Annual Horse Sale and Showcase Highlights Student Internship Program

The Department of Animal Science is hosting its 33^rd Annual Production Sale and showcase later this month to auction off seven horses and two mules bred, birthed and trained by undergraduate interns on the UC Davis campus.

Billed as “A Sale with History and Tradition,” the June 20-21 event features an open house, tours, animal demonstrations, dinner, drinks, door prizes and an online auction to benefit future Horse Barn programming. 

“The annual production sale is basically the culmination of the student undergraduate internships that we have here at the Horse Barn,” Horse Barn Manager Kelli Davis said. 

The Horse Barn’s storied history began in 1911 when it served first as a carriage house and then as a remount station breeding and training horses for the U.S. Army. Thoroughbred breeding began in the 1920s and quarter horses have been bred there for over 60 years. The barn is also known countrywide for its mule breeding program. 

Its dual mission of teaching and production offers a unique experience to undergraduate students.

“There’s just something about the Horse Barn,” said Annabelle Steel, an animal science major with a focus on equine science who is a breeding management intern this year. “It’s great community, it’s great learning and when I’m at the Horse Barn, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Horse Barn internships offer a rare opportunity to get hands-on experience and learning across the lifecycle of a horse or mule, including foaling, handling, training, breeding and other facets of husbandry. 

“The students get to do every step of that process,” Davis said. “It really sets them up above and beyond a lot of other potential pre-vet applicants. The breeding industry is such a niche industry so it’s a specialized skill to be able to learn. Everybody can say they rode a horse but how many can say they made a horse?” 

A unique experience

Steel stumbled upon the Horse Barn during a First-Year Aggie Connections program and obtained a small internship that bloomed into becoming a live-in resident her second year and a breeding management internship this year. 

“It has opened up a whole new professional world to me, and I feel fortunate to be at the Horse Barn because a lot of the assistive reproductive techniques that we learn are not something we would have a chance to ordinarily learn until vet school,” she said. “I feel lucky to be exposed to these topics as an undergrad student.” 

Through the production sale and showcase, students also learn marketing, advertising and event planning. Interns who trained the sale horses will be present to talk with prospective buyers at the sale showcase, while a catalog and videos also detail the available horses and mules, including the filly “Bittersweet Escape,” the gelding “Gotta Walla Whizkey” and the mule “This Dudes a Pro.” 

“It’s a great opportunity if you’re a prospective buyer to chat with the intern who knows that yearling inside and out and who can really give you all the information on them,” Steel said.

National bidders and reputation 

The sale transitioned to an online auction during COVID after decades of in-person auctions and last year attracted more than 75 active bidders, with interest as far away as Texas, Hawaii, South Carolina and Colorado. Last year’s winning bids averaged to about $10,000 per horse. 

“The horses are really versatile,” Steel said. “We’ve had people buy the horses and go on to make them trail horses or companion horses or higher-level competition horses.” 

Many of the bidders are repeat customers, drawn back by the quality of the animals and the high level of training the yearlings receive before sale. The Horse Barn also works to continuously improve the quality of its bloodlines by collaborating with industry to breed mares with leading stallions whose offspring are also successful competitors in their disciplines.

“We can produce some foals of our own that are really high quality,” Davis said. “We have people that come back and buy horses year after year. They’ll come and get our yearlings because they know that they’re so ready to start under saddle and they’re so well handled and trained.”