A video of under 3 minutes showing transitions between walk trot canter and halt. Another video showing horse doing whatever he’s being sold as knowing. Dressage moves or jumping a small course.
A good still photo of conformation on level ground in good light. Prefer both sides, not distorted, feet visible squared up.
Any show videos.
Those are enough to let me say yes or no to further inquiry.
Sans saddle too please! Seems in every ad featuring a western horse, the photos are of the horse in a honking big western saddle.
if young horses, I like to see their parents also the horse being handled and at liberty
Not highly edited! Transitions with a horse that is NOT super sweaty and going both directions!
Give me the basics up top, age, height, sex, and either asking price, or at least a guide price.
List of what the horse can do, and if it is maintenance free.
There was a recent conversation that was along these lines that may interest you. It evolved into what people wanted in sales ads:
Videos should be short but without a ton of edits. No endlessly trotting circles. Do a short workout showcasing whatever it is the horse can do.
Buyers might want other, longer videos (especially if they’re not local) but those don’t need to be in the ad.
Ad should state height, sex, age, breed, breeding (if young and/or yet to reach full potential), accurate summary of experience / competition experience including show name. Location and price.
I like seeing pricing that is so high I am not temped we have enough as it is
I agree with the above posters.
Ad should have a short but complete description of the horse, what the horse can do, any limitations, etc. Just because you are not paying by the word does not mean the ad should include that time Uncle Vinny who has never ridden before got on Dobbin and managed to get Dobbin to do these nine amazing things that no one else had done on Dobbin before.
Still conformation photos of all four sides. No artistic eye shots. No artistic cute kissable muzzle shots. Untacked horse on level ground conformation shots.
One short video that shows Dobbin doing general riding stuff that it is claimed Dobbin can do. Not highly edited. Walk/trot/canter both directions.
Additional videos should be available to show more detail of anything that Dobbin does. Dobbin at a horse show, Dobbin at the mounting block, Dobbin being caught in the pasture. All separate videos so that trainer who does not care if Dobbin is easily caught does not have to watch that video.
Videos should not have music. Videos should not have special affects.
The thing I want to see that seems most likely to be edited out of videos is the transitions. Particularly the transition into the canter.
For the love of god put your location in the ad.
My friend is looking for a lower level horse. Reasonable budget, she only wants to hack out on it. She doesn’t want to drive 3+ hours to look at a horse and quite frankly I don’t blame her! But I couldn’t tell you the amount of times she’s had to message to get a location only to say “no thanks”.
A single line of location at the end or the beginning of the ad (so it stands out!) can weed out a lot of useless messages.
Just my quick 0.02 on the matter.
No music!
No music, tacking up, feet picked up, tied or cross tied.
WTC and transitions, a couple or course of jumps depending on job I’m buying for. If dressage, some pieces of a test at whatever level advertised.
Pictures of horse without tack standing square and not on a hill please.
I’d love video of horse loading and unloading horse hasn’t traveled much.
Obviously it changes depending upon the horse’s training etc. But for an ad to be helpful to include or exclude a horse: Horse statistics including age, height, gender, location. Pedigree if registered. What the horse has done/training. At least a general price category. A side view photo for conformation. A short video WTC with transitions and whatever skill claimed for the horse.
Beyond that depends upon the horse and circumstances and may be “upon request”. That might be show footage, photos of feet, or loading, etc.
I want
My trainer bought a horse recently and she said one of the best things the seller had available (in addition to all the appropriate riding videos mentioned above) was video of the horse’s legs from all angles, standing squarely on flat ground. It was just a really nice effort that probably took the seller 10 minutes to put together, but gave everyone a sense of up close leg conformation.
Oh, this is a good idea!
I still think all these things should be in separate videos so a person can do their initial look with out having to watch a 10 minute video.
Yessssss.
Edit: I had an OTTB that I turned out for the first time after I got him home. I put boots on all 4. Proud of my new horsie, I took pictures and all the comments were “OMG that hind end!!” No, people, he did not like the boots I put on the back and was snapping his legs because they felt weird.
Yet you see this allllllll the time in sales ads, from nearly everyone. I get putting the boots on to keep the horse safe, though.
I’ve been quietly on the hunt for a yearling and so. many. ads. are some lovely photos, but no video. At this point, I just assume anything without a video included in the initial ad is a crappy mover and the seller is hoping someone will fall in love with how “pretty” the horse is in a still shot.
Anything you’re not transparent about in the initial ad, I assume you’re trying to pull one over on me. Location, rough price, experience, photos, video.
I want a video of the horse in a round pen, or structured pen of some sort. I actually don’t like them on the line as I feel like yearlings who quietly go around on a line are more often than not overworked already. I’ve seen a few where they’re galloping around, tails over their backs a la pepi le pew through knee high grass… tells me the seller is intentionally misleading me, or they’re an idiot and it’s just not worth my hassle.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, there are always more horses to buy. Most people know of several “unicorns”. At this point in my life, I don’t spend time searching for a needle in a haystack hoping that I’ll be the one to discover the next superstar as it prances through a marsh. Give me a clean, straightforward ad and we’ll talk - otherwise, there are plenty more fish in the sea… or horses in the pasture, as it were.
Horses information and sellers contact info at the beginning and end of video
A riding/driving/movement video and a secondary manners video for tacking up/trailer loading etc. I hate watching all those things for several minutes and then finally getting to under saddle and saying nope in the first 10 seconds.
If it’s something where size is very important (eg a pony) I video the pony standing with a measuring stick, zoom in for the exact height/level bubble then zoom back out. That way there is no question of how they where measured
No music, no slow motion
Last few moments showing the horses personality I like but do it at the end not the start
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