STEP ONE: Take good pictures. This is SO important. Not only will a photo ad place you above text ads in the listings, but a nice picture in an otherwise crappily written ad will make someone sit up and take notice. You can call your Arabian mare beautiful all you want, but until I see a picture to prove it I’m not buying it (har har har, pun intended). A good picture accentuates your horse’s best traits. If you are selling your horse as a jumper, include a nice jumping picture. If you claim your horse is a dressage expert, show them doing dressage. If you don’t have a good picture of your horse doing the things you claim they can do, DO NOT SUBSTITUTE WITH A BAD PICTURE. Sure, maybe your horse does jump with its knees square and tucked under its chin nine times out of ten, but you’re not helping your cause any by showing the one picture where they look like a flying deer.
Nothing beats a nice solid conformation picture. Get your horse cleaned up (I loathe the ads that say “this picture was taking during mud season, sorry!” – if you didn’t care enough to groom your horse before taking sale pics, chances are you didn’t care enough to put good training into them either) and position them on level ground in front of a pretty backdrop (the side of your barn, in front of your outdoor arena, in the middle of a field, I don’t care… just as long as it isn’t in front of your junkyard). Take a few pictures, and then select the best one. Make sure your horse’s ears are up! It sounds like a little thing, but no one wants a grumpy looking horse. You can also spruce the picture up a little by putting your horse in the bridle of their discipline, whether it is hunters, dressage, or western pleasure. Skip the saddle. Here are a few examples of what I consider to be GOOD sale photos:
And a few examples of stupid ones:
People, I don’t care if you can stand on your horse’s back. I will never be standing on their back, so that is not a selling trait for me. It does not tell me your horse is uber bombproof, it just tells me you are uber dumb. Some other basic photo tips:
- Take up to date pictures.
- Throw out any picture that has children crawling on, around, between, or over your horse. Again, it doesn’t show that your horse is special – it just shows that you’re a bad parent.
- Have additional pictures ready to send to interested buyers.
STEP TWO: Remember to include all the important information up front. This includes your horse’s breed, age, gender, height, and trained discipline (IE does dressage, jumpers, reining, or good all around prospect). And be concise! People don’t want to have to wade through a bunch of nonsense to get the basic information. A good example:
“15.3H five year old registered Quarter Horse gelding for sale. Is currently schooling first level dressage, has jumped a 2’6” course and is excellent on trails.”
Bam. It checks off all the basics: height, age, breed, gender (gelding – yay!), and what he does: dressage, jumping, and is good on trails. Now lets look at a bad example:
“Big beautiful horse for sale! Gunner is the easiest horse in the barn to ride. He whinnies every morning when you come to feed him and is a total love bug. He gets along great with other horses and he loves to get out of the ring and go on the trails!! He is really good at dressage, and right now I’m training him at first level. He can also jump and is really good at that too. Gunner is a purebred quarter horse with awesome bloodlines and good conformation. He is really sweet for a five year old and is almost 16H.”
Does it include the basics? Yes. Does it do it in a concise manner that is easy to read? No. So ferret out all the facts about your horse, and put them in the first few sentences. In my opinion, the shorter the better for an ad, but you also have to be careful not to leave information out.
“Five year old QH for sale. Good jumper. Asking $2,500.”
Doesn’t tell me what I need to know.
STEP THREE: List your horse’s accomplishments and/or what they are good at. Have they won any major shows? Have they won local schooling shows? Have they been used in a lesson program? You don’t need to go into great detail, but if you’re horse has won a few blue ribbons don’t be shy. You need to think about your sale ad almost like you would your own resume. Brag about your horse without going overboard.
“Last month Maggie beat out fifteen other horses to win reserve champion at a local hunter show.”
“Jiffy placed second in his very first dressage show doing training level one.”
“Two weeks ago Gunner went on his first hunter pace and was wonderful to ride. He did not refuse one single jump, listened beautifully, and didn’t mind all the other horses. I received many compliments on him from total strangers.”
Again, be concise. Stick to the facts, and don’t stray off course. If you’re trying to sell your horse as a reining champion, talking about how he placed in a jumping class isn’t going to help your cause.
STEP FOUR: If your horse has any bad habits or lameness issues, list them. It will come up eventually (if you’re honest) and it is better to let a potential buyer know your horse had a bowed tendon now than waiting until they’ve driven three hours to your farm. Again, it is all in the wording.
“Maggie bowed her left front tendon two years ago. Since recovering she has been 100% sound and has up to date x-rays.”
