Heating up and cooling down!

The events of the past week or so, have left me a little adrift. Unless you live under a rock, you have heard about the "financial crises" on Wall Street, the first bail out plan which did not pass, and the second, pork filled one which did. Oh joy, each residents' portion of the national debt is now something like 80 grand!

And if you have been checking your retirement and investment portfolios, you have no doubt seen a substantial loss. I haven't. Wanna know why? I am afraid to look! LOL, I am in it for the long haul, and there is no way I am going to try to micromanage my retirement-that's what the professionals do quite well. I presume they are about to go bargain hunting, once the market settles out.

Of course, the entire global financial markets reflect Wall Street....I read a great line yesterday that said: Wall Street gets a cold, the world catches pneumonia.

Nice to see the price of oil dropping too. I hope that too, finds its center and stabilizes for a while. I also hope the price of shipping products to Alaska does not continue to rise-Many people who ship are upset that the fuel surcharges just keep going up and up, when bunker fuel (which most cargo ships burn) drops in price. Always paying through the nose up here, aren't we?

Of course I am sure you regular readers are wondering: What's that got to do with horses?

Well, check out this link:

http://fuglyhorseoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-bad-does-it-have-to-get-before-they.html

This is a noteworthy report of a couple of horse auctions recently. The prices and the outcomes are not for the tender hearted-the prices are rock bottom, and I have a hunch its only going to get worse down there as the economy tanks. Joe at TBFriends yesterday had on a report from a kill buyer, that the KB had been out driving around and saw some neglected horses in a small lot. Stopped, offered $200 for the four of them, and bought them-they are already en route to Canada for processing. That's $50 each, two year olds, otherwise healthy. No training or handling of course, so the KB just round penned them into his trailer and they were gone. The thing is, this is happening all over the US, not just the coasts-low end auctions where some are given away, horses are being let loose to fend for themselves, abandoned because auctions are now not the way to even get your gas money and fees back. Too expensive to euthanize, never mind dispose of the remains...this is a very bad time in America for horses.

I don't know if I am relieved we don't have an auction here in Alaska, or not. Yes, we really do need some central way to to put buyers and sellers together that does not cost a fortune and is held regularly. I have toyed with the idea myself off an on for at least six years....a place where all livestock can be sold-either for nominal sum through an auction, or privately outside the ring. Say you pay $10, you have all day to sell your critter and if you don't, you just take it home. For ten bucks, people would bring their stock, I am sure-they could make their own deals for however much they can get. Showcase in the arena for performers or something special-$25 for three minutes, with reserves if they chose. Seems workable to me, but more than I could possibly manage on my own. And there is that little issue of location and insurance. I am sure it could be overcome but again, this is something I cannot manage working full time. No big percentages, no big fees for the day, make it something affordable and the people will come-and their animals too. There is no one central place to take cattle, goats, sheep, fowl of all kinds, llamas or alpacas, swine-no place at all.

That leaves Craigslist and the Alaska Horse Journal, plus bulletin boards, online groups and word of mouth-for a huge state with livestock scattered everywhere. Which is likely part of the reason for the very high prices we see today.

Here's a few examples that will leave you scratching your head:

A Fuglyhorseoftheday candidate: http://anchorage.craigslist.org/grd/869511537.html

I know the seller-eeks! http://anchorage.craigslist.org/grd/869848078.html

Here's a nice horse, but hooboy, the price tag! http://anchorage.craigslist.org/grd/868032924.html

Hmm, why would you breed for this? http://anchorage.craigslist.org/grd/867779927.html

Why would you email about these two? http://anchorage.craigslist.org/grd/867267246.html (You can't see anything of either)

And so on and so forth. Funny, the horses listed for under $1000, don't seem to stay on CL long, which means the true market is somewhere near that. Not to say there aren't some really nice horses that are reasonably priced-there are! But reasonable means something different to each of us-just go back and take a look at the auction reports to get an idea of where we are heading.....maybe?

So, do we need a regular, every two weeks auction up here, or not? Would it help the market find a firm footing, or just serve as a way to provide cheap dog food to our mushing community? Thoughts?