For some, a horse auction is an excellent place for buyer and seller to meet and arrive at fair market value for an animal. To others, a horse auction is the place where good money was spent on a horse which couldn’t, or didn’t, perform up to expectations. For still others it’s a place where horses get their last chance, or a final journey to a slaughter plant.
To be sure, there have been many cases where unscrupulous dealers slipped crippled or incorrigible horses through auctions, and there have been a number of cases where unexpected illness showed up after a horse was brought home from a sale barn. And horses do go to slaughter from public auction. But there definitely is a positive side to public auctions.