“Gunner cribs, but it is controlled with a cribbing collar.”
“Jiffy will do best in an environment where he is turned out by himself.”
“Jax has tender soles, but with front shoes and pads he is 100% sound.”
“Two years ago Maggie suffered a bowed tendon to her left front leg. After one month of stall rest and two months of cold hosing and hand walking only, she has made a full recovery and is now completely sound.”
“Gunner is a bad cribber, but if he wears his cribbing collar he is fine.”
“Jiffy does not get along well with other horses and he must be turned out by himself at all times.”
“When we first bought Jax he was lame, but after talking with our farrier we discovered he just had very sensitive soles. If he wears shoes and pads he is perfectly sound.”
STEP FIVE: End your ad with a flourish. Include the price, and one more sentence of additional information IF YOU FEEL IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
“Maggie is priced firmly at $5,000. She is truly a wonderful mare with a very successful future ahead of her. Serious inquiries only please.”
“We are asking $2,500 for Gunner or best offer to a good home only. References from a vet and farrier will be required.”
Seriously consider your price, and how you want to word it. If ‘or best offer’ appears anywhere in your ad, you will never get what you are asking. If you don’t want to haggle with people and truly believe your horse is worth what you’re asking, then say the price is firm. Serious inquiries only is always a good touch, as it will deter tire kickers. And I like to see ads that say ‘to a good home only’ because that tells me you really care about your horse.
Now all that’s left is to put your ad together! And here we go:
“Seventeen hand eight year old registered thoroughbred gelding for sale. Currently schooling first level dressage, has shown and won in intro level and training level at the local horse park. Sound and sensible. No vices or bad habits. Very sweet, quiet mannered horse. Only selling due to time constraints. Asking $1,000,000 or best offer. Vet and farrier references will be required, in addition to a home visit.”
I hope this little tutorial was helpful. I challenge all of you reading to write up a little sale ad for your horse and stick in the comments. I bet it will be a lot harder than you think!
First of all, yes, this is a horse. I checked. What we have here folks is a two year old 14.1H paint stallion. I will allow that they've cleaned him up for pictures and attempted to take good conformation shots, but sometimes there's only so much you have to work with. It isn't what this ad does say - stunning homozygous perlino paint tested genetically to be CrCr, Agouti Agouti, Black/Chestnut, Tobiano/Tobiano. He has wonderful conformation and pedigree for either breeding or show. He would make a wonderful pony stallion. - it's what it doesn't. No mention of this little guy's training. No mention of if he is registered or not. No mention of his bloodlines. No mention of his attitude, or ground manners, or ability to pick up his feet. I commend them for not being on his back, but there is still a lot a two year old should be able to do: tie, lunge, trailer, bath, good ground manners, etc. That the owners did not offer up any of this information sends up a major red flag. They're asking $1,100. 
I'll let this ad do the talking. Upon mounting, he tends to back, to jig. He just likes to try to unnerve a timid rider. A firm rider, once he is going, will find him an utter joy. I have found that if given a steady job, his testing diminishes and goes away [if you make him exhausted, he may behave]. He likes having a job to do and a PARTNER, not a boss [he will eat you for breakfast if you try to tell him what to do] . Ring work bores him stupid, so he tends to resent it - preferring to head off into the fields to explore (i.e. he would make an awesome trail horse) [ah, IE he will take off with you into the wild blue yonder]. Now, he has only had basic training. We're working on getting him backing reliably, but he has had little exposure to training involving anything more complicated like moving off leg pressure. He has been in traffic, with carriages, around minis... and had no trouble. I am selling due to medical reasons [I don't want to die] necessitating that I narrow down my personal “herd.” They are asking $1,000 for this gem. The scary thing is that people are never 100% honest in ads, so if this is how they describe him to sell him, I would be terrified to find out what he is like in real life. But hey, at least they're trying to be honest. 
Look! A two year old that knows rollkur! Sometimes in ads you have to let the pictures do the talking. ANY ad that claims to have ANY two year old for sale that is "broke broke broke" sends up immediate red flags for me. I don't want a two year old that is "broke broke broke." Two year olds are babies. They shouldn't even have anyone on them, let alone someone on them yanking their face in. This cutie pie is also "broke to spurs" (what the hell does that even MEAN?) and can be yours for the bargain basement price of $5,000. This looks like a sweet horse. He would have to be, I suppose. But a broke two year old often equals a broken twelve year old. Funny how they get all kinds of problems when you start bouncing on their backs before their bones have finished growing.