Gives an interesting glimpse into the marketing talents of JZ Knight trying to palm off Arabian horses at RSE .
One such horse she sold to Ernie Kanzler by "Ramtha" claiming it was the reincarnation of his beloved horse "Shamiradin" and managed to swindle over $500.000 in cash from Ernie.
Yep..that was not a Typo error...."Over Five Hundred Thousand Dollars".
Ernie eventually got banned from RSE for trying to get his money back.....
David
By CR. Roberts published in The News Tribune
Jeff Knight was 7 years old visiting his grandfathers farm when he first rode a horse — a pony — and he was 16 when he took his first
lesson. He remembers the name of the first Arabian he rode - Star Jur and he remembers how it was that his dream of becoming a top breeder and trainer grew, from the time he began giving lessons in California to 1984, when his $40,000 mare VP Kahlua won first place honors both at the U.S. Nationals and the World Championships in Paris
He remembers too the high prices that Arabian horses brought just a few years ago.
But things have changed. The market has gone searching for a bottom.
It may have found what it was looking for last Saturday night at an auction held at Knight’s Yelm stables.
The market is up and down” Knight said, after the sale. He characterizes the current situation as “very soft.” One spectator at the event characterized the prices as “disastrous.”
Knight casts blame for the swayback temper of the marketplace on recent changes in the tax laws, the Wall Street crash last November and “the oil crunch a couple years back.”
A couple years back, Knight’s operation housed more than a hundred horses. Now he’s got 13, with five in foal. He says that over the next few years he’d like to stay “in the 13- to 20-horse range.”
And instead of catering to buyers whose interests focus on profits or tax codes, Knight says now that ‘the kind of buyer we want is the kind of buyer who’ll be Involved.”
‘A horse is to be loved.
“We don’t like to see investors who won’t be active with their horses,” he says.
The “we” he uses refers to his wife, JZ the well known Yelm necromantic. Only once during the sale did Mrs. Knight appear, this while showing VP Kahlua, the mother of Lot No, 14.
The program listed a total of 19 lots, numbered 1-12 and 14-20. only four of the lots were owned by the Knights; the others were sold on behalf of investors syndicates.
The sale was held in a barn as big as the gymnasium at the local high school.
The ushers and the sales staff wore tuxedos. Many of the spectators and bidders wore suits and ties, sill and minks. Cowboy boots strode with high heels.
Sprinklings of denim stood beside suede. The air stewed with horse-smells and the scents of costly perfumes.
Wide as a thin country road and strewn with woodshavings. the stage ran the length of the barn. The audience of nearly a thousand sat either at tableclothed tables in rows of folding chairs. Spotlights and stagelights shone overhead. An auctioneer and an announcer sat behind a lectern, facing all.
Billed as ‘Messiahs Magical Sale/A Time to Remember Your Forgotten Dreams,” the event saw an admixture of show business and real business, with seven theatrical vignettes enclosing the actual auctioneering.
After explaining the terms of the sale and the availability of credit terms, the announcer introduced the first lot, a horse named Nite Luv.
She is beautiful. She is exciting,” he said. After asking for an opening bid of $50,000, the auctioneer settled on $8,000. Nite Lay went for $14,500.
“We talk of beauty, we talk of excitement, we talk now of Lot No. 2,” said the announcer.
Don’t be bashful now, here’s a dream come true,”
said the auctioneer. He wanted to start the bidding at
$20,000 but he settled for $1,000. The horse went for $1,750.
‘She is talented, she is athletic - - she has what it takes,” said the announcer, of Lot No. 3 From an opening bid of $3,000 — not $25,000 — the horse sold for $6,300.
And so on.
She is elegance, she is beautiful, she is Lot No. ~. She has the attitude she has the aptitude’
She went for $1,700. Of Lot No. 14: “He is beauty, he is elegance, he is a magical dream.’ He started at $3,000 — not $50000 and he sold for $5,100.
And without the dream, the question was asked, how can you make a dream come true?
he is a drinker of the wind. he is Style, He is our Dream 19.” He went for $1,000.
‘The reality is the final dream,’’ said the announcer, introducing the final lot, a nervous colt. The- bidding began at an alarming $500.
‘Think of the reality of the future,” came the plea. The horse fell to a hammer of $l,900
I asked Jeff Knight about the reality of the present. Was it worth the $30,000 he spent putting on the show? He looked tired and he answered with eyes empty of smiles.
“I think so,” he said.
CR. Roberts
The News Tribune