Know before you consign

  • Recommended catalog description length is 275-325 words. Lead with a catchy summary of your horse and then group items together by topic (show record, notable pedigree, western riding, english riding, kids, trail experience, etc.)

  • Write your catalog description outside of the website (in Word or Notes) and save it. In the unfortunate event your submission fails, you won't have to retype the entire description.

  • On average there are 20 TIMES as many people on the website weekly as there will be at the sale. That means that for every person that sees a print catalog, there have been hundreds of people looking at your horse online. GET YOUR HORSE'S WEBPAGE AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you wait until the deadline, you have missed making a good impression on thousands of people.

  • Don't crop your photos too close. The primary photo of your horse will be cropped square for the website and all your photos will be cropped square for social media.

Photo tips

Good pictures sell horses!

1) The photo is of the horse, not you. While photos with your pretty face are a great asset, first and foremost THE HORSE needs to look good.

      -Ears up

     - Standing up square

     - Mane and tail brushed, arranged and laying well.

     - Photo taken from an appealing angle.

     - Both you and the horse should look happy 🙂

     -(It goes without saying, but I will - make sure your horse is clean!)

2) Photos should be bright. Dark photos look dated and dull.

3) Take it easy on the editing. Those filters look cool when influences use them, but people buying horses want to actually see the horse.

4) The sooner you get good photos on the website, the more people will see them. Do not wait until the last minute.

Video Tips

Remember: the goal of these videos is to SELL HORSES! Not to see how many filters, special effects and artistic shots you can fit in. Keep it simple and clean. 

1) Turn your phone sideways. Vertical videos are not dimensionally correct and will not fill the in-house screen on sale day.

2) We prefer 16:9 aspect ratio, not 4:3.
Again, it will not fill the screen.

3) Place all text at the bottom so when Lot Numbers are placed on them in the upper left corner, your text isn’t covered. Text and logos are not recommended on the short vidoes.

4) Submit videos well in advance of deadlines to achieve the highest level of exposure for you animal.

screen sizes

Straight from customers mouths...

My only suggestion is to the sellers -- It's a strong suggestion --- PLEASE show in your videos EVERY specific maneuver that your WRITTEN DESCRIPTION says your horse can do. The more buyers see before attending the sale, the better they can plan. (I knew I was NOT the Cowgirl with the biggest spending budget), so ahead of time I analyzed in detail and ranked horses' abilities from the videos on a spreadsheet, and compared and analyzed past years' horse prices based on position in sale by hip #. All done to position myself for the best horse possible in a rapid moving auction situation and on a limited budget. I stayed within my budget and went home with the beautiful ########. We trailered him home ourselves and he has impressed me already.