A Quick Tip for Advertisers...

When you have written and posted your horse for sale advert, always try to check how it looks on the main site. Otherwise, this can happen:

See how the post in the middle looks a bit... odd? There's more of the hedge than the horse on display!

The advertiser needs to review how their advert looks now that they have placed it, check the pictures in the full advert and consider making another the main one to better fit the space they are allocated. With a bit of trimming, I think this one would be much more suitable:

And just for your information, here's the full shot of the other one- you can see where the problem is in terms of how central the horse is (or isn't!) to the image.

 

As always if this horse has piqued your interest here is the link so you can find out more:

http://www.horsemart.co.uk/irish-draught-mare/Horses/445257#ZDtrDMc6oSVDO4ZA.97

Advert of the Day

Who thinks this is an appropriate picture to advertise this horse with? Raise your hands please...

Anybody? Gee I sure hope not!

Here's the rest of the ad for this 13.2hh stallion...

Truthfully, I get the impression that the process of breaking to drive is not going well.. now I may be wrong but that photo is not inspiring any confidence here!!

Here is an unnecessary list of reasons this is not a good picture to sell this pony with:
1- pony in high state of p-off!
2- pony rearing in driving gear- definitely not something you want from your driving pony
3- can't see any of the pony properly only the back so can't assess looks and build
4- pony looks like is close to being yanked over backwards by its poor mouth

Anyway, if anyone wants to take a chance on this little fella- the link is here.

Advert of the Day

Here we have for sale on equine now- a blob.

This frankly terrible picture accompanies a horse for sale ad promoting a stallion for stud 'serves' or sale. 

We don't know:

-What height

- How old

- If he has ever been ridden or even sat on!

- What he looks like to be honest, other than that he appears to have four white legs

We do know:

- a breeding would cost 40-80 dollars

- He's a black and white paint

- He loves other horses. 

It's hard to tell what would possibly recommend this horse as a father. Or as someone's new horse for that matter. Please people, put some thought into an advert. Think about what you're trying to say and what your horse's strong points are. And if he doesn't have many, give him some. Get some work into him! 

Picture AND Video Fail

Rarely does an advert get it totally wrong in both selling mediums, but here we have a prime exhibit. The ad is for a young stallion named Smirnoff Ice- an alcopop for those not familiar with it- and at first glance it appears that the seller has over indulged in said beverage.

Yes the advert does look like a jigsaw, and yes, that's right, none of the shots shows the pony in full! In fact here's a close up of the 'best' one:

But it's ok, because there's a video- in fact there are three! So we can just check those out. 

Oh well, maybe the others are better:

Oh dear. Nope, all about 10 seconds of a majorly geed up pony sort of trotting towards people who don't seem to be able to keep the camera straight!

I sincerely hope that these are just make do efforts and they are going to try again as I am not sure what you can tell from this... he might have a nice flashy trot, but whether it would be as flashy if he wasn't practically trying to tank off with his rider I can't say! 

Time to have another go I suggest, maybe filming from further away? Be nice to see the whole horse clearly.

Advert of the Day

So first of all this ad has a very unfortunate title! 

In addition to the misspelt content it also has some pretty poor and fairly odd pictures- here are the bigger versions:

Umm... can't catch it or something?!

And finally instead of going for a main selling point which would be at least partly supported by the pictures e.g. nice mover, attractive markings, totally unspoilt ready to train etc... they have plumped for.... 

"very quiet rond kids"

Okkkkaaay... I am left thinking I bet it is, because the moment it sees a child approaching it disappears to the far corner of the field and you don't hear a peep from it till they've left! 

Very very erratic and amusing little advert!

Butt, Butt, Butt...

This is bemusing. I gather that for Quarter Horses a big rear end is a desirable feature. But to the extent that you don't get to see any other bits of the horse?

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Exhibit D:

Maybe it's just me, but if you can only get one shot in of the horse you're selling, wouldn't you want to show more of it on a better angle? I mean, to my mind you don't JUST buy a horse off the backside of it, cos if you spend that much time looking at your horse's rear end you're doing SOMETHING wrong! As the old saying has it, that's the end that KICKS!

USA/Quarter horse peeps, please feel free to enlighten me?!

Advert of The Day

Wow, these two look soooo comfortable, don't they?!

