Mike Jennings Interview: Pro Horse Services April Internet Auction 2025

Blair Thompson: Hey, good evening, friends and neighbors. Welcome to Horse Auction Report. My name is Blair Thompson, co-founder of Horse Auction Report, and tonight we're gonna be sitting down with president and manager of Pro Horse Services, Mr. Mike Jennings from Round Hill, Virginia. And he's here to talk about their upcoming online sale, the April Internet Auction. Mr Jennings, how's things going over there on the far east side of the country?

Mike Jennings: Well, right now we're getting a little rain that we've been needing for a while, but finally getting some springtime and green growing around here. So it's kind of a refreshing time of year.

BT: Man, I'd love to see a little bit of green grass where I'm from. So I, I envy you a little bit, uh, but I wanna get right into it. Mike, you've been an auctioneer and worked in and around the auction business for quite a long time now. And I know you've gained a wealth of knowledge through all these years of doing it. And before we get into the meat and the potatoes of the sale itself, can you tell us a little bit about how Pro Horse Services got started and how it's grown to what it is today?

MJ: Well, first I'll kind of update you a little bit. I don't carry the title of president. Pro Horse Services is a partnership between my wife and I and, um, so I am I'm the partner here on this.

BT: OK.

MJ: And, um, I'll say she, she does most of the work around here and I kind of do most of the talking. So that's how this works. But actually my parents, um, got involved with the horse auctions back in the late 60s when my dad was president of the Virginia Quarter Horse Association and they took their horse sale from the stockyards to the State Fair with auctioneer Colonel Ike Hamilton at the time. And, um, the next year, which was 1970, some people asked my dad if, um, he would do some dispersals and production sales for him. And, um, one included an entertainer back at that time, a guy named Arthur Godfrey that sort of [...] had the variety shows before the Johnny Carson era even, um, but, um, had some nice horses in. And, um, fifty six years later, we had our 56th annual Mid Winter Sale, um, in January of this year. But my parents had the company, they also had a breeding farm, um, and had the, the sale company from 70 up till 79 or 70 through 78. And we started a company called Professional Auction Services with my brother and I had that company, and, um, we had that through 2011. And then, um, after that recession, the horse market changed some. So we changed our business model. And, um, Stephanie and I have Pro Horse Services where we do the quarter horses, paints appaloosas and performance type horses. And, um, my brother and his wife do this sport horses, dressage, jumpers and, um, thoroughbreds. And, um, so we had for a long time shared the, the same auction platform. We've recently moved to a new auction platform that has an, uh, smartphone app with it, so we're excited to be going down that road right now. But, um, we'd figure we'd sold about 80,000 horses during that time frame since the 1979 when my brother and I started.

BT: Wow, so 1979, 80,000 head of horses, that's, that's a hard number to keep up with up with for one, but, uh, that, that just goes to show that your expertise truly stands the test of time. So congratulations to you guys.

MJ: Thank you.

BT: Um, but the auction business all the way up to covid, uh, was still primarily live. And then when Covid hit, a lot of the auctions went online. There was already some online, but we started to see more online auctions just because so many things were getting canceled live. And now that we've come through that, what direction do you see the auction business going into, into the future? Are we going to see more live, more online? Where, where are we headed?

