“We don’t sell horses,” says Josh Ruby, “we sell memories…through relationships between good horses and their future riders.” Ruby, owner of Wolfe Agricultural Auctions in Thurmont, MD, is trying to change the landscape for horses that are headed for auctions. Instead of opening the doors for anyone to bring any horse to the auction ring, Ruby and his team looked at the horses, thought about their needs and decided that the welfare of the animals was more important than profits.
“Here at Wolfe Agricultural Auctions, we will not profit off of horses in need. If an underweight or crippled horse comes to our doors, we will not allow the sale of, or profit from selling, these horses.”
Ruby is not naďve, nor is he a wild-eyed idealist divorced from reality. He’s been in the auction business his whole life and says he has sold everything. He has also had horses all his life. “I had a lot of fond memories and I always loved horses,” he says. Although he had not been active in the equine world, he was a casual trail rider. But things changed when he decided to buy a horse for his eight-year-old daughter.
“This Thing Is Going to Kill Somebody!”
“In March I bought a horse for my daughter,” he says. “The guy who sold it to me said it was going to be a safe horse.” Ruby’s barn workers rode the horse for a few days. He says that at first the horse was calm and easy to ride. The second day he was a little more spirited. Then the horse’s behavior changed radically and alarmingly. “The horse turned out to be reckless,” he said. One of the barn workers who had been riding the horse said “Josh, this thing is going to kill somebody.”
He said he felt that the seller had cheated him. “If they’re going to cheat me like this,” he says, he wondered what kinds of trouble less-experienced buyers were getting. Around the same time a dealer brought a horse to the auction. The horse was wearing a blanket. The blanket came off when the horse came into the ring. He was skinny and the sight of him had a profound effect on Ruby. “I felt bad for the horse,” he says, and knew that the horses deserved better. He didn’t want to provide a venue for people to exploit horses that way. “There’s no reason I should be doing that. I said this was bad for the horse industry and bad for the horses.”
He decided to work with horse rescues to intercept horses that are too skinny or too lame or too sick to be put into an auction. He says he used social media to let people know that he was changing Wolfe Agricultural Auction’s approach to horse sales. “And the rescues responded.”
It's a Throw-Away Society
Sharon Burrier, President of Rocky’s Horse Rescue & Rehabilitation in Thurmont says she had been buying horses at Wolfe Agricultural Auctions for several years. Her organization rescues horses and donkeys and also works with owners of horses who are trying to find new homes for their animals. Recently she got two horses from the auction and was concerned about the sale. “One had a pretty low body score and the other had EPM,” she says. “When I picked the horses up, Josh asked me about [my concerns] and he said he wanted to have a more honest auction. They didn’t belong there. They needed rehab and food and care.” Ruby asked for her help and she and her all-volunteer organization stepped up.
“He’s trying to clean up and make it a family auction to where you can come and buy a horse and not get raked over the coals,” Burrier says. She and her staff are there to check all horses before they can enter the auction, and they flag horses for the on-site veterinarian to examine. She says that they ask owners to surrender horses with body scores under three; Gentle Giants Horse Rescue of Mount Airy, MD has also joined the effort to make the horse auction a better environment for horses.
Ruby says that sometimes a human’s kindest act is to give a horse a peaceful death. “Any horse that arrives to the sale in such a condition that our on-site veterinarian recommends euthanasia, and the owner of the horse agrees with this recommendation, Gentle Giants will cover the cost of euthanasia and body disposal.” He says Gentle Giants has also agreed to cover the cost of gelding any stallion brought to the auction, if the seller agrees to the procedure.
With the plans for a more horse-respectful auction finalized, Ruby and his wife Emily published their intentions in a press release which laid out requirements for horses they would accept at the auction:
- Before entering the barn, each horse will be checked for fever and evaluated—untacked—no riders, no blankets. The evaluation will take place on Friday, for the Saturday auction.
- Any horse with a body score of less than three cannot enter the auction. The owners of these horses will have the option of surrendering the horse to Burrier’s rescue.
- No medications, including bute, banamine or other soundness/behavior altering medications can be administered to any sale horse prior to check-in or sale.
- No new horses can be entered in the auction on Saturday (sale day). He wants all horses for sale in the barn by Friday to protect the health of the horses.
Ruby says that any seller caught drugging a horse or doing something to mask lameness or injury will face penalties. If caught, both seller and horse will be dismissed from the sale without refund of any consignment, care, or stalling fees. Further, the seller will be banned from any future consignments with Wolfe Agricultural Auctions. “If a horse sold to us as sound and sane is found to have been drugged, we will void payment and further action will be taken.”
“It’s a throw-away society,” Burrier says. “You’re not going to catch every horse that’s medicated or every lameness. People are still going to be people. It comes down to greed. Honesty has left the station.” That touch of cynicism aside, Burrier has faith that Ruby’s plan will ultimately pay off for horses. She and other rescue organizations can negotiate directly with sellers whose horses are barred from the auction, bypassing a bidding process that would drive prices higher.
“There are two types of horse people in the world,” she says. “There are horse people and there are horse lovers.” Ruby says he and his crew are in the latter camp.
Selling the Truth and Telling the Truth
“I’ve gotten tremendous support from the horse world,” Ruby says. “As far as the sellers, they didn’t necessarily want the changes. But it is what it is.” He says that besides being the right thing to do, his new auction protocols are also proving profitable. “I’ve made more money by just selling the truth and telling the truth,” he says. He gives his wife a lot of credit for the decision to focus on the welfare of the horses that come through the auction. “My wife changed me personally,” he says, “I got married back in February. I guess she warmed up my old cold heart.”