BreyerFest 2023 has gotten a lot of great reviews - people have expressed satisfaction, even happiness, with the event. But like any large event that brings people together from all over, there have been a few examples of those who would be dishonest and steal, find loopholes to do what they want, or who would act in a way that is patently unfair to others who are following the rules.
Sadly, the Live Auction took a large hit this year with $42,500 that was to go to charities lost to bad bidding. Speculation on social media is that there may have been some shill bidding going on, and as I look at some of those bids, I can see why that accusation has been raised.
The bids I find most suspicious are those that wildly dropped, such as Lot 22, the Pegasus Newsworthy. It was at $23,000 online prior to the auction. There were no in-person bids and no more online bids when the bidding started. When the online bidder failed to pay, the next highest bidder was $6,000, a drop of $17,000. That smacks of shill bidding to a lot of people, including me.
Look at Lots 12 and 19 and you will see more huge drops between the highest bidder and the second highest bidder. Things that make you pause.
A really sad thing is that it is very possible that someone who ended up being the second highest bidder and won a model innocently placed a bid and did nothing wrong. Shill bidding shines an unfair spotlight on them and sours their experience of winning a one of a kind auction model.
No doubt next year Breyer will make some changes, both to the way bidding occurs at the auction to the closing of loopholes that were exploited to even adding safety awareness measures or reminders to help prevent theft.
(To be fair, the loophole that was used was legal from a certain point of view. From others, it was not.)
And I hope those who were affected by the actions of those folks join us again next year and have a much better experience than they did in 2023.
I am aware that there is speculation about who may have been involved in the dishonesty, shill bidding, loophole exploitation, or theft. Comments naming these people will be deleted. Please be kind.
Second Post of the Day
We actually celebrated earlier with Kyle, Cole, and Kate on July 3, but on Craig's real birthday, we went to one of our favorite places, Trish's Red Bird Cafe.
Curt, Vanessa, and Lukie (who put the mac n cheese on his grilled cheese sandwich. Apparently it was yummy.)
We rounded out the evening with lemon cake and ice cream plus Vanessa led us in a karaoke/dance party. (Reminiscent of the one she threw in our bathroom at Thanksgiving, 2021!)
Happy Birthday, Craig!
Another horse passed away during this year's BreyerFest. Pixie, a Miniature Horse, was there representing her breed and unexpectedly died Sunday while preparing for her demonstration.
Thanks to the generosity of those who heard the news of Pixie's passing, the Go Fund account has met its goal and she will be able to go home with her owner.
I was shocked and saddened by the news. I also have questions. I don't recall a horse dying at BreyerFest in the past, let alone two, both who were seemingly healthy. Granted, Funny Cide was an old horse, but Pixie was neither old nor sick.
Is there a connection between the two somewhere? Ot was it just one of those coincidences that happens occasionally?
My heart breaks for that little girl.
Second Post of the Day
Kyle has not been able to be with us on his birthday for a very long time so we made the most of it Sunday.
Craig made 15 lbs of ribs to celebrate Kyle's day. (You read that right. 15 lbs!!)
Sad news began circulating among BreyerFest attendees Sunday morning. Long time Kentucky Horse Park retiree and fan favorite Funny Cide had died early that morning.
People were stunned - just the night before he had been fine and his death, despite his advanced age, was unexpected.
Funny Cide was 23 and died from complications of colic. He raced until he was 7, then spent time at the track ponying other race horses. After that, he was retired to Kentucky Horse park where he was a fan favorite of park visitors.
Teacher Daughter Lisa and I visited Kentucky Horse Park together in June of 2012 and got to view many of the racehorses who lived in the park. I wrote this about Funny Cide.
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From the Horsiemama blog, June 6, 2012
BreyerFest Saturday was a very busy day!
Kyle got up early - he wanted to do some things around the house for Craig and me, things that are getting hard for us to do.
Like get down on his knees for an extended period of time and install a new garbage disposal for us. That took most of the morning, and I was not needed to help, so I began my BreyerFest activities for the day. (Thank you so much, Kyle!)
We'd had heavy rain during the night but the weather cleared enough so that I was able to go out to the "horse park" and visit my girl.
