Sending a horse out to be sold vs. doing it yourself and commission ideas?

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Have you partnered with a trainer to sell horse(s)? Did you just put the horse in training and pay commission (so training plus commission) or did you work out some sort of arrangement where trainer gets 10% commission plus a percentage anything above x in exchange for training, etc. How did it go? What would you do differently?

Do you expect them to do marketing materials (video) for the commission? What if I do and I sell the horse through other contacts I have? I’ve only used a trainer to sell a horse once before and it happened very quickly–in a week, and I wasn’t involved at all, so I’m probably not up on all the facets of this.

My biggest concern is I don’t want to deal with people coming to my house to try the horse. Mainly, because I don’t have anywhere to ride if it has been raining (grass arena–wide open area) so sending the horse to a facility with an indoor makes more sense. I am also worried about liability–horse is green, my arena isn’t fenced, you get the idea.

My concern is if I am paying training, what is the trainer’s incentive to move the horse? I thought about doing a bonus if the horse sells in the first 45 days. Thoughts?

TIA!

[PhoenixFarm]

In this day and age I would be stunne if you can find someone willing to take a horse “off the cuff” ie without you paying the monthly bills. The best you could hope for I think, is someone willing to work for a larger percentage commission plus straight bills (for example you pay board vet farrier, but not training per se, and their commission is 25% or so.

If the horse is at their facility, and being prepped and ridden by them, you should pay the agreed upon commission even if you sell the horse to your best friend. That would, frankly, be doubly true if you were doing something like the above.

If there a risk that someone won’t bust tail in order to keep the monthly checks rolling in? Yes, but if its an issue then you need to find a dedicated and well known dealer (not using that word pejoratively) but that also means you shouldn’t expect a deal, or for it to be a warm and fuzzy experience. I know folks who will be able to sell a nice horse to a good home in 60 days or so. But you probably won’t know much about where it goes or have much contact with the buyer, etc. That is not to imply impropriety, but people who make their living selling do so by volume, and not by everybody being a special snowflake.

I hate selling horses, though I once worked for a very active sales barn, and I do occasionally sell horses for clients. I’m pretty warm and fuzzy about it, still know where most of the horses I’ve sold are, but I wouldn’t pretend to be quick, lol,

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

[QUOTE=PhoenixFarm;7645880]
In this day and age I would be stunne if you can find someone willing to take a horse “off the cuff” ie without you paying the monthly bills. The best you could hope for I think, is someone willing to work for a larger percentage commission plus straight bills (for example you pay board vet farrier, but not training per se, and their commission is 25% or so.

If the horse is at their facility, and being prepped and ridden by them, you should pay the agreed upon commission even if you sell the horse to your best friend. That would, frankly, be doubly true if you were doing something like the above.

If there a risk that someone won’t bust tail in order to keep the monthly checks rolling in? Yes, but if its an issue then you need to find a dedicated and well known dealer (not using that word pejoratively) but that also means you shouldn’t expect a deal, or for it to be a warm and fuzzy experience. I know folks who will be able to sell a nice horse to a good home in 60 days or so. But you probably won’t know much about where it goes or have much contact with the buyer, etc. That is not to imply impropriety, but people who make their living selling do so by volume, and not by everybody being a special snowflake.

I hate selling horses, though I once worked for a very active sales barn, and I do occasionally sell horses for clients. I’m pretty warm and fuzzy about it, still know where most of the horses I’ve sold are, but I wouldn’t pretend to be quick, lol,[/QUOTE]

Thank you. That’s helpful. I guess I was assuming I would still pay board, farrier, etc. I should have said that.

I guess my issue is that the training is so expensive, and I’m not looking for a huge amount of money, so after a few months of training I’ve eaten a big hunk of my sale price. Also, the horse would be worth a fair amount more with a few months training, it’s broke as in walk trot canter, but not “finished,” and I think even just 60 days would make it much more marketable, but I’m not sure how you get buyers to understand the “price increases with training” part…but at the same time if I don’t see a price for a horse in a sale ad, I just assume I can’t afford it, so I do think listing price is good.

Maybe with a horse like that it is better to do a month of training and then start marketing?

I really hate selling horses.

[findeight]

My trainers have usually taken youngsters to sell. They have varying board/training rates but never worked on straight consignment or went to the " anything over…" Price deals. There is too much room for misunderstandings and outright fraud even within the terms of a written contract.

Many sellers find they can’t even get any serious buyers to come to their home farm. More traffic in a show barn, more likely buyers, more then one to look at for them, exposure to busy environment so buyer can better evaluate. Many pluses.

