We shot a great sequence of Lauren Tisbo and her 2005 Hanoverian stallion Sting Van De Withoeve on course at WEF:

intensely focused on the course

flying over the water

smiles and a pat for a good effort!

Posted in Bigeq Show Shots ,

Hello,

we again want to reiterate to our users to be cautious in your online dealings. Over the years, we've occasionally been notified of scammers sending email inquiries to our sellers. There seems to be a recent increase in these fraudulent emails. Our response is always the same: Please be careful in your online dealings, and if you receive a message or inquiry that doesn't seem legit, it probably isn't.

We are looking into ways to make contact between buyers and sellers more secure, but while keeping the lines of communication easy and open for legitimate inquiries. It is a fine line we are trying to figure out - in the meantime, please be aware of these scam emailers and ignore any contact they attempt to make.

Sincerely,

Bigeq.com

Posted in Bigeq

We're always suckers here at Bigeq for adorable ponies - and there are plenty of those at WEF as usual. So for all the other pony hunter lovers out there, we present some of these cuties from last week's show for your enjoyment! :)

Elite Honeybee and Kelly Jo Coughlin in the children's pony hunters

Clementine Talmage and Cloudy Bay in the children's pony hunters.

Newsflash and Madison Goetzmann, medium pony hunters

True Love and Lindsay Levine, medium pony hunters

Cleverist and Daisy Farish, medium pony hunters

My Boy and Addison Piper, medium pony hunters

Woodland's Stevie Ray and Mimi Gochman in the medium pony hunters

Enchanted Forest and Meredith Darst, medium pony hunters

Posted in Bigeq The Pony Zone ,

We spotted a pre-green class this week... and saw a host of beautiful bevy of bay hunters that will surely be future winners in the junior, amateur and professional hunter divisions!

Jackson and Havens Schatt, owned by Caroline Moran

Per Se and Holly Orlando, owned by Iron Horse Farm - putting his best foot forward. ;)

... and both feet forward - in lovely form!

Noblige and Denise Monopoli, owned by DK-USA Sporthorse, LLC.

Noblige again

and lastly, Santana and Brittany Sutton, owned by Irving Goldman

Posted in Bigeq Show Shots ,

There's a host of beautiful grays competing in the upper level jumpers... so we gathered a little collection of photographs from WEF weeks 1 and 2 for your enjoyment. :)

So... enjoy!

Laura Kraut and Azzaro Van't Hagen Hof

Bull Run's La Bamba

Bull Run's La Bamba and Kristen Vanderveen

CC Top and Marilyn Little-Meredith

Swagger and Debbie Stephens

Zilverstar VDL and Candice King

Marlo and Darragh Kenny

Valentia and Laura Chapot

and one more of Valentia and Laura

So it seems that Wellington's gone gray! Bravo to all the grooms who keep these horses sparklingly clean for the show ring - we're sure it's not an easy task!

Posted in Bigeq Show Shots ,

More sights from WEF week one...

Along with the rest of the horse community, we would like to send our best wishes to McLain Ward for a speedy recovery after his recent fall and knee injury. This photo was taken in the $6000 Spy Coast Farm 1.40m on 1/13/12, a class he won on Esplanade 7, the day before.

Not sure who this CUTIE is, but he rocked the leadline class. :)

The competition was really fierce in the leadline - going across the boundaries of equestrian disciplines - English vs. Western! We think they're equally adorable. :)

Posted in Bigeq Show Shots , The Pony Zone ,

It's that wonderful time of year again - the winter circuit in Wellington. Here are some sights from this week's competition. :)

British rider Gemma Paternoster

We featured this lovely mare last year, Una Bella with Christopher Shroeder in the 8 year old young jumpers. We weren't going to post another one of her, but this was such a gorgeous trotting picture, we couldn't resist.

"Qrocus Landais" and Isabelle Caccamise in the low junior jumpers.

"Wundine" and Lillie Keenan in the low junior jumpers.

And lastly, Sapphire is back! We hear she received a very warm round of applause from the crowd. :)

Stay tuned, as we're planning to post more blogs and pictures from Wellington than we have in past years. See you ringside!

