2016 Miniature Horse WORLD Issues Feb/March 2016 | Page 16

miniature tales
By Kristina Elsik
Victoria, Texas

A Different Way
to Sell Miniatures
Sellers Select Auction

S

ometimes great ideas are produced from dire situations. Such is
the case when Sellers Select Auction was founded.

In 2011 I acquired my first Miniature horses (5) from a lady who was
terminally ill and couldn’t care for them.  I promised her that I would
find them good homes, even though they weren’t quite what I wanted
for my program.  I was focusing on all black based colored horses
in my breeding program at Rapture Miniature Horse Ranch and her
horses were all red based.  
One of them was a young stallion named Cooper.  Cooper was a stunning sorrel overo pinto with big movement and loads of chrome.  In
January 2012 when I posted him as available, he sold within one
day.  The lady who purchased him lived in New York.  This is where
the story takes a very sad and stressful turn.  The new owner apparently didn’t realize what it would cost to ship a horse from Texas to
New York.  As time wore on, and I didn’t hear from her, I tried in
vain to contact her over and over again.  Months went by.  Cooper
was abandoned at my home.  
The Texas lien holder’s law states that when someone abandons a
horse (and she had paid me for him, so he was hers) you MUST put
the horse up for public auction after requesting board in writing for
60 days.  As I researched the auctions, and realized that he would
wind up in a less than desirable home or worse going to slaughter - all
that ran through my mind along with all the unfortunate things that
might happen to him.
One, long sleepless night in August of 2012 I recalled the commitment that I had made to the prior owner. It rolled over and over
through my mind.  How would I know that the new owner had
experience ow