Saturday we took Darryl and two of his horses up to the Cannon Falls sale. It has been a lot of years since the last time I had attended a sale at Cannon Falls. Actually it had been several years since I had attended a sale at all. I had kind of forgotten how much fun a sale is and how just being there, surrounded by all the different horses of every color and every discipline and seeing so many familiar horse people, is such a rush. It really doesn't have anything to do with buying or selling. It's more about people watching, horse watching and enjoying when the two come together.
I didn't have any intentions of horse shopping when we first realized we were going to be taking Link and Freckles up for Darryl. I didn't even get a catalog. But then a couple days before I decided to pull up the catalog and of course found a few that I was curious what they would go for. Two were consigned by China's breeder in IA, Dr. Ken Friday. One of them was a half sibling to our China doll. I could not wait to finally get to see her in person. We had seen pictures of both earlier in the summer when Libby was looking for an Appaloosa to go App showing with me. Here was our chance to see them in person.
When we arrived it was a mad rush to get our horses settled into their stalls and get Freckles out and about for people to see her as she was lot 9. But both Libby and I could not wait to swing by their stall. We were not disappointed once we got there. Sweet Romance, the 2 year old filly, was just as gorgeous as the pictures we had gotten earlier. She reminded me so much of Ellie, similar coloring and build. Super sweet too. But the one I fell in love with was China's little half sister. Immediately I saw so many similarities to my very special mare in her build, her head, even her mane has the same long, yet fuzzy texture to it. However there was one giant difference. China couldn't buy an Appaloosa characteristic if her life depended on it, not a spot, not a mottled speck of skin, not a striped hoof. Her sister on the other hand wrote the textbook on what an Appaloosa should have for loud characteristics.
Throughout the day, every chance we got, one of us would sneak by the little App filly's stall area and get a quick pet in. Then we would report back who was visiting them and how interested they seemed. I knew that I would be bidding if the price was low enough. Prices were definitely up at this sale however so I wasn't too hopeful that we would be getting in on the action. I just hoped that whomever picked them up realized what a great buy they were getting.
It got closer to the time when the first filly would be coming in the ring and Tim was already rolling his eyes at me when I told him I wanted him to bid if it was low enough. Of course when he asked me what was low enough I hadn't really thought that out. I was counting on him to be the voice of reason because my heart was already bringing that yearling sister of China's home. I knew I couldn't be in charge of the actual bidding. I wanted that dark roan filly WAY too much.
The bidding was slow to start and we got in early at $400 (ish? I really suck at understanding auctioneers.) Tim and another bidder battled it out at $50 a time all the way until when the gavel fell and Tim told me we had the winning bid. My excitement quickly was dashed when the auctioneer realized that both of us that were still in the bidding both thought we had the winning bid. I swear I held my breath as the auctioneer asked for another $50 bid. Tim didn't have to ask me to place that next bid, he just did. The other bidder backed out and it was official. She was ours.
I could not wait to get back to the stall and see her. It was amazing to see the big smile when Ken realized that his filly would be coming home to join China at our place. I even got a big hug. Since Libby had left the auction early I had to text her to tell her the good news. And then.... the big question. What to call our new pretty little lady?!
We had always said that if we got one of China's siblings down the road, we would have to come up with another country name. Even though our China was not really named after the country. Our China became China because she was dainty like a China doll. So she was "Baby China". But now we had another Baby ? Libby was immediately partial to Fiji. Which is super cute. But just didn't seem to fit her. So we started going through a mad rush of country names when Tim decided to input.
He felt we were looking at it all wrong. In his opinion, maybe China wasn't named so much for a country, but more like china - you know beautiful dishes. Dishes. He had some suggestions, like Corelle, Pyrex oh and my personal favorite, Crockpot. While we all had a good laugh, including his family who seemed to think building on Crockpot with the alternative "Slow Cooker" was a good idea, there was no way I was naming our new filly after dishes.
Libby was the one who noticed that her birthday was the same as my dad's. And Libby gets full credit for coming up with the perfect name that fit our country criteria and for an added bonus tied into both my dad's first name (whom she shared a birthday with), but also her breeder as well. Two amazing men named Ken. Baby Kenya was officially nicknamed and Obviously Chocolate is officially a part of our little herd.
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