advertising a horse...short and sweet or indepth?

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loulabelle

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Hi, hope this doesn't break any rules, Im not going to put my ad on here but was just after a bit of advise.

I have had my cob up for sale for a while now, and whilst he is reasonably priced he just isn't selling (been keeping an eye out for whats been similar and been selling and keeping him in the same price range). In an ideal world I would like for him to sell so I can purchase something before the depth of winter, but as Im keeping an eye out on ads I've seen quite a few that would suit me being sold...be sods law when my boy finally does sell there be nothing out!!

Its been pointed out to me that maybe my ad is too long and personal, for me I've owned him since he was 5 months old and his now 6 years old so theres alot of history and emotion there as I've put alot of hard work into him.

So when buying a horse do you look for ads that are indepth and personal about the horse or would you rather a short description thats more to the point?

Thanks for your help
 
I think you need to keep it short and pithy: personally I'm not remotely interested in the horse's ribbon history, I'm more concerned with temperament and how it will be useful to ME. Tho' appreciate some people might want to know what its won.

I think too you need to think about the sort of person who might be interested in your horse: i.e. if you think he/she'd suit a younger person you might want to advertise as "chunky funky cob", or for a more mature rider you might say, for e.g. "sensible cob, good weight carrier".

Or perhaps you think it would make a good family pony, in which case say so, as often people are looking for something that will suit everyone in the family not just one person.

"Good to shoe and do" (as long as it is!!) is always a seller, as is "100% traffic" (again, as long as that's true!).

The other thing is if not a novice ride, i.e. bit of a fruitloop, you could always put it like "nicely forward going ride for confident rider", or whatever.

Good luck anyway.
 
Yeah I think you are best to address the key points. People might not be responding simply because they cannot be bothered to read it all.

Sum him up nicely and save the rest for when you are phoned/emailed/whatever.

Good luck selling & hope you find something that suits you when you are able to buy!
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Sorry, meant to say, the other thing to consider is WHERE are you advertising? When I recently advertised my cob on loan, I basically sussed out a whole load of websites and put him on there - and some I got no responses but others I was inundated by!

So its finding the right place to advertise.
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His currently on preloved, stabletalk and a couple of groups on facebook, I had him up on horsemart a few months ago but only had 1 enquire, although i had him under gypsy cob catagory, i tried to put an ad on again last night but for some reason horsemart keeps chucking my out, but think i will put him under cob catagory instead as seems to be more in there.

Is there anywhere else you could suggest I advertise? I haven't really got the money to place loads of ads tho
 
loulabelle said:
Thanks guys, think im going to have to re word my ad....although short and sweet isn't easy for me :/
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I think I am clearly the odd one out, because I think the longer/more detailed the better. When I was horse hunting I always 'trusted' the longer ads SO much more. It says to me that somebody knows this horse very well, has taken the time to really think about the ad and try to describe him accurately.
And personally unless it was pages long there's no way I wouldn't bother reading a long advert - if I'm about to commit to buying a new horse there's no way I would ignore an ad because it looked long and I couldn't be bothered to read it...!!!

the shorter ads using all the cliche's just scream 'high turnover dealer' to me....so i would be a little more suspiscious
 
I recently sold my lad. I did a detailed ad (not ribbon stuff, more temperment etc including a good long description of the type of rider who may suit him). It did seem to de-select a lot of unsuitables. I put a budget together of £100 for advertising and did H&H online and mag, horse mart, horsedeals, all the free sites. I put a video togethet and included this on as many sites that would allow. Priced at market value He was for sale for 4 weeks and i got a call/email nearly every day. Several viewings booked Sold to 2nd person who came to look at him. Was another horse on yard for sale at same time they used 3 bad pictures and a 15 word ad still for sale now, 3 months later with hardly any calls My tips? Def a video and in-depth advert
 
Selling a horse is a bit like selling a house, you need to depersonalise the advert. Be clear & concise don't waffle yet cover everything someone may wish to know. leave out the 'Loves cuddles & mints' kind of sentences.

Additionally take selling photos which show the conformation, how it jumps, how it moves etc. Don't just pick out a few snaps you have that you like because that won't assist with the selling.

If you are able to shoot a video of him being riden, jumped etc & post it on You Tube & connect to your advert with a link will always help.

It's appreciated you may love your horse but don't gush about it in the advert. ;)
 
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I DO think that you need a history of what he has won. Not every single rosette he has won, but "always placed WH/XC/SJ, scores 62 im prelims.." type of thing. I also think you can tell a lot about how the horse is briefly with good to box/clip/shoe.."

I think some adverts are too personal when they have a lot of "would make..." or could have/I think.." Concise honest facts are better - you can go more in depth on the phone..