MJ: Well, I think that the, the online component is, is here to stay, and it probably will become a, a larger part of, of how we do auctions going forward, um, with, with ours. I mean I, being an auctioneer, I still miss doing the live auctions and seeing them. But, um, we, um, spent a lot of time on the road with the live auctions, and since we've had this, um, internet auction format work for us, we, um, and personally, we'll, we'll stick with the internet auctions, unless we, you know get a chance to do a special type sale, like we, um, helped Cal Myers do, um, Kristin Gallion's pleasure horse dispersal year before last. And, you know for those kind, we'll, we'll certainly get out of the house and get on the move a little bit. But, um, I think that even the live auctions nowadays, pretty much if you want to be successful, you have to have that live online bidding where you've got the, the remote bidders can participate. And I think with us, um, we've seen our demographic of our auctions change. I mean being in it for a long time, we've had a lot of customers that are the baby boomer generation, and they were a little hard to come to the internet auction atmosphere. But nowadays, we're seeing more and more young people that buy everything online, so it's, it's a much more comfortable type of way for them to do business. But, um, you know I think we'll see a mix. I don't think the live auctions are going, going away. Um, I think that they still are, are great for certain types of auctions. And there, there would be certain times I would certain I would um, recommend a person to have that live auction, but we found that this internet auction format is fitting a lot of them. We actually, um, have, um, been associated with Lorenzo Lotti on his Profit Equine Sales. And we came to it with the, the background experience on producing the auctions, and, um, with his, um, scoping the business, he's able to get the nice horses. So it's been, been nice to do that. So that's a large part of what we do is between our, our consignment sales. We do a production sale for the Stewart Ranch there in Oklahoma, and a couple other smaller auctions. But primarily it's our consignment sales and the Profit Equine sales we're doing now. And for, for grandparents that have three small grandchildren, don't live too far away, having that time to not be too far away from the house and get to see the grandkids, that makes a lot of difference.

BT: Well, we all know that family's important, and, and so good on you for making that decision. And I tell you what, uh, it obviously is more lucrative just with all the all the technology and the and the times changing in that direction. Um, but I wanna get into the auction itself. People are dying to know just what kind of horsepower they're gonna be able to, to see [...]

MJ: Yellowstone, we want to start off that, that horse now that everybody knows his name. Well, um, he is one of our highlight consignments in. He's been consigned to sale by Cindy Mcgraw who has Riverside Ranch Stallion Station up there in Washington. And Cindy's been a very prominent breeder of quarter horses primarily in the western pleasure business for many, many years. And this is a young stallion that's got a great all around record just as a three year old. He was, um, a world champion at the, um, Buckskin World Show. He, um, placed in the versatility contest at the Congress, but he's got quite a few titles shows in seven events. And we're excited to, to be able to offer this stallion. She was able to actually get another older stallion that fit in her program. And that's why this horse is available. But he's one that somebody could sure step up and go on with. I think they already have a good book of mares, um, to breed to him this year. So he's getting off to good start as a sire. And, um, he's also a horse. I mean in today's world, we know the all around geldings worth a lot of money. Um, this horse could be a top all around horse, um, whether it be the color breeds or the AQHA. So there's, here's a horse that can have a lot of value going down the road. And with we've got a couple other horses, now this horse is in what we call our where we require the people to have a set of X rays on the horses and do a vet report so that that's already done for the buyers. They don't have to worry about, you know spending on money on a pre purchase exam and then, um, not being able to get the horse. So the, the seller has provided that for him, the, um, we have another horse in there. You can call me Al, who's a registered mare hunter under saddle horse. It's very nice show horse and a couple of young prospects, including a rating prospect that is by Inferno 66. So those are the horses in our, um, Elite Session at this time.

BT: More of these horses here in just a moment, but lay it out for me. So we've got four different sessions. What kind of horses are going to be in each individual session?

MJ: Well, our Elite Session may have a mix of horses from our performance or, um, which by our performance session. We call it the session for the horses. It would be ranch horses, Rainers, cutters, cow horses, um, the trail riding horses, that type of horse. We have a, an all around session which is gonna be aimed for the, um, western pleasure, hunter under saddle and all around horses of that type. And then we have a halter session. Now, in this particular sale, we do not have any halter horses entered. We had a lot in our last sale and I think we kind of covered what a lot of people need to sell early this year. But normally it'll be, you know 10 to 12 horses in the halter session. But, um, with this group, um, you know we've got prospects in here. We have a number of yearlings that people can do launch on with going forward. We have, um, in this situation, we, we actually have a special session for The Ohio State University. Buckeye Bonanza is what they call their horse sales when they do them. And we have a nice set of yearlings for them. They have a pretty palomino filly by Jesse's Topaz, the horse that stands down there at the 6666 Ranch. That's getting to be pretty hot, sire barrel horses and rope horses, but I think she could do a lot of ranch events as well. They've got some performance horses, um, by, um, Smart Boones and FM Cottonwood. If somebody wanted to do reined cow horse, ranch type horses there, they've got some by Certainly A Vision and the Original Cowboy that are bred for western pleasure. So they've got a nice set of yearlings. And there's a number of horses out of that Ohio State University group that have gone on and made, made nice show horses for people. So I think that'll be a good group there too.

