April 25, 2025
Local News

Crundwell trophies winner looking for horses who won them

Minnesota hobbyist putting those connected to awards at top of her list

By BY CHRISTOPHER
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It'll take a lot of horse cents to get this trophy. The gold World Show trophy is going for $425 on Bridget Edgar's Facebook page. If you like the style but not the price, there are silver and bronze versions that go for about 100 bucks less. But you might want to hold your horses before making an offer. Bridget wants to give first dibs on the trophies to the owners of the horses who won them.

COLUMBUS, Minn. – When Bridget Edgar won the sealed-bid auction for Rita Crundwell’s trophies, she tried to put herself in the boots of the owners of the horses who won them.

That’s why, as she unloads the 767 awards, she’s trying to track those owners down. And when she does, they go to the top of her list.

“I know I would love to have a first chance to buy awards that my horses had won in the past,” Edgar said. “It's part of their legacy.

She’s heard from many people interested in the trophies who have no connection to the horse that won them.

“I have been holding off on allowing those to be sold until I hear from the current horses' owners,” she said.

It’s not hard for her to empathize with those owners, having shown quarter horses all her life. She also has miniature horses on her Minnesota hobby farm and enjoys showing them with her husband, Olaf.

Throughout her adventures, Edgar never bumped into Crundwell, but has said many in the industry were shocked to hear how her hobby was being funded.

Edgar won the auction with a bid of $5,560, which along with the nearly $119,000 raised by two online auctions of Crundwell’s belongings, will bring just about $125,000 to the city of Dixon. The former Dixon comptroller was arrested in April 2012 after embezzling more than $53.7 million.

Interestingly, Edgar forgot about her sealed bid until she got a reminder that it was almost Dec. 1, the day the winner would be notified. She was surprised when the good news came from the U.S. Marshals office.

“I have never done anything like this before,” she said. “It was a chance at a fun adventure.”

A hobbyist extraordinaire who’s got a big project coming down the pike at her IT job with Meditronic, a medical technology company, she hasn’t had time to take inventory of late.

But she spent much of Tuesday afternoon and evening boxing up and shipping awards sold to people who people wanted them in time for Christmas.

She think’s she’ll keep one of the gold World Champion trophies, though, as a souvenir, she said.

“They are beautiful.”

WANT TO BUY A TROPHY?

If you're interested in buying any of the Crundwell trophies recently sold to Bridget Edgar via sealed-bid auction – especially if you own any horses that won them – email Edgar at aqhatrophies@gmail.com.

She also is selling some of Crundwell's horse blankets.

Find Bridget Siebenaler Edgar on Facebook for updates, photos and more information.

#Crundwell