Selling A Horse Online Article

Selling A Horse Online

This advise is aimed primarily at people wanting to sell their horse online, however the information suits any medium be it a poster on the local shop window to an advertisement in a magazine. But as I said I will be mainly talking online sales.

Most will have a number of options, pictures and number of characters at different costs. Pick the option that best suits your budget. This might be determined by the value you have put on the horse, the number of people you expect to see the advertisement, and how quickly you want to sell the horse.

I am going to skip over the wording that you use as most sites, us included, have limits on the number of words that you can use. Having said that there are a few things that you should include.

One thing that people sometimes miss out is their contact details. That would be a wasted advertisement. On our site we discourage the use of contact details in the ads. We have a contact the seller box under the ad. This way a potential buyer can contact you for more information but e-mail address harvesters do not get your e-mail address to send you spam.

If you are allowed to have 100 characters in the text of your add remember it is not the same as 100 letters. Try not go over the 100 characters, as the operator of the site will/could restrict you to 100 characters.

In most cases they will just cut off everything after the 100 characters. That is where most people have their contact details, so make sure your advertisement conforms to their restrictions.

You can check how many characters you are using by putting the advertisement in a word document, selecting tools, and then word count. That will detail the number of words as well as the number of characters.

It is our experience that advertisements with pictures sell much better than advertisements without pictures.

However, before I chat about pictures, a bit more about the wording of your advertisement.

Use upper and lower case letters. Do not just use only capital letters. It is harder to read and it's like you are shouting at the potential buyer, and most don't like being shouted at.

If you have 1000 characters use as many as you can, without rabbiting on that is. Describe the horse, height, colour, age, sex and breeding. These things should be done sooner than later. I don't like looking through 1000 words and still not knowing if it's a gelding or a mare.

If the horse has good breeding then say what it is, listing the Dam and the Sire.

If the horse is suited to beginners then say so, and if your daughter rides it then say so, indicating the age of your daughter. I.e. " Bobby Boy is ridden by my 6 year old daughter at Pony Club. She has done Gymkhanas both led and unled".

If the horse is not suitable for beginners then say that as well.

Does the horse float, shoe, and/or tie.

Is she only to be used as a brood mare. Has she had any foals etc.

List successes at horse shows and events.

If you can organise transport to a certain location, then say so.

In fact include anything that you would like to know about a horse if you
where buying one.

Example Ad
Price: $2,500.00
Title: Curiosity
Ad: Curiosity is a quite, 15hh+ registered stock horse.
He is a 3 year old chestnut gelding.
Has Chickashey Dan and Tassolina on sires side. Silver minstrel on Dams
side.
Started basic education. Suit dressage, jumping, barrells, campdraft.
Perfect all round horse that is easy to handle.
Shoes, floats, easy to catch.
Would be the perfect horse to take a young confident rider to the top.
Not for rank beginner.
Regetfull sale. To approved home only.
Contact Leah on 49744247.
email at lakstock@hotmail.com
Mob 0407580545

Preparing your Horse For Sale

OK pictures sell. But good pictures sell even better.

First thing, brush the horse before taking the picture.

This is where you put the biggest picture on the site that you can. (should not tell you that as it chews up the sites memory) So if your camera has a few selections then go for the best quality that you can. Always use a descent camera and not your phone camera.

If you are only allowed one picture in your advertisement, then you need to pick the one that says everything that your text has explained. If you have said your horse is good with children, then select a picture that shows it. I would like to see that if I was looking for a beginners' horse.

When taking the pictures consider the lighting, and the background. Pictures on overcast days don't necessarily show the horse to its best advantage. Take a couple or more from each angle and then select the one that looks the best.

If you have more than 1 picture to use, don't take all the pictures from just one side, or head shots. We like to see as many angles of the horse as we can. Definitely one of the head, preferably with ears pricked.

Pick one picture of each side that shows the horses markings, and conformation. (yes we have pintos and paints)

Have the horse standing square, even if it means you placing the feet where you want.

We like to see the rump, even if it's only side on.

One important thing, trim your pic's. Buyers want to see the horse not the background.

Also use a paint programme such as Photoshop, ACDSee or Paint Shop Pro to clean up your pic's. Get your photo's as clear and bright as possible.

If you don't have the software to do the job and you wish to place an ad with us, contact Gary at gary@australasianhorsesales.com.au and he will arrange to do it for you.

That should have helped you to best word your advertisement, and select pictures for it.

Hope it proves to be of some help.

Don Thompson
Co-owner of australasianhorsesales.com.au