BT: Well, you've got a heck of a lot of, uh, show horses all around horses all the way around and I saw that there's quite a few uh, quite a few yearlings in this sale as well. We actually kind of looked at the analytics, analytics of that, in that uh, in that first I believe it's the Elite Session. You've got quite a few yearlings. So there's gonna be a lot of upcoming prospects. People will be able to buy and start and, and go in any in any direction they, they see fit. Wouldn't you say?

MJ: Yes, yes, I do. I think I was just at the horse show this last weekend talking to some people that bought one of the Ohio State University horses a couple years ago and it's in training now and they're really excited about what they think they can do with it. You know the horse shows coming up later this year. And, um, actually while we're down, we, we do sell a sale during the, um, spring for the Penn State University. It's generally gonna be two year olds and one of the horses we sold almost a year ago, it, um, won a 15 thousand dollar, actually 30 thousand dollar at the hunter under saddle futurity down there at, um, our horse shows this past weekend. So, um, Penn State University horses have gone on and done really well for folks too.

BT: Well talking about some of your sale graduates and, you know you kind of highlighted maybe a program, but is there a particular a particular sale graduate off the top of your head that you're pretty proud of?

MJ: You know when, when when we posed that question earlier, I know that we've had horses come out of our sales that have been world champions in halter, western pleasure, hunter under saddle. Um, I don't do as good a job of keeping up with those sale graduates as I should. And I'll say that's my, my failing here. But, um, we've, um, had a number of horses that'll go out and have good show records and then some that like what again, anytime I go out to horse show here in the East Coast, we have people say, you know I bought a horse from your all sale, it's 28 years old now or something like that and said we loved it and we won stuff with it or we just trail rode it and the best horse we ever had. And so that, that's a real satisfying part of the business is, is running into a lot of people that'll be happy to come up and tell you that they really enjoyed or love the horse that they bought out of our sales. So to me, a lot of times that can be about as important as exactly what prizes they won. But, um, we do have horses that have gone and done well at the at the national level and about about all of the events so far.

BT: Well, longevity is a price, is a prize in itself. So that's, um, it's always something needed in the industry and something we always love to see. Uh. But talking about the vetting process of this, is there any particular, uh, vetting process or vetting requirement for these horses to come into these sales?

MJ: We actually even had done this in our, um, live auctions we did we just have a disclosure form that we require the sellers to, uh, complete. And it's gonna ask some pretty detailed questions about, you know is the horse a cribber weaver? Um, sound in eyes and wind? Has it ever had any surgeries? Um, has it ever had any colic surgery? Any lameness, um, lasted more than 2 weeks? You know there in any other blemishes or defects?And, um, you know if they don't answer those questions, we're gonna go, you know check up and find out what's going on. Or if we see something on one of those that we need further explanation, we, um, we'll go ahead and get with people and, and make sure that we get that information presented as well as possible. And, but we don't actually go look at them. We do want people to give us current pictures of the horse so that the buyers will know what that horse looks like when it gets to their house. And we've been had real good luck with people doing that well enough over the years.

BT: Well, that being said, what suggestion to do you give to the buyers that wanna see and try these horses?

