Gage County horses go for more than $180,000; rescue and volunteers buy most

PALMYRA, Neb. (KLKN) – The auction of 37 horses seized in Gage County brought in more than $180,000 on Tuesday.

The stands were full at the Palmyra Livestock Market as the horses went up for sale.

After the horses were seized from veterinarian Jennafer Glaesemann last summer, they were taken to Epona Horse Rescue.

Gage County Attorney Roger Harris announced last week that he would not be charging Glaesemann, and the court ordered the horses to auction.

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Once the rescue heard about the sale, it raised more than $50,000 to buy as many of the horses as possible.

Owner Lin Guyton estimated she spent more than $90,000 at the auction, but she only was able to buy about half of them.

“It was such a rigged auction,” Guyton said. “The general public was against me.”

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She said people were trying to run her out of money.

“They paid thousands of dollars for horses that normally would have been $400 to $500 just to prevent me from getting them,” she said.

Several horses were sold for more than $10,000, with the highest bid being $13,000.

Epona and its volunteers are taking home 20 of the 37 horses.

Gary Gross said he’s been to dozens of horse auctions before, but this one was unique.

He said that the horses weren’t great quality but that people were still willing to drop a large amount of cash.

“This is totally different from anything I’d ever seen to be honest with you,” he said.

SEE ALSO: Volunteers seek to save seized Gage County horses from the auction block

After the auction fees, the horses brought in $184,097.25.

The money will be used to pay back Epona for caring for the horses.

Then, the court will decide if Glaesemann needs to pay other various fees.

Whatever is leftover will be given to Glaesemann.

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But that doesn’t mean the case is closed.

The Gage County Sheriff’s Office said there’s still more work to do.

“We’re still doing some follow-up investigation,” Sgt. Tim Hanson said. “Then there’s going to be the settlement that comes, and the sheriff will deposit that check with the courts. We’ll see how that turns out.”

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Sheriff Millard “Gus” Gustafson said at the very beginning, he didn’t expect it to become such a public case.

But he thinks the fact that it involved a veterinarian was a factor in how much attention it gathered.

Guyton said she feels some relief, as she believes a believes most of the horses she didn’t buy will be going to good homes.