For horse lovers, it is hard to imagine your equine partner as property or an investment, but sometimes a person has to face that reality with full force. Whatever your opinion of the head of Eurocommerce, Ger Visser, he did invest a great deal of time and money in the equestrian industry. Visser owned a string of world class jumpers including Eurocommerce Berlin, Monaco and of course, London, which Gerco Schröder piloted to two silver medals at the 2012 London Olympics. But when Visser declared personal bankruptcy, Eurocommerce London and his stable mates were much more than successful horses in the ring. Under Dutch law, these horses were assets and could be auctioned off to pay debts.

Many in the horse world watched the bidding carefully as Eurocommerce London’s opening bid of four million euros continued to rise, wondering who might be trying to purchase the talented stallion. Some might have seen the lower price tag on other horses and thought maybe…. just maybe….but there is much more to purchasing a horse during an online auction than punching in a credit card number.

One key element of purchasing a horse during an online or forced auction is the question of multiple owners. Some of the horses sold at the Eurocommerce auction were owned entirely by Eurocommerce, but for other horses, Eurocommerce only held partial ownership. The special terms and conditions of the forced auction specifically provided that for some of the horses being offered only an individual partial ownership was offered and there was no possibility of purchasing full ownership of the horse in question. In these cases, it is the duty of the buyer to make arrangements with the co-owner(s) regarding the co-ownership and use of the horse.

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