7yr Old Super Awesome Gelding For Sale $800

Selling a horse is hard these days. No one is buying horses unless they can afford the cream of the crop. Those of us with lower priced animals have to do everything we can to market our equines to the tiny number of people looking for a good deal. I have always looked at horse ads on CL whenever I am perusing the farm and garden section. It has never ceased to amaze me how much people don't really seem to care about how their "fine" equine appears to potential buyers. They seem to think that a blurry photo and badly worded blurb, devoid of punctuation, touting the superiority of this animal should convince people that it is worth their while to come see it in person. In some of these cases they might get more interest with no photo at all. Then at least we could be hopeful that the seller doesn't have a camera, is technologically challenged, or has some other logical excuse for not posting a pic.

Perhaps these pony peddlers just don't realize what a bad impression they are making? Surely if they took the time to find out the best way to sell their horse online they might be able to come up with a better advertisement. A quick search of "how to sell your horse online" reveals an eHow article with step by step instructions. Step number two says to "take images that enhance the good points of your horse." No one can think that means to go out in the paddock just after your horse rolled in the mud and snap a photo of "Rocket" while he looks like he just awoke from a long nap in a dirty stall. But I can see that people might need a little more instruction on how to best capture the pony on camera. Therefore I'd like to offer some pointers to would be sellers, in hopes that they might make a better first impression on potential buyers. So here goes.

Super Simple Guidelines for Selling Your Horse Online

When you are trying to sell your horse, do yourself a favor and take a brush, a curry, and some Show Sheen to your nag before you pull out the Nikon. It won't hurt to pull or trim their mane and tail or put some hoof oil on their tootsies either. And before you decide to run out to the field for the glamor shot please Please PLEASE keep in mind that potential buyers want to see the entire horse! A head on shot of the horse grazing shows absolutely NOTHING. If you are worried that your horse has poor conformation, stop worrying, there are plenty of people searching for a horse who wouldn't know good conformation if it came up and bit them.

If you really want to impress people then take two shots, one from the side with the horse standing square, and one (also from the side) of the horse trotting at the maximum point of extension. We don't want to see photos of the beast in a field with five other horses in winter blankets. We don't want to see photos of a scraggly scruffy hack, standing in muck up to their ankles while you assure us this thing is a gorgeous mover who will get lots of attention in the show ring!!! Serious buyers are not going to waste their time contacting you to try the horse if you can't be bothered to spruce the poor thing up and take a decent photo.

If you are advertising that the horse can jump, then take a picture (from the SIDE again please!) of the horse in neat form going over a jump with a decent rider. Can't get a decent rider? Take one of the horse free jumping. It is much better to see the horse jumping nicely without a rider than to see a grainy under/over exposed photo of some kid's first jumping lesson. The same goes for any other riding discipline. If you can't get a good action shot then don't include it.

The old saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. By following these simple guidelines I am sure you can create photo whose one thousand words are complementary and result in more inquiries. When it is so easy to put your horse's best hoof forward why would you do anything else?