As a breeder of Oldenburgs for dressage, primarily for the amateur market for the past l5 years, I have sold a lot of nice horses to a lot of nice people. I never seem to have much of a problem doing it, finding that usually a good horse will sell itself. However, as a trainer and instructor, and there have been times when I've had a customer that needed something other than what I had to offer from my sales list. Most recently, I've been shopping for an older schoolmaster for a student and I realized after much looking there are a lot of people out there who do not want to sell their horse, even though you thought they did because they advertised. I decided it was time to write an article and point out some of the things people do to not sell their horse. In Part II, I explore ways you can market your horse in a professional manner.
Number one way not to sell your horse: Don't answer the phone. This works with horses, cars, antiques, your Aunt Minnie's stamp collection, whatever. You run an ad in your media of choice, your customer-in-waiting sees it and you go on vacation for a month and do not have an answering machine or message service. Guaranteed, you will not sell your horse. I tried for six weeks to contact a seller from an inviting ad placed in this publication and when I finally got someone to pick up the phone they laughed and said, "We were on vacation". To quote the well-known humorist Dave Berry, "I am not making this up," this actually happened and with this same seller we move on to
Number two way to not sell your horse: Don't send a video. You talk to your seller, it sounds promising and so you request a video. It never comes. You are persistent and call again; they must be back on vacation because the phone is never answered. In a second case I talked to a seller concerning an ad and they were indignant that I wanted a video. They were not about to go out and video their wonder horse, I needed to take their word for it that it was a wonder horse and drive the 250 miles to look at it. Guaranteed, they did not sell that horse. At least not to me.
Number three way not to sell your horse: Send a poor quality video. The long-awaited video arrives and you pop it into the VCR. You get two steps of an out of focus horse walking and 10 minutes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, followed by three minutes of a choppy moving, tail wringing horse being shown by a well known rider in a very nice facility! The price was $25,000. Come on, folks! For that amount of money I at least want a decent video. They had a pro on the horse and it was in a very nice place. They were on the right track considering the horse needed a lot of professional help and a good facility looks, well good! What we needed here was a better quality video.
Number four way not to sell your horse. Don't be honest! This is basic Horse Trader 101 stuff. Most people are not trying to deceive on purpose. The majority of people do it out of ignorance, but not all! We have all heard the classic joke about the proud father who takes a tape of his son, the violinist, to the audition and plays it as a sample of his son's talent. The music teacher is amazed and says, "It sounds like Jascha Heifitz!" And the proud father says "It is Jascha Heifitz, but my son sounds just like him!" This goes along the lines of the ad that read "15.0hh quarter horse mare, but moves like a warmblood"! No it doesn't, anymore than my son-the-great-violinist sounds like Jascha Heifitz. It might be a lovely horse, with good gaits, a great mind and some pretty good training with mileage on it, but don't represent it as something it cannot be i.e. a warmblood.
Number five way not to sell your horse: Ask too much money! Here we are back to Jascha Heifitz. Someone sends you a picture of a stunning chestnut that looks like he can run like the wind. You say it looks just like Secretariat and they say it is Secretariat; my horse looks just like that and can run fast, too, and is a bargain at (shocking price) considering Secretariat was worth millions. I actually ran into an ad like this recently on the web. It was a nice farm and they seemed to have some nice young stock but when I went to look up the one I was interested in, I got a picture of Donnerhall, with no explanation. The price they wanted would have been great had it been Donnerhall but that was not who was for sale. Make your price really reflect your horse. So often what I see is the middle-aged horse with a light show record that needs to sell now because Little Tiffany is off to college in three days and we need the tuition now. I guarantee you; you won't sell wonder horse for the price of Yale Law School. Again, to quote Dave Berry, "I am not making this up." I actually ran into a situation like this when I went to buy a lovely horse from the vet school at UC Davis.
So what have we learned about not selling your horse? What we have learned is that if you do not answer the phone about the bad video you never sent of a wonderful horse that only has three legs and is a bargain at (shocking price) he will not get sold.
How do we sell our horse? Obviously you have an answering machine or someone intelligent at the other end of the phone to answer questions about the horse you have for sale. Once you have someone interested in your horse things do get more complicated. In our next installment I'll discuss the various tools we have in our marketplace today to help us sell our horses. Those items include phones, pictures, competitions; media display advertising and the all-important video. I will also discuss a little bit about showing or presenting your horse to the perspective buyer. This is very tricky and not as easy as it sounds. I will not go into pre-purchase exams as that is a topic for someone else at some other time and it has been extensively written about. In the meantime, if you have a horse for sale represent him for who he really is, be fair about his price, and soundness troubles, after all, you bought him once and have probably loved him the whole time and someone else is out there to do the same. Trust me, I've never met a horse that couldn't be sold, just sellers who didn't want to sell.