AUGUST 27-30,  YOUNG CHAMPIONS AUCTION: NEW AND INNOVATIVE

Jul 4, 2022

Sport and trade are inextricably linked in the horse world. This is what brought together four friends, passionate about the sport and fascinated by the trade, to share their passion through an auction where they offer young horses and some embryos. Jos Verlooy and Kevin Jochems are top athletes, Dave Vermandel and Brent Onsia are top riders who scout and train young horses. Together they found each other and joined forces to build a bridge from young horses to top sport horses. They now want to share their knowledge and experience with potential customers through the Young Champions Auction.

'Getting to the top is difficult, staying there is even more difficult', Jos Verlooy begins: 'to ensure continuity, we are constantly looking for young horses. That is part of our existence as a top rider. You will never find those young talents alone, you rely on your network for that. For example, I regularly sit with a few specialized horse people who know what I'm looking for and have an eye for talent. That gave us the idea to organize an auction for young horses and embryos. It goes without saying that Belgium is the horse country by excellence. The best are born here and we seek and find them.”

Kevin Jochems:  We want to offer our customers young horses with high potential with all necessary information for success. 

Brent Onsia: 'The basic principle is that we select horses that we produce ourselves right up to the auction, that is the difference between Young Champions Auction  and other auctions where only selection days are organised.

Dave Vermandel: 'The credibility of our auction lies in the fact that we buy the horses ourselves as if they were for ourselves. They are all talented horses that are well worth investing our time and energy in.

Kevin Jochems: 'It's quite funny how our auction came about. We happened to be having dinner together and collectively realized  that we could spend our time more usefully. This is how the idea came to invest in young talented horses and then offer them via an online auction .

Jos Verlooy: 'Everyone is looking for their own way and this is a path that we walk together with great enthusiasm and drive. Sitting together is nice, but taking advantage of that opportunity to devise projects, work them out and make them successful is much more rewarding.. That is what young driven people do.”

Dave Vermandel: 'We realised that we are very complementary to each other. Brent and I focus on horses from two to six years old. Kevin and Jos focus on horses from the age of seven. What if we merged that knowledge?'

Jos Verlooy: 'If you jump internationally every week like I do, you mainly see horses that have already found their final destination. Unlike Dave and Brent, I have no time and no insight into the range of young horses. They know what I need to stay at the top.”

Brent Onsia: We work very simply, anyone who discovers a quality three to six year old horse shares it in the group. We are four strict judges and practice shows that there is great unanimity. We have set the standard very high. That is our criteria. This is why we selected  young horses in which we see a lot of potential.”

Dave Vermandel: 'Jos and Kevin will agree that seven-year-olds have often been sold to professional stables and are therefore no longer for sale. We want to buy the same horses in that same age group. That is a difficult quest, but that is exactly our challenge.”

Jos Verlooy: 'The great merit of  Dave and Brent is that they are discovering horses at the source; the breeders. Then it is our job to train and improve these young horses. We have been working on that for several months now.

Kevin Jochems: 'Our project started six months ago. The advantage of our system is that in recent months we have discovered the unique skills and talent of the horses.. When you have horses in the stable for several months, you know their characters and personality, their inquisitiveness and willingness to work. That is important information that we can pass on. We know exactly what we are selling.

Jos Verlooy: 'We don't know our customers (yet), but we can already give them an exact profile of our horses since we know them very well. Not everyone aspires to top sport, which is why we can provide a full report on our auction horses: what potential they have ? How are they to ride? What are their physical and mental qualities? That transparent information is our added value.

 

Dave Vermandel: We selected about five percent of all horses that were presented.  That says a lot about our strict criteria.

 

Jos Verlooy: We do not want to disappoint any of our customers, which is why we have been so strict in our selection.  This is our first auction, although we are already thinking long term.

That is why we are very transparent with our venture. For potential buyers, we will post videos of the auction horses in training and at competition. This way the horses can be followed online.

 

Kevin Jochems: " We want to give an honest picture of each horse, which we evaluate open and critically so the buyer knows exactly what he's buying.

 

Jos Verlooy:' It is our intention to bring the right horse to the right customer.  That will be the big challenge.  Judging by the quality we offer, I’m confident.  The fact is that we ourselves believe in our collection.  We invest in horses that we enjoy riding ourselves.

 

You can already register on our website : www.youngchampions.auction , so that you are the first to obtain all information about the collection.

 

The auction starts August 27th, 2022 at 9am (local time) until august 30th at 8pm (local time)

 

For more info you can send us an email to info@youngchampions.auction 

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