Top horses for top riders

The 19th International Sport Horse Sales at Holger Hetzel’s equestrian centre in the Rhineland town of Goch on 27 November was another resounding success. The event was attended by around 700 guests and potential buyers from many different countries, including top international show jumpers, whose competitive bidding for the unique collection of 22 top young horses kept the auctioneer busy.

The highest bid was made for a sensational six-year-old horse by Zirocco Blue out of a Cardento dam, which also happens to go by the name of “Sensationell”. The grey Dutch warmblood stallion sold for a staggering one million euros. Sensationell has already been successfully competed in international young horse classes. His new rider is Irish show jumper Daniel Coyle, winner of this year’s World Cup class in Leipzig with Legacy, the mare that was voted Horse of the Year for the most clear rounds at League of Nations events. Sensationell wasn’t the only horse worth a substantial amount of money to the international bidders either, because four more horses in this year’s collection sold for more than 500,000 euros. The second-highest bid of the evening was for Sweet Dream, a seven-year-old mare by Irish Tyson that changed hands for 760,000 euros. The third most expensive horse was also a Dutch stallion by Baltic VDL with a hammer price of 600000 euros. An average price of 311000 euros was achieved for the 22 horses in the collection.  

Holger Hetzel was delighted with the auction outcome for two reasons: “Getting a top bid of one million euros is obviously fantastic, but so is the average sale price. What also makes me happy is the fact that the most expensive horse is going to a leading international rider and we look forward to seeing him again at some of the world’s major international competitions. The same is true for all the other horses in this year’s auction collection that are going to top riders.”