12 Tips for Selling a Horse

Experts share their suggestions for marketing horses and ensuring a smooth and legal transaction.
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tips for selling a horse
Getting a standout photo that shows the horse's best qualities and captures the buyer's attention is an important part of marketing a horse. | Photo: iStock

Experts share their suggestions for marketing horses and ensuring a smooth and legal transaction

In a perfect world we could keep all of our horses forever. But here in reality horses age, children outgrow their ponies, and riders advance their skills or change disciplines. Inevitably, as a horse owner, at some point you’ll find yourself as a horse seller. Here our sources share tips on marketing horses and negotiating sales.

1. Make the Horse Showroom Ready

Buying a horse is most certainly a logical decision, but it’s also an emotional one. And who can resist a pretty equine specimen? For Jennifer Schrader Williams, an equine broker and owner of Summervale Premier Dressage, in Roy, Washington, that means a glossy coat, a tidy mane and tail, new shoes, and top physical condition. That’s why all horses she consigns also go into full training. “I love making a horse ready for its new owner,” she says. What does this mean for selling your own horse? Clean him up and keep him in work, Williams recommends, so that the buyer gets to see him at his best.

2. Take Great Photos

Getting a standout photo is Williams’ top priority before marketing a horse. “You have just a split second to capture someone’s attention with a photo,” she explains. “I want to get photos that show that horse’s ‘spark.’” For that reason, Williams pays a professional equine photographer to capture sales images of horses she represents

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Written by:

Michelle Anderson is the former digital managing editor at The Horse. A lifelong horse owner, Anderson competes in dressage and enjoys trail riding. She’s a Washington State University graduate and holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in business administration and extensive coursework in animal sciences. She has worked in equine publishing since 1998. She currently lives with her husband on a small horse property in Central Oregon.

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