What I Have Learned From Online Horse Shopping

As a horse enthusiast and bloodline junkie, I enjoy surfing different websites of all types of disciplines from cutting and reining, to team roping and barrel racing. While scanning the web looking at horses advertised for sale, I have ran across every type of horse imagineable on the market. After years of researching the barrel horse market I have found myself sometimes scratching my head when looking at or inquiring on a horse for sale.  For argument’s sake, I will focus this post solely on the barrel horse market. Please understand, that by me writing this I am in no way shape or form demeaning those of you that may have advertised horses like I am about to explain. I am not a "horse selling expert", selling horses is not my primary source of income.  This post is simply for suggestions sake. My hopes is that potential sellers will read this coming from a buyers standpoint. Here’s a couple things that I would like to highlight from my point of view as a buyer.

Invest in a good photo. I say invest because I feel like good horse pictures are an investment and highly overlooked. Instead of taking pictures of your horse knee deep in mud with his head stuck in a hay feeder, have someone hold the horse, try to perk his ears up (a mirror or a broom works wonders!). Brush your horse off, clean him up, get a REAL camera, or if you don’t have one, borrow one and take quality pictures. Don’t lay on your belly and try to make your 14 hand horse appear as he’s 16.2hh. This will disappoint a potential buyer should they come to look at this horse. I feel this is greatly overlooked, especially when there is a $20,000 price tag on a horse accompanied by a terrible photo. Even if you have to pay someone $100 to take some pictures of your horse it will be worth it in the long run.

iPhone's and iPad's DO NOT TAKE QUALITY VIDEOS! Nothing is more frustrating to me, as a buyer, when I request a video of a horse and it's so far away I can’t tell if the horse is even running a cloverleaf pattern. I understand the hand held video cameras are a thing of the past, however, they do have an excellent zoom and provide the best quality video as opposed to an iPhone or iPad. If you are forced to use either of these, try and get as close to the pattern as possible so it is discernable to the viewer.

Since we are on the topic of videos, here’s another tip: when someone requests a video of a barrel horse, (this is for a horse that is currently running, or being entered) don’t send them videos that are three years old. If I am interested in buying a horse that is currently RUNNING, I prefer to see recent videos (as in the last 6 months to a year). As a buyer, if I am interested in a barrel horse that is advertised for $20,000 or higher and there is no current video of him, that’s a red flag. (Unless of course, the horse is just coming off an injury or the owner has been pregnant or ill or something like that.  Or you know if the dog ate the video camera.....or your brother's wife's sister left her husband....Or you've been in North Korea visiting your best friend) I'm kidding, but the first two are reasonable excuses I suppose.

You can’t price a horse as ‘what they used to be’. I once inquired on a horse where the seller told me “he was a $30,000 horse three years ago”. Often times in this instance, a seller is trying to justify an un reasonable price tag they have on a horse.  What you paid for this horse three years ago is not my concern, I care about what the horse is NOW, (how he is running, how he is clocking).

When listing reasons for selling (and by the way, I don’t always feel this is necessary), don’t list "too many horses and not enough time" for selling and then write "open to trades" at the bottom of the ad. If you don’t have time and you already have too many horses, why are you interested in trading your horse for another one? Red flag.

Credentials.  Apparently everyone has different ideas about what credentials really are. I don’t feel like I need to spend a lot of time on this because I think most people that are looking for a quality barrel horse understand that a 1D time at a jackpot with 20 entries should be represented as “running 1D locally” and not a “true 1D horse”. In my opinion, a true 1D horse has current, verifiable stats which includes large, open races and this horse should also be a competitive rodeo horse. While I'm on the topic, there is normally - not always - a difference between jackpot horses (or horses that run in open races only on beautiful ground and in a controlled environment) and rodeo horses. Rodeo horses must deal with a ton of more variables than jackpot horses and it often takes years of seasoning to get one used to these sometimes, adverse conditions.

Soundness issues or any issues in general: You might as well call them up front.  It will come out sooner or later. As a buyer, it's your responsibility to vet check a horse, whether you choose to or not. It is not fair to come back to a seller a year after purchasing and accuse them of selling you a horse with bad knees if you didn't care to vet the horse. And since we are talking about soundness, I'm not sure how I feel about buyers asking sellers to "guarantee a horse sound" (as in: "I won't vet this horse as long as you guarantee him sound"). I believe that any vet could find something wrong with any horse if they dig deep enough. However, as a seller, representing the horse "sound to your knowledge" is hopefully being honest and I think, the right call.

Price range on horses:  “A horse is only worth as much as someone will pay you for them.” And that’s all I’m gonna say about that!