RCMP auctioning off Musical Ride-bred horses

Oceana (left) and Marina, two horses from the RCMP Musical Ride breeding program up for auction this fall. (GCSurplus)

Do you want to buy a horse from the RCMP Musical Ride? If you have a few thousand bucks kicking around, you will have your chance this fall.

Up to a dozen horses from the RCMP’s breeding program will be auctioned off in October. The horses are sold because they don’t meet the Musical Ride’s strict requirements. For example, Musical Ride horses must be black. If the horse is brown, it doesn’t make the cut.

The RCMP offers the horses up for sale every other year. The Hanoverians are highly sought-after and the RCMP says they are excellent for dressage, show jumping and other disciplines.

“To ensure horses go to serious buyers, we set high base prices and bidders need to register in advance,” the RCMP’s website says.

A pair of auctions in 2018, during which 36 horses were sold, raised more than $500,000. The priciest horse that year went for $35,000. One of those auctions was online and the other was in-person.

The 2020 edition of the auction was entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proceeds from the sale go back into the Musical Ride’s breeding program.

This year, the horses will be auctioned off on GC Surplus from Oct. 3-12. You can register here.