Best to have trainer evaluate it before placing. Contract of course outlining exactly what services are included. CHECK every couple of weeks including sitting in on a training session. Sit down and meet with trainer once a month discussing progress and goals. Many trainers might prefer you to be more absentee- don’t do that. Once every 2 weeks with one sit down a month is not helicoptering.

[fordtraktor]

From your posts in the past it sounds to me like a nice horse you would be a lot better off sending to a good program to sell. I personally would get it going very well/a bit more finished, then send it off to be sold. Probably for two or three times what you can get selling it out of your backyard. BTDT, learned my lesson about what a BNT can charge and what I can charge for the same animal.

(BTW, in the meantime don’t put up a bunch of ads for it now with a low price tag! because those will then be available on the web later, and with the extra training it will be worth more. You don’t want to make the trainer’s job harder explaining why the horse is priced higher. Best just to keep it off the market until you are ready with a price, or with a “call for price” type of thing. I normally dislike “call for price” but when you anticipate a quick rise in price it is the wisest course of action I think.)

[findeight]

Yeah, don’t advertise the price now…or advertise it at all. Trainer will have the contacts to find buyers or make up the ad on their site.

Last thing you want is to dump $xxxx.00 into 3 or 4 months of training and have somebody demand the price you advertised when it was standing in the mud 6 months ago. Call for price may not be ideal but, remember, you aren’t answering the phone if the trainer is acting as your agent anyway.

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

Thank you guys. Good advice. I feel like I’m too close to the issue to be objective and too out-of-the-loop to know what all the options might be. I think you are all right–wait to advertise.

Fordtraktor…thanks…it is the one you are thinking of. I completely agree with you. I think two to three months should make a huge difference in price. I think from an emotional standpoint I’m trying to take the easy way out and just get it done. Of course I will want to keep her. Right now she is a bit much for me, riding alone at home and in an open field. And the rain isn’t cooperating for me to do any regular schedule. I guess if simply pay for training I still have that option. Maybe not a good thing!

[artsmom]

For the same exact reasons (I don’t want people trying a horse at my house when I don’t have a ring, etc), I have used trainers to sell horses. They were both trainers that sell horses routinely and have a pretty decent following. One was willing to do a “I’ll give you $xx now and resell after I invest the training (which ended up taking awhile).” The other one charged me training board plus took a commission. However, the price that she got after 1 month was 3X more than what I would have listed the horse at.

[camohn]

I have done it a few times. I pay the training board as usual, and the trainer gets a commission if he helps sell the horse.the only ones I send out for training are green beans being started under saddle, so a couple months there is increasing the value by a good bit.pricing: I advertise a pretty firm price for horses not under saddle. Once you start putting training dollars into them it’s a range pending training or estimate high and willing to neg if the horse sells quickly. Call for price with no ballpark range at all is a death knell though.buyers want to know if they are in the ballpark and I don’t want to field tons of calls from the folks that want to spend 2k when 2 months of training cost more than that…

[OakGroveFarm]

Check out our website if you are looking for a trainer to help. We have openings for training board and can market your horse for selling. We are conveniently located 2 hours from KY horse park and an hour from Nashville. We are hunter jumper based. www.oakgrovefarmandequestrian.com

[jbonifas]

I just sold an OTTB and I did a 75%/25% split on expenses with the rider. I did the national ad and had lots of lookers but he sold after a clinic. He was a last minute addition to an event clinic as a fill in for a drop and was in a division 2 levels above what he had shown and his “I can do this” attitude got him sold.

[houserabbitz]

@TrotTrotPumpkn;7645829

Have you partnered with a trainer to sell horse(s)? Did you just put the horse in training and pay commission (so training plus commission) or did you work out some sort of arrangement where trainer gets 10% commission plus a percentage anything above x in exchange for training, etc. How did it go? What would you do differently?

I’ve used the more traditional route; I pay for board and training, shows, advertising, etc. Trainer also gets 10% of sale. The part that worries me with a different arrangement, (i.e., trainer gets “x” amount after horse sells, or works pro-bono, or basically offsets any costs in the interim), is what if the horse doesn’t sell, or won’t pass a PPE, etc. That is what happened to me. My mare was listed (price even increased once while being advertised and in training) and I had serious interest. She won’t pass a PPE, price has plummeted and she has not yet sold. If I had a different arrangement with my trainer, I would have possibly owed her a lot of money. I would just be very specific in your contract if you find someone who’s more flexible regarding terms.