Billings Livestock Commission — Local services in Billings

Pretty disappointed in the way things went for the Oct 29th horse sale! We tried to sell our very well bred stallion. We were referred to BLS by several horse people, so decided to try it. Had never been there ourselves. Arranged for our trainer to bring the stud - 14 hour drive. Not having been there before, we didn't know that the horse palace (where the preview was held) was 17 miles away, we needed to get checked in at BLS, get hip #'s, and trailer 30 more mins to stand in line in an indoor arena where they randomly let sellers show off their animals for no apparent reason, as there weren't many buyers watching, nor was this online. Then day of sale - loose, grade & killer horses were sold at 8 a.m., taking up the morning & into afternoon. The first 2 hours of the "catalog" sale were more grade & lower-quality stock who weren't available online. So internet sales didn't start til 3:20 p.m. Our stallion was # 231 so he didn't even enter the ring til 8:30 p.m.! Needless to say, people were tired, buyers had dwindled, and we don't even know what happened to internet buyers we had had contact with earlier in the week! Our stud brought less than half of what he was worth so we no-saled, packed up, and went home. We won't be using or referring anyone to Billings Livestock for horse sales! Very poorly organized! Any other horse sale I've ever been to has showcased the catalog premier horses & started the sale time for those horses in the morning, when buyers are more available & willing to either come to the sale or participate online. A much better sale to attend: Salmon...

Billings livestock commission HORSE SALES is NOT a place to recommend to your friends. Their soundness guarantee is bogus and their sellers consist of allot of different horse traders ranging from Billings itself to Minnesota. Read the fine print folks. Do your home work and DO NOT expect to return a horse for ANY reason, at any time. If the manager, Jan Parker, isn’t your buddy you will get no where with any issues you have. Plenty of other good, private places...

May be a good place for cattle sales but horse sales not so much. Most people I spoke with about the venue for horse sales say the same thing, "not the right or big enough venue for the horse sales". BTW, PAYS and BLS are owned by the same family. Parkers' should consider leasing a building or barns at the Metra for...