Foal and embryo auctions are growing like mushrooms these last couple of years, but many eventually disappear again. Flanders Foal Auction, however, built up quite a reputation. What is the key to the success of this auction, which originated in Belgium but has since spread its wings to reach the Arabian Emirates, Ireland and Norway with successful auctions, as it did in the USA and Great Britain?

For 2020 there are six events on the calendar: three embryo auctions and three foal auctions. The warming up is Horse Auction Belgium, with several unborn foals collected by Flanders Foal Auction. Then the team travels to Norway and two weeks later it will be close to Dubai, in Sharjah. Here, too, unborn foals are on offer. It is a golden formula: clients are visited at home, while the host mares can stay in their familiar surroundings.

Luk Van Puymbroeck and Gerald Lenaerts are the driving forces behind the auctions and they have a powerful vision: “By going to the clients, we make the difference from all other auctions. Before you know, we would be all fishing in the same pond and that pond is not so big. Arabs, for example, would never buy an embryo online. You can only do business with them when you go to them and we are more than happy to oblige.”

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