MJ: Well, one is, and whether you're buying through an auction or privately shop as thoroughly as you can. Um, I tell a lot of people make a list of things you can live with. Um, if say you find this wonderful horse, bit of cribs, if it does your job, can you live with cribbing? Some people say absolutely not, and they'll scratch that one off their list. Other people say, yeah, but it might affect my price. But the things you, you really want in a horse, make sure that you contact that seller and go down that list in detail. Because, um, you know a lot of times somebody didn't know something about a horse just because they didn't ask a question. It's not maybe it's not a major issue. But I think that if, um, if people will put some thought into the things they really want to know about a horse, and make sure that you talk to that seller. That we've had many, many horses sold in these internet auctions where the seller never our buyer never even talks to the seller. And, um, I don't understand why people would do that. But, um, you know that's they just, I guess they're gonna wing it there. But I bought a few horses online, and I've had some pretty lengthy conversations with sellers just to try to find out as much about the horse and, and be as comfortable as I can be. But, and I've told people for years, we all just call this the horse gamble instead of the horse business perspective on what we're doing. But whether you buy one or breed one, you're always taking a little bit of a gamble.And I've had some horses that the sellers back there crying'cause they love this horse, the person that bought it didn't particularly get along with it. I've had people that were telling me, sell that, sorry son of a gun, I never wanna see him again. Andthe next people loved him. Or in one situation, a guy told me that once in the girl that bought him two years later won the Congress Youth Western riding on him. You know so, um, it, there's a there's a personality that goes along with these, these horses and stuff. But, um, and I think if you're sure about what job you want a horse to do and get those questions answered. And, and don't miss a good horse if there's a little something you may not want, but you can live with.

BT: Right, 'cause, just like, nobody's perfect. No horse is perfect either.

MJ: Yeah, and I used to tell a lot of people, you know when we had our live auctions, say that the perfect horse has never been made, and then when we buy one, we're gonna have to learn to live with some things about them, and they're gonna have to learn to live with some things about us. So that's, kind of part of any of 'em.

BT: Absolutely. Well, I want you to tell us about your bidding platform, where and how people find your bidding platform? What kind of things can the buyers expect when it comes to using it? Give us the rundown.

MJ: Okay, we recently switched to, um, a platform called Bid Wrangler, and, um, it's popular with, um, a wide variety of auctions. We have some auctioneers here locally that sell estates, farm equipment and general merchandise auctions. They've been on it for years and like it. And, when Lorenzo Lotti wanted to have an auction app with his auction, our tool that we were originally with couldn't, they weren't doing apps. So, and we did some research and helped him come up with the Bid Wrangler, and really liked the way the, the the process operated. Some things we don't have that we hadn't with our previous, um auction and ways that can just convey in some information. But, um, you can get an app on a smartphone. There's if you go to, um, to Google Play, it would be Pro Horse Services or the App Store. Pro Horse Services, you can, um, find that on the link from our website, which is prohorseservices.com. And, um, that will we'll have always have links or buttons that somebody can click and go right into the auction catalog and to register to bid, it does require people to put in a credit card number and it will just like authorize $100, but that goes away. It never comes out of your account. It just is a way to determine that this is a real bidder. It allows bidders to get in and get an instantaneous approval for their bids and, um, go ahead and get to the bidding real quick. We've had some people call while horse is closing wanting to get registered and, and bid on a horse. And through our other, other platform, we couldn't sometimes do it that quick, but here people can get in quickly and do that. And it's pretty self explanatory when you get into, um, looking at the bidding platform, you know when, when it ask you to bid, they're gonna meet some pop ups and want to make sure you're bidding so you don't accidentally bump something and bid, you know when you didn't want to. Um, it'll, um, and give you information real time as it goes through there. But, um, we found it to be pretty easy program to, um, to use. A couple of the other horse auctions are using it now, and, um, we, um, and I would like to support services too, but we're always here available. I mean we've had customers all the time that'll call and say they need a little help getting registered or, um, have some questions. And so we're, we're always happy to do that, our 800 numbers on all the stuff that we put out there. So we, um, we learned when we got into the internet auction business that [...] there was gonna be a learning curve for a lot of people, and that continues. But, um, um it, it's easier now. And I think the folks that are really dependent on their smartphones nowadays, they'll, they'll enjoy the app.

