A little guide I found on my computer which I wrote last year sometime - there are a thousand other things to ad, but its a starting point for some. MARKETING YOUR STUD AND STALLION From the time you decide you want to have a stallion or horse stud, you need to be aware that people will be watching you and judging you and the negative element, which often includes your competition (other stallion owners and studs) will be looking for photos and information to use against you. Don’t take it personally, just accept that it is the way of any business, hobby or sport, and learn to market yourself, your horse and your stud. Social media is currently one of the best ways to market your stud, and also one of the best ways by which it can be discredited. Be aware of every photo you post because your competition will be looking at them. Do not use photos with any of these things in them: • People with bare feet around horses. • Children in potentially unsafe situations with horses. • Unsafe fences or rubbish in the background. • Big piles of manure around horses. • Children or saddles on foals or yearlings (it doesn’t matter that they are light, people will grab that photo and spread it saying you ride your foals). • Horses standing in unattractive poses – always take a lot of photos and delete most of them, using those that show your horse standing with the legs straight, and the neck out, not in the air or eating from a bucket. If the head is raised high, the neck will look short; if the horse is standing with the legs on the side of the camera close together, it will look to have a bad shoulder and hindquarter; if you catch it at the wrong trotting or canter stride, it will look ungainly. You simply have to look through horse magazines at the photos taken by professional photographers and make sure any photos you make public look a bit like those. • Photoshopped horses - do not photoshop your horse to change conformation or weight – it’s OK to photoshop a lead out or some mud off or a bit of manure away, but as soon as people start altering necks, eyes, hindquarters, legs, etc., other people notice and will spread the information to discredit you and your horse. Be generous and kind and speak well of others, even if you’d like to stab them in the eye with a fork. Trust few people in the horse industry – chat to them, enjoy their company, listen to their confessions but do not confide in many as lots of people will use information against you if they can. It’s not personal, it’s just the way people are. Have lots of friends but you will only have a few really trusted friends, and even those have been known to turn on each other in the horse industry. Treat others honestly, but have it in writing to protect them and yourself. Lots of people start out with a stallion – those who do the wrong thing, turn on their competition, rubbish everyone else’s stallions or horses, try and tell everyone their horse is the best rather than just saying, “This is my horse, this is what he has won,” and who aren’t aware of how their photos and words can be used against them usually fall by the wayside. Those who tread lightly and respect others and do the right thing have a higher chance of building the reputation that will help them survive the horse industry. If you advertise, have a professional photographer help you with your photos and ads – triple check the spelling as people will pick on any errors and compare it to the advertising from leading studs… that is what you are aiming to look like in an ad, not a backyard breeder with bad photos, bad photoshopping, misspelled words and a cheap look to your ad. Most of the horse magazines will create the ad for you if you provide good photos and correct information which is much better than stallion owners trying to create their own ad. Have fun. When it’s all said and done, it’s about you and your horses, but you do need to be aware of the eyes watching you. Lots of stallion owners and studs do not want more competition and they forget that they once had their first stallion and were learning, and they will be hard on people for making the same mistakes they forgot that they made. Its a rollercoaster of a ride, and an expensive one with lots of heartache, but if you have a dream of having a stallion or a horse stud, work hard to make that dream your future. Good luck!! Leanne Owens (you are welcome to share and/or add to the information if you know of people who may be helped by this.)
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:20:38 +0000
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