I've just sold my little cob, and put him on a coloured site (which generated thousands of hits but not one phone call!) and Horse and Hound - which sold him. For a lower end horse/pony Horse and Hound is not that expensive, and way more viewed than other sites - when you buy H&H don't you always look at whats for sale! We sold our last equine through H&H too, so its always worked for me.
 
Hi. Yes meant to say i got most response via HH followed by horsedeals. But actually sold him to someone who saw him on horsemart.
 
Detail in ads is good, but not waffle! I'd also agree that good pics are vital. I'm not sure how much tour asking for him, but if he's not cheap then try Horsequest.
 
Have a look at what you think makes up a good ad and list the points they have made. Very often people forgot the most obvious (age, height and my personal favourite, THEIR LOCATION!).

Agreed to keep it factual, but I only looked at adverts that were quite clear as to what the horse had achieved, so x % in first test, etc as a yardstick. I also put in a pic of him trotting, jumping and actually a head shot in pref to the confo shot (but only because the head shot was professionially taken and quite stunning!)

I sold mine on HQ, first people to see him!
 
For me an advert needs to be clear and concise; not short and sweet or OTT.

If the adverts are too short i tend to skip over them - If the horse is good and genuine then they will be happy to put it in writing. So i always look out for good tp Clip, box, catch and shoe. If its not in writing then the horse isnt good at the particular thing. I think its fair to say "the horse has SJ potential" You can saw that he has a loving and kind nature.


Try HorseDeals (easy navigation) Horsemart, Adhorse and Advertise in the local paper.
 
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it depends on what i'm looking for as to whether i like lots of details or not. my horse had minimum info, just said his name, age and that he was currently on box rest due to tendon injury. the photo wasn't the best photo but it won me over.

when looking for my step daughter i wanted more info from the ad so that i didn't feel i was wasting peoples time by ringing up and asking questions. however i didn't like the adverts that went on and on, or talked as if it was the horse writing the ad, spoke about the horse as if it was a child writing it etc etc.
also i found it easier to read ads that had paragraphs if they were long. so many people just talk and talk without even using punctuation or paragraphs.
 
loulabelle said:
His currently on preloved, stabletalk and a couple of groups on facebook, I had him up on horsemart a few months ago but only had 1 enquire, although i had him under gypsy cob catagory, i tried to put an ad on again last night but for some reason horsemart keeps chucking my out, but think i will put him under cob catagory instead as seems to be more in there.

Is there anywhere else you could suggest I advertise? I haven't really got the money to place loads of ads tho
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There are plenty of freebie websites such as Horse Exchange, Buy That Horse, Horses For Sale, Right Horses etc. I personally don't mind an advert that waffles so long as the key points are mentioned.
 
I guess you'll never please anyone... but

FWIW I'm about to start horse hunting in earnest for myself, and I tend to be more interested in ads that give more detail.

ps... if he's under 15hh please pm me some details!
 
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I like it somewhere in the middle, if it is really short I just feel that the horse can't be worth the time spent on an add but at the same time I don't want a complete essay!
 
I'd say try to take the middle ground, get everything important in there ie age, height, breed, temperament, experience / brief history of what he's done (not his life story just the main points), what he's like to clip, shoe, box, hack etc and anything else that's relevant. Don't gush too much or make the advert too emotional (although can't hurt to mention that you've had him from young age til now, gives people confidence sometimes to know horse hasn't just been passed from pillar to post). If, for example, he's not a novice ride or can be spooky hacked alone then don't try and gloss over that, be honest, will help both him, you and the new owner in the long run. Definitely put him in cob as opposed to "gypsy cob" as it'll mean more people will see the ad. Also good pictures are a must; make sure there's at least one good conformation shot of him stood as square as you can get him on level ground and at least one nice ridden one that shows him off to his best (doesn't hurt for him to be well groomed and generally nicely turned out in the pics either!), also make sure pics are clear and of good quality (I find tiny, bad quality pics in which I can only see part of the horse a real turn-off!). Also another free to advertise website that I've had a good response (for a loan ad granted) from in the past is "horse hunter"
 
An advert is not to sell your horse, it is only to get people to contact you about him.

Your contact then, voice or written, is not to sell the horse it is only to get people to come and see him.

The visit is to sell him.

In order to get the greatest response, do not write or say anything which you do not have to, morally and legally, which would put anyone off coming to see him.

In what you do write, remember that people interpret things different ways and may not read what you thought you wrote. For example, one person's "laid back" horse is another persons "dead from the neck up".

These same rules apply to job CV's by the way. So many people think a CV is to get them a job. It isn't, it's to get them an interview, a very different objective. In a crowded job market a long CV just gives the person putting together the shortlist a bigger opportunity to put you on the "no" pile. The same is true in a crowded horse market.
 
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