BT: Well, it's cool to see cutting edge technology take storm within the horse business. And, and just like you said, it's, it's really neat to be able to just buy a horse from the click of a button, uh, on your smartphone. You could be sitting at home in your pajamas, eating popcorn, buying horses. So, uh, it's really cool that this is where we're at in, in today's society. And speaking of that with the horse, I believe the horse industry is growing rapidly within, and it's been growing rapidly within the last few years. And we're starting to see a lot of new horse buyers. We're starting to see a lot of people new to whatever discipline it is, you know whether it's the all around western pleasure reining, cutting, it doesn't matter. Um, it's cool to be cowboy. So give that first time horse buyer some advice going into this auction.

MJ: Oh, I'd, I'd say anybody and, and I will say the Yellowstone Effect, the TV show, kind of, stirred the cowboy spirit in a lot of people. And, um, if you like that type of horse, it's, it's really wise that to, to get with somebody in your area that might be a trainer or a professional that can give you some advice on trying to help find the horse that would fit your needs. I mean sometimes you can find a wonderful show horse, but it's so fine tuned for a high end professional. It's hard for an amateur ride, you know and, um, you know somebody might tell you, oh, it's great to, to to buy a baby and learn with it. Well, you know we've had that backfire on some people too. So, you know if you want to go show, um, a horse, and you're fairly green at it, we always recommend buying a broke horse and, and letting that horse help teach you along with a professional. That'll, that'll make your learning curve way, way shorter. Um, now many, many people have bought horses on a whim and, and found their way through the, the business. Um, I always hope that people, you know if they if they get concerned or get, um, frustrated or something, they do reach out to somebody that can help them. But I think not being afraid to ask for help from people that know more than you do, and they'll, they'll help you save time and money'cause many, many people have bought a horse that they thought was what they wanted, but it didn't turn out not, not that it was a bad horse. It just wasn't what they needed or the direction they wanted to go. And, um, and I think that, that that's probably the biggest thing I do is, is particularly if you're considering any significant investment is, is good with some industry professionals that can help you.

BT: Well, well said Mr. Jennings and coming from a auctioneer and a man that's been in the business a long time, um, those are those are good words to go by. That is all I have for you today. But first of all, I, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. And second of all, I want to thank you for all you're doing for the horse business and the auction business. Um. We here at Horse Auction Report are absolutely thrilled to have your sale featured on the platform to see your sale succeed. And we look forward to featuring more of them on the platform throughout the year. So a big thank you to you, sir.

MJ: Well, good. We're excited to see horse auction report come available to people here. That's something that at times I'd like to go see what's going on out in the business. And it's a much easier way for me to connect with the other horse sales and get the information I need. So I'm, I'm happy to support you and be involved absolutely. It, it's a new concept and we're really excited to see it take off and give people an opportunity to see what's happening in the market as we get all this data built into the system.

BT: So, um, I really appreciate you being being on this journey with us. Uh, but again, folks, the April internet auction is gonna be going on April 6th through the 8th. The catalog is gonna be to view live on Horse Auction report and to participate and bid, be sure to log on to bid. prohorseservices.com. You can find all the information there. As far as the online bidding, feel free to shop around ahead of time, just like Mr. Mike said. Don't be afraid to call up those consignors and ask a few questions. Of course, we want you to be happy with your purchases, so it never hurts to do a little extra homework. Otherwise, at the conclusion of the sale, you'll be able to find the full sale results on horseauctionreport.com. For more auction dates, sale results, market analysis and everything happening in the world of auctions, make sure to check us out at horseauctionreport.com. We'll be keeping you informed every step of the way. My name is Blair Thompson, Mister Mike Jennings. Thanks for joining us today, and we'll see you next time.