By:
Lenice Basham ~
Pair-A-Dice Mules ~ Belle, Missouri
GALEN LECY on Cocklebur, the first mule sold in the auction
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The Rocky Mountain Mule Days Auction was held June 7 in Eagle, Colorado, organized by Jerry King of King Auction Company of Fletcher, North Carolina. This was the fifth annual mule auction, and the second year to be held in Eagle, with over 100 mules consigned this year.
All of the mules consigned were vet-checked and guaranteed healthy. No private sales were allowed prior to the sale, and all mules offered for sale were required to go through the sale ring.
The auction starts with a preview of mules the morning of the sale. Buyers were seated in the outdoor bleachers to watch the mules enter the arena one at a time as the announcer talked about each mule and allowed the seller to highlight the individual mule’s skills. Most mules came into the arena and walked, trotted and loped, backed and then exited into a smaller arena where buyers could talk to the owners, and were allowed to ride them prior to the auction. Several sellers brought ‘props’ to show off their mules capabilities. These props included ropes, whips, steers and even a motorized remote control steer.
The auction was held in an indoor arena at the Eagle County Fairgrounds, as bleachers were packed with potential buyers and the internet was full of buyers watching online. The King Auction started offering online services several years ago with the DV Auction broadcast live, allowing buyers to bid on mules as they are selling in the ring. The online bidder is allowed to hear the bids as well as watch the mule as it circles the sale ring. “It was nice to be able to watch the mule and then bid as it went along,” said an online buyer from Kansas. “It was better than trying to purchase over a phone line because the online allowed me to see the mule work. I got to watch the seller back, walk, lope, and even take the bridle off and ride bridleless. You can’t get the whole picture if you can’t see what’s going on.” There is a delay online, so the auctioneer had to allow 15 or 20 seconds after a bid so that the online service could keep up. It didn’t appear to me to halt or affect the rate of bids.
DUTCH BOY, owned by PAT PARELLI, no saled at $10,000
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The following are ‘unofficial’ results of the sale, and are only my calculations after watching every mule sell and documenting the sale in my program. If there are inconsistencies in the documentation do not contact Jerry King.
The top selling mule was sold for $7,800 after being no-saled in the ring. The mule was lot #99, Jesse James, owned by Bill and Dawn Burden of NoName Ranch in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. They received the top bid of $6,750 in the ring and announced that it took $8,500 to buy the mule. This mule was 14.3 hands and weighed 1,050 pounds. He was an 11-year old sorrel horse mule. I’m sure you’re thinking….that seems like a lot of money for a 14.3 horse mule, but he was well worth the $8,500 asking price. Jesse James had been used to gather and sort cattle, trail ride, pack and hunted on; he was gaited and had a nice little gait. The Burden’s put several little kids on him while he was in the ring, the kids crawled under him, over him, off the back, etc. and this mule just took it all. He was purchased by a couple whose wife rides a gaited mare and the husband wanted to be able to ride a mule with his wife and keep up. The Burden’s were the high selling mule consigner and received a beautiful handcrafted saddle for this accomplishment.
There were ten mules that were sold on the internet to buyers from Wyoming, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado; the average price for mules sold on the internet was $1,240. The top selling online selling mule was lot #51 Miss Sippy, consigned by Dennis and Jana Weaver of Crawford Creek Mules, Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and shown by Loren Basham of Pair-A-Dice Mules, Belle, Missouri. Miss Sippy was a 5-year old grulla mare mule standing 14.1 hands. She was purchased by a Kansas internet buyer. The auctioneers and staff had to work really hard for every bid; the buyers were very slow to start the bidding. Once the bidding would finally start the bidding would take off like a rocket…..but most of the time people were very reluctant to be the first bidder.
SOME BEACH, owned by LEVI KING, Payette Idaho sold for $4,150
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There were 23 mules that were no-saled in the ring with the average no sale price being $2,500. No Name Ranch consigners no-saled mules for $3,900, $3,950 and $3,100.
Pat Parelli had a mule for sale, Dutch Boy, who had been listed in the sale program last year, but was pulled out the day of the sale due to an abcess in his foot. Dutch Boy had a long list of accomplishments and came with a manual in the form of Level 1, Level 2 and Liberty and Horse Behavior education programs. Parelli had used Dutch Boy in his clinic at Rocky Mountain Mule Days on Friday afternoon. They were looking for a $25,000 price, and decided they would just take him back home.
There were three other mules who sold for over $4,000. Tim Wilf of Pleasant Plains, Arkansas sold a 7-year old gray molly mule, Daisy for $4,100; Levi King sold a 17-year bay horse mule that had multiple championship titles to his name for $4,150; Bill and Dawn Burden sold Ozzie, an 8-year old sorrel horse mule for $5,000.
Meaningless Sale Data –
Average Price based on age of mule:
2 year old - $1,550 (1)
3 year old - $2,400 (1)
4 year old - $1,450 (9)
5 year old - $1,760 (8)
6 year old - $1,300 (2)
7 year old - $2,013 (8)
8 year old - $2,313 (4)
9 year old - $2,538 (4)
10 year old - $1,550 (5)
11 year old - $7,800 (1)
13 year old - $1,500 (2)
14 and older - $2,000 (4)
Average price based on sex:
Horse Mules - $2,148
Mare Mules - $1,900
Average Price based on height:
14.3 and under - $2,100
15.0 and over - $2,200
As with every sale there were some excellent mules consigned, and some not so excellent mules----but the buyers knew what they were buying and the prices showed that.
BRIAN NEWELL, Capitan, NM and Newt
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TIM WILF, Pleasant Plains, AR sold Daisy, a 7-year old mare mule for $4,100
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