Each November, the University of Missouri Equine Teaching Facility, part of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) Division of Animal Sciences, offers a select group of horses for sale. All of the proceeds from the sale benefit the MU Equine Program, as well as support student activities at the facility.

In preparation for the sale, the program will offer a horse sale preview and silent auction from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6, at the facility (4400 E. New Haven Road) in Columbia, Mo. Potential buyers can visit at their convenience and personally inspect the sale horses being presented by the student trainers.

“We invite people to come to this event, even if you are not in the market for purchasing a horse, to learn about our program and support our students’ hard work,” said Marci Crosby, instructor in the Division of Animal Sciences. “Our silent auction will feature both equine and non-equine items and gift cards.”

The Equine Program raises four to six foals a year. These horses are of various ages and have been trained by undergraduate students in coordination with courses taught at the MU Equine Teaching Facility.

The funds from the sale are used to care for the teaching herd and purchase classroom supplies. Additionally, the auction provides students with valuable real-world experiences by training horses and professionally communicating with potential buyers.

“We generally sell a combination of riding horses and youngstock, with most young horses bred and raised in our program and riding aged horses donated by generous program supporters,” Crosby said. “Our sale provides tremendous hands-on opportunities for our students to learn about careers in the equine industry, but also professionalism and thinking on their feet. It is our goal to place these horses in quality, life-long homes.”

Each horse is sold with complete medical records and detailed daily journals of each horse’s training program since birth.

“One overreaching goal is to teach our students about responsible horsemanship by providing complete histories on each horse and doing our best to place horses in long-term homes by being honest and forthcoming with each horse’s history,” Crosby said.

Bidding is currently open and will close at 7 p.m. CST on Thursday, Nov. 11.