ASHLAND – Judging by the number of cars in the Ashland County Fairgrounds parking lot, passersby would have had no idea just how happening the Coliseum was this weekend.
That’s because a majority of the sellers, buyers and spectators at the 15th annual North American Spring Dutch Harness Horse Sale were Amish.
Many attendees hired drivers and rented trucks with horse trailers or even chartered vans to bring the whole family to the sale. They came from all over Ohio as well as from several other states and even from Canada.
Ashland is centrally located in the Dutch Harness market, fair manager Steve Englet said, as there are large Amish and Mennonite populations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois.
“It’s like the Amish fair,” Englet said of the horse shows that draw crowds to the Coliseum a few times a year.
Englet said the spring Dutch Harness sale is second only to the Morgan horse sale, which took place at the end of March. Several attendees described this weekend’s sale as much as a social and entertainment event as an auction.
But that doesn’t mean the sale is not big business. About 250 horses were sold at this year’s show, with sale prices averaging between $6,000 and $7,000.
One especially coveted horse sold for $31,000 Saturday.
“Our top ever was $60,000,” said Dennis Fry, owner of the sale.
Those top-dollar Dutch Harness horses often are sold to English buyers for use in the show ring, but Dutch Harness classes are fairly new additions to horse shows.
A few English buyers also use the horses for carriage ride businesses, Fry said, but most of the horses sold this weekend are headed for Amish homes and farms, where they will be used as buggy horses.
“The number one market is buggies, but we do have some show horses that come through here,” Fry said. “Everybody’s trying to breed for a show horse because that’s the top level of price, but they make excellent buggy and carriage horses as well.”
Auction attendees of all ages followed along in their sale programs, studying each horse’s pedigree and jotting down sale prices as each horse entered the ring for sale.
The auctioneer billed one horse as “a kitten in the barn but a tiger on the road” and another as “a lady’s horse in the making.”
One young horse boasted a track record of having driven to church and to town, and another young mare “clocks 20 miles per hour” and “makes molehills out of mountains.”
Most buyers look for strong stamina, a long stride and a good headset, Fry said.
The Dutch Harness breed originates in the Netherlands and was brought to the United States about 20 years ago.
“In 2000, we brought over a stallion and it’s just snowballed from there,” Fry said.
The American Dutch Harness Horse Association has done much to promote the breed as it has grown in popularity, and more than 95 percent of the horses at this weekend’s sale had been registered with the association.
Fry said the Dutch Harness breed started with a Gelderland — a Dutch warhorse — that was bred with a top Saddlebred stallion. Later, a Hackney stallion was bred in for some action.
“It’s different breeds of horses stuck together to make one beautiful animal,” Fry said. “They’ve got a Saddlebred headset but with a Hackney action. Typically, they’ve got a longer stride than what your average horse has.”
Fry has Dutch Harness sales twice a year in Ashland, in the second weekend of April and last weekend in August. He also has three sales annually in Indiana.
For more information, call Fry at 260-302-6015.
