PAID PROMOTION
Between his preparations for the FEI World Cup Finals, show jumping rider Harrie Smolders was busy selecting the best up-and-coming talents for the highly anticipated SLF Auction. He hosts the online auction together with his friends and fellow horsemen Walter Lelie and Niels Fabrie. From April 24-26, more than 60 quality horses between 3 and 8 years old will be sold online at www.slf.auction.
The SLF team focuses on quality only. “No quality? No auction!” is their rule of thumb. “It’s kind of funny,” says Smolders in Omaha, Nebraska, at the World Cup Finals, where he finished second with his top mount Monaco. “We always wait to set a date for our auction because we think we won’t have enough quality horses to fill the collection. But when we put together what all three of us have found, it appears we have more than plenty,” he says, laughing. “So we added a third day.”
Hunters, Equitation Horses, and Jumpers
The current collection consists of a couple of hunters and equitation horses, but most of the horses are jumpers. “The quality is high. We have quite a large group of 3- and 4-year-old free jumpers this time, but we didn’t want to pass on talent, so we added all the good youngsters to the collection,” says Smolders. “Then we have ridden 4-year-olds and horses between 4 and 8 years old with show experience.”
A Tough Selection Process
The selection process of the SLF horses is a tough one. “We do a lot of homework before we decide on which horses to invite to our video day,” says Smolders. “Then, on the video day, some horses don’t live up to our quality standards and drop out. As a last step, I want to see the horses that passed the video day and the vetting at my place. It’s a new environment for the horses, similar to going to a horse show, so we can see which horses are a little bit lost or too green for our clients,” explains Smolders. “At the end of the day, we want our clients to be happy and come back. We want to stand behind what we sell so the auction horses go through the same process as when we would select horses for ourselves.”
The fact that Smolders himself found his top horse Monaco when he was just a youngster proves that the SLF selection process is “not too shabby.” It’s worth investing in one or more of the auction horses.
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Auction Dates
Check out the collection on www.slf.auction and place your bids from April 24-26.
April 24 & 25: 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds
April 26: 5-year-olds and older horses
Contact Niels Fabrie, Walter Lelie, and Harrie Smolders with any questions you may have regarding the horses. Find contact details and all information about the horses on the website www.slf.auction.
With SLF Horse Auctions, Dutch Olympian Harrie Smolders – former world number one – has combined his expertise with that of Walter Lelie and Niels Fabrie. As the breeder and rider behind the success stories of horses such as Killer Queen VDM, Irenice Horta, Gancia du Muze, Eldorado vd Zeshoek, Just the Music, and Go Easy de Muze, Lelie’s horsemanship and proficiency are second to none, while Niels Fabrie has an exceptional eye for talent and an unbeaten skill to find the perfect match for each rider. With Smolders, Lelie and Fabrie, SLF Horse Auctions offers the perfect combination of expertise and quality, a guarantee for future success.
This content was paid for and provided by SLF Auction. The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Chronicle of the Horse.
