Seventeen students from the Michigan State University Agricultural Technology Horse Management Program will parade their semester class projects through the sale arena at the MSU Spartan Spectacular Arabian Horse Auction April 27 at the MSU Horse Teaching and Research Center on Collins Road.

The annual sale culminates four months of hard work and commitment by students in the two-year, career-based vocational horse management certificate program and the four-year undergraduate degree program. Students hail from diverse equine backgrounds – lifelong riders raised on farms learn right alongside occasional riders from urban and suburban settings.

Beginning in January, the students are divided into two groups. The two-year students focus on training and preparing horses for the sale under the supervision of 18-year HTRC veteran Paula Hitzler. The second group of undergraduate students prepares advertising and marketing materials to promote the sale and manages all the organizational components of putting on a sale under the direction of John Shelle, MSU professor of animal science.

Two-year students start the spring semester project by attending a three-times-a-week class titled "Show Horse Training and Conditioning" instructed by Hitzler. The hands-on class challenges students to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills in addition to learning about animal care.

Hitzler explains that this class trains students in every aspect of horse management in preparation for the sale.

"They condition, groom and train the horses, in addition to assessing their performance potential and presenting the animals in the sale ring," she says. "The sale is a venue for students to demonstrate the skills they have learned during class."

Sale horses - mares and geldings - are usually started under saddle. Buyers purchase horses as family horses or brood mares, or for showing at all levels from 4-H to national.

Hitzler emphasizes the importance of matching the correct horse and rider. "It's essential to match the person with the horse," she says. "Sometimes the right animal is not available for a buyer in a given year, but buyers will return every year until they find the right horse."

Though sale advertising is limited to word of mouth and an extensive mailing list, buyers attend the sale from throughout the state and from as far away as Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana and Ohio.

"We have a huge rate of return business because we take such an honest approach to the sale," Hitzler says. "Buyers come back year after year because someone has been honest with them in assessing their needs."

Potential buyers and others interested in seeing the horses available for sale are invited to attend an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. April 26 or from 11 a.m. until the start of the sale at 2 p.m. on April 27.

Descriptions of the horses offered for sale at the Spartan Spectacular auction and their traits are available at www.msuarabians.com. Click on "sale horses." Interested buyers are encouraged to contact Hitzler for more information by calling (517) 355-7484 or sending an e-mail to [email protected].