This was the only photo accompanying the ad which is selling a small stallion who is being strongly promoted as a comfortable ride for long trails or riders with back problems. Here's the issue. Neither the horse or the rider look comfortable in this shot! The girls expression and her hands, and the horses face, tail and the way he is moving, suggests they are having a real difference of opinion, however momentary. BAD PHOTO TO USE!

That's not even touching on the fact it's blurry.

Finally just how comfortable can you be in what appear to be hot pants and wellies?!

Here's the rest of the ad:
MiniMe as we like to call him is a very sweet stallion he rides amazing very comfortable for someone who likes long trails or maybe has back problems. Looking to find him an amazing home to trail rideor maybe even show since he does have alot of brio and the look for it. He is a lil thin because we did rescue him from a hard situation but he is getting more beutiful by the day. come meet him he wont disappoint

call me or text

He needs to find his new home by this weekend please make an offer.

Mary

might trade for maybe a dressage mount 

Hmm, so sweet he has to be outta there in days... and of course they might trade for a dressage mount. I wouldn't hold your breath folks!

Advert of the Day

Where to start, where to start...

*sniffles* But, but Black Beauty was a friendly horsey!!

Ok, so first of all and most negatively to the advert at first glance this horse looks seriously p***ed as all hell. See close up:

He may be hungry as he looks pretty ribby, or maybe he's just objecting to that godawful piece of thin metal in his mouth. Either way his expression says get the **** away from me. Not the most inviting shot for a sales pitch!

Secondly do you think those front hooves have been deliberately cut out of shot? Because from the knees down they are not good looking legs and I am wondering if the horse is actually sound.

Overall total picture fail. But we go on...

Thirdly 'Quarter Horse, hard to find'. ????. Do you mean he goes to hide in his field? Because I can think of barely any regions in the USA where the Quarter Horse is a rare breed. It's like the UK equivalent of black and white hairy cobs- dime a dozen and everywhere you look.

Finally; 'Horse Starts to Dance', you mean all the time? Your average rider would kind of like a horse that keeps still on occasion please!

Today's short but not sweet ad of the day is brought to you courtesy of the good folks over at Horseforums.com; thanks guys your thread on dumbest ads is a goldmine!

Can You Guess What I'm Thinking?

The readers of this blog seem on my level in terms of wanting to see horses well cared for, sold in a sensible, responsible manner etc. So let me ask a question, and I bet you guys jump to the same conclusion as I have. Why would you put up a sales photo of a horse wearing a rug that looks like this?:

Got your answer?




Here's mine- because what's under the rug looks even worse than the rug itself.

As soon as I saw this picture I thought- I bet that mare looks seriously poor under that. And the advert content seems to support this logic:

UNBROKEN BUT QUIET,OUT WINTERED AND NEEDS TLC AND GRASS.

Quiet- I'll bet, probably using all her energy just to stay alive! And for TLC and Grass read- NEEDS FOOD!!

As if further proof were needed: Exhibit A.

Yep, different horse but same place, same seller, another motheaten old rug (possibly a too tight headcollar as well for good measure) and another comment:

OUT WINTERED SO NEEDS A BIT OF TLC PRICED LIKEWISE

Look how thin her neck is. I can imagine we've got a bony spine, hip bones and ribs under that rug.

These are Irish ads, and yes, Ireland's had it tough, the economy's in the toilet and horse after horse has been slaughtered because people can't afford to keep them and can't find anyone to buy them. Some might say at least these mares are still alive, but to me, there's never any justification for neglect.

I suspect the owner decided to hang on and try and sell these two in spring as he'd have a better chance with the traditionally better horse buying weather coming in. Horses don't tend to sell as easily in winter. But horses don't sell when it's going to take a substantial amount of money in feed or vet attention to get them right either. A winter left to their own devices in a field probably hasn't helped these girls at all.

Still we can hope that they get a happy ending. If anyone is interested in them please click on those links!

Advert of the Day

Why do I get the impression this sales piccie was taken during a heavy weekend drinking session?

I find the hand floating randomly in the air a particularly nice touch! And the mare's facial expression seems to say- um my head's over here?

Happy St Patrick's Day- please stop before you forget which end of your horse is which!!

Here's the rest of the content for anyone interested in this sweetie.

Could You Care Less?

This is a sad little advert. Mainly because of this:

Yes we have here a whole herd of horses living on what appears to be a rubbish dump! One of the most terrifying items for me is that pallet. Just how easily could a horse get a leg stuck in that. It makes me sick just thinking about it.