Posted in Bigeq Show Shots ,

We have received reports of a scammer going by the name "Deson" using the email address:

desonrobin@gmail.com

Please ignore all communication from this email address.

Posted in Bigeq

It's not every day that we receive an email like this at Bigeq.com: "I have a photo from the Devon show in 2002. Is there any way to get a reprint. My house was recently hit by a tornado, and I found the print, but it is badly damaged. It was of Frankly My Dear, a chestnut."

The email arrived in June from Linda Scherder, of Elite Welsh Ponies in Bowling Green, MO, a name I recognized from 10+ years of working within the hunter/jumper industry on Bigeq.com. I've followed the “Elite” ponies from Linda's breeding program for years, having a fondness for Elite Stormfront and, of course, “Frank.”

On the afternoon of April 19, 2011, a supercell thunderstorm formed near the farm, dumping torrential rains and baseball-sized hail. Linda was trying to finish her barn chores before the rain hit when her husband began to frantically scream to go to the house. From the billowing gray clouds, a whitish whirling funnel had dropped to the ground and it was headed directly for them.

Before descending into her basement, Linda pulled out her cell phone and took a solitary picture of the awesome yet terrible force of nature bearing down on her world. The tornado swept directly through the farm, toppling trees, tearing up outbuildings, twisting and destroying fencing, several tractors, a combine, and viciously chewing away at the family home.

Miraculously, most of Linda's ponies survived the ordeal unscathed. Three of her mares, however, were in a paddock directly in the path of the tornado. Elite Tiddly Winks, a 1993 14-hand bay mare, had lacerations and a severed tendon in her hock. After two weeks of treatment at the veterinary hospital, the mare stopped putting weight on her leg and had to be put down. Tiddly Winks had been a beloved member of the Scherder family. “She was always one of those ponies anyone at any age could ride and enjoy,” Linda said.

For weeks, the family continued to find their personal belongings scattered over the property, including the mud-caked picture of Frankly My Dear. For Linda, this part of the story has a happy ending. I emailed her two digital versions of the photo so she could make as many copies as she wanted.

Linda concluded the tornado “was very devastating, but no one was hurt. The stuff we lost is stuff. It can be replaced. I did lose a wonderful pony that I will miss forever, but I still know we are very blessed.” Linda and her family are looking to the future with optimism as they rebuild the farm. She's already back to work getting their the youngsters broken and started in their training. For those ponies she hopes to sell, perhaps she can add “tornado proof” to their advertisements!

Your best buy- maybe even a ‘tornado-proof' pony- awaits you at Bigeq.com. Finding great show horses and ponies has never been easier with Bigeq.com - we're first in hunter/jumper sales online. Come shop for your next show partner and view photos and video clips... or visit to sell your quality show horses and ponies.
www.bigeq.com

More information on Elite Welsh Ponies
http://www.elitewelshponies.com/

By C Smith, Bigeq.com
article first appeared in the Capital Challenge Daily Update, Oct 2, 2011.

Posted in Bigeq Bigeq Classic , The Pony Zone ,

Dear Bigeq visitors,

A) thank you as always - business is going great and we are looking forward to an active and successful fall selling season!

B) and this is the real news: we've joined Pinterest. Wahoo! It's mainly for fun - as we looove to shop around the internet for horsey stuff we like. So now we can collect it and share it with you on Pinterest! So please follow us on there if you ilke - and we look forward to sharing lots of cool horsey and hunter jumper stuff over there.

C) To encourage better quality photo submissions on Bigeq.com, we will also periodically feature photos on Pinterest linked from our website that are of exceptional quality under "Best Photos on Bigeq." We don't endorse the horses or ponies in any way - we just want to celebrate quality photographs and encourage our users to present their horses as well as possible.

Nothing is more discouraging to us than to receive a disappointed email from a customer who received few inquiries. It is heartbreaking to look at their ad and see a horrible photo and realize they might have a nice horse, but it's so poorly presented that it's not going to get any clicks. Then we get the blame. We're not perfect and we offer a great service, but our customers have to make the effort to present their horse well in order increase the chance for things to work out! So please, please try to put up nice photos and quality videos with your ad.

So that's it! It's fall finals time - and we wish everyone good luck at their various local, zone, regional and national finals!

Posted in Bigeq Online Selling Tips ,