Everyone in the industry knows the story. A nice horse gets a price, a video gets sent around, and nothing happens for months. The seller decides the market is slow or that the horse isn’t good enough. More often than not, the real problem is that the horse was never actually marketed.
My undergraduate degree is in marketing, and the first lesson in any marketing class is to know your customer. In sporthorse sales, a junior, an amateur, and a professional are looking for very different things. A junior in search of schoolmaster may want to see a smooth equitation round, while an amateur wants proof that the horse is quiet on the flat and knows its place in a busy warm-up ring. When the video and description don’t speak to the right buyer, even a great horse gets passed over.
How a horse is presented matters just as much. Buyers and their trainers are often sorting through dozens of options at once, and the horses that make the shortlist are the ones with full-course videos, flatwork footage, show records, and a description that is both honest and specific to that horse. A line like “scopey, brave, and a great mover” could describe half the horses on the market, while details about how the horse handles a busy warm-up or what kind of rider it suits help a buyer picture the right fit. Exaggerating a horse’s strengths might get a buyer to schedule a trial, but the truth usually comes out at the first ride or pre-purchase exam. When it does, the sale falls apart and the seller’s credibility can take a hit.
Finally, a sale depends on who sees the horse, when they see it, and what happens next. Getting the horse in front of the right trainers, at the right shows, and ahead of the right circuit can matter as much as the horse itself. Staying in touch with potential buyers, whether that means sending a new show video or sharing that the horse has recently placed well, keeps it on their radar long after the origional message. None of this replaces a good horse, but it is often the difference between a horse that sells and a horse that sits.
If you’ve ever scrolled past a sale ad or stopped to watch one, tell me in the comments what made the difference for you. Follow along on Instagram for more on the business side of selling sporthorses.
Leave a Reply