It boggles belief that people don't consider how BAD this looks! I mean, you're showing the world just how poor your levels of animal care are. I can only pray that mare doesn't always wear that headcollar as she could oh so easily end up attached to one of those bits of junk and hurt herself badly.

Someone please go get poor Daisy (whose height is totally unknown) before she loses a limb. Here are the rest of the ad details for would be saviors:

Fun with Adverts...

These ads just appealed to my strange sense of humour and made me smile...

Reason for sale is because of lack of grazing... you can tell, that looks like your front garden!

A superb hunter- especially when there's folk around to shoo him over those ditches?!

A tank in all ways. To handle too apparently... 

This is the only decent picture I have... Oh dear.

He just wants to please, he gets ridden every day. Maybe that's why he's so tired...

Loves children- God knows why if this is a regular occurance for her:

He has beautiful flowing paces and a huge jump. Yikes, no kidding!!

Cremello mare.... errr if you say so...:

This is just an entertaining typing error which will probably be fixed by the time you see it..

'Sadly selling my beautiful 78yrs old 16.3hh Grey TB broodmare with 6 month foal'

She sure looks good for 78 doesn't she?!

Advert of the Day (2 for 1)

Eegads, what is going on here?

This looks uncannily like a woman fighting with a Shetland pony- and not looking that happy about it! Sadly (or perhaps fortunately) the image is very small but dressing it up with the curtains doesn't make it less worrying to an experienced horse person's eye. Finding out the shettie in question is a stallion is even less reassuring. From this picture he appears to be a bad mannered and possibly overly randy little sod.

So you'd be desperate to buy him wouldn't you? Of course! Yes this is a sales picture. No really, it is. Honestly. Proof below:

Soon after being shocked by the above, I came across the following...

Seriously, what's going on there? I presume and hope that the chap was executing a trick of some kind with this gelding, who is nearly two years old. But did he not then look at the picture before posting it and think- yeah, maybe not a good idea that. It looks like he's p-d off and trying to attack me. Which he does! And as we have previously discussed on this blog, teaching a large heavy animal that it's OK to put their front feet and their weight anywhere near a person's shoulders and head is pretty dumb. 

Lesson to learn? If you actually want to sell, maybe say a bit more about your horse or pony's good points before you so accurately illustrate that he's a little ****** or potentially lethal!!!

Head Tucked in= Good!

This is another of my pet hates. I don't want to see the horse I might buy with his nose yanked into his chest! Seriously! Whether that's in a cart:

Or under saddle...

These are not horses being driven/ridden nicely in a contact or on the bit or in an outline or whatever you would like to call it- this isn't it!! These horses are being forced into an incorrect frame, with their noses behind the vertical; they don't look right, they don't look comfortable and if they've been ridden like this a long time they will be prone to fixing in this position and holding themselves behind the bit instead of accepting the contact- not easy to correct! Some people seem to think the horse looks super impressive like this- to me it just looks awful. Honestly, I'd rather see them relaxed on a long rein or poking the nose out a little, especially if they're young. Much easier to introduce them to going the right way from those basics rather than trying to correct the bad habit.

Here are some dressage horses- which are for sale btw, visit http://www.dmdressage.com/ed/home.html- working beautifully WITHOUT their noses in their chests! See the difference?

Not that the world of dressage has it's house in order. Wouldn't you rather watch the horses above being ridden like that than this one being ridden like this?

Sadly these shots are of 2012's SILVER individual medal combination Adelinde Cornelissen on Parzival. In addition to riding her horse into the arena in the over flexed position 'Rollkur' as shown in the top shots, her horse tellingly failed to rein back when asked, instead tucking his nose into his chest in the classic Rollkur position. It's ugly and unpleasant and unfortunately, seems increasingly common in the higher ranks of Dressage competition. More information on this here: http://deserthorseinc.com/blog/2012/08/05/rollkur_olympics/
http://fuglyblog.com/2012/08/03/rollkur-at-the-olympics-a-new-equestrian-event/ http://suite101.com/article/dressage-rollkur-debate-rears-or-tucks-in-its-head-at-olympics-a410572.

But I digress. To return to the selling issue, I am sure many people out there are saying that some of the sales shots I have found are bad moments in time- and I agree, some probably are. But the important point is THEY ARE THE PHOTOS BEING USED TO SELL THE HORSE! Someone somewhere in these people's lives must have a phone that takes pictures or a digital camera- couldn't they get better pictures taken and use those instead, even if it meant delaying the ad a day or so?!