
… more than 100 table covers and more than 1,000 fabric serviettes have to be prepared for guests?
... every year the set-up takes 8 days – including 900 square metres of carpet, secured in place with around 80,000 staples?
... it is not uncommon to see tears of joy from the winning bidders?
... the auction has become one of the most important social events on the Lower Rhine in the last 20 years?
... three days after the auction almost all traces in the indoor arena have already disappeared?
... there are regulars who haven’t missed a single auction since the first one?
... every year more than 700 catalogues are sent by post all over the world and the Hetzel team affixes every single postage stamp by hand?
... Holger Hetzel still personally signs every single one of the 700 printed invitations, but only with a very special pen?
... the seats on the auction evening are all taken? The seating plan is always finalised the night before the auction so that all requests can be taken into account. The guest waiting list is long...
... auctioneer Volker Raulf has used the same hammer for 20 years?
