It is a steep, remote, hill-country block with 304ha of effective land and 259ha of bush in a QE2 trust.
He runs 600 Romney ewes and a Black Welsh stud with 85 cows but also grazing the steep paddocks are his pride and joy – about 100 Te Wae Wae horses.
Farmed the old-fashioned way they are split into stallion mobs with the sires that grace the hills ranging from a Missouri Foxtrotter, which was imported from the United States, to a Morgan stallion, also from imported bloodlines, as well as a grey Hanoverian Warmblood, a Pinto sport horse and a Puketoro stallion.
One for the Te Wae Wae sport horses history books was their first horse auction, which was held at the property on August 10.
The horses are typically sold privately but Brickell said he wanted to give an auction a go.
“You have to try different things and I wanted to see how it would go.
“It also gave people the opportunity to come out and see Te Wae Wae.”
With the quality and versatility of Brickell’s horses already known, close to 100 people made the journey to the remote Wairoa property and a quarter registered as buyers.
On offer were about 30 broken and unbroken horses from Te Wae Wae, ranging from rising three to rising seven, which were all sired by Brickell’s stallions and were born and raised on the steep hill country.
An air of anticipation hung over the yards as the sale got under way with many in the crowd knowing they were part of a special moment for Brickell who opened the auction with a heart-warming prayer for his beloved horses before Neville Clark took over the reins as auctioneer. To keep the cogs turning on the day was a team of helpers, lead by Tommy Atkins. This team of four came in this year to help Brickell wean, brand, geld and handle the foals then set the wheels in motion for the first horse sale held at the property.
Top unbroken price was $2000 for a show-stopping grey-dun gelding by Brickell’s Hanoverian Warmblood out of a Cricklewood mare while the average price for the unbroken lots was $900. The top priced broken-in horse was sold on behalf and made $5000. Buyers were mostly local though stretched to Gisborne and down further into Hawke’s Bay and Whanganui and most made more than one purchase.
At the end of the sale Brickell was happy with how the day went.
“It was not a roaring success but well worth it”.
And when asked if he will hold another auction said “Absolutely, with a few tweaks here and there.”
