(This article was first published in Connecticut Dressage Association's "Centerline" and NEDA's "Salute" in 1995. Therefore, the specific references are to dressage - and they are 'dated'; please feel free to substitute your discipline's terminology - and current technology - as you read and apply.)

If you weren't lucky, finding a horse could be a very expensive, travel and trial proposition.

But that was all in the days BV (before video). Let's do a 180º turn and look at the seller's side. In the days BV, you pretty much knew your customers were going to be local/regional, unless you had a world-class horse. Today, you may still only appeal to locals with a "cheapie", but your market area broadens considerably with the use of video.  And what may be a "cheapie" in your backyard might sell for considerably more in someone else's area!

So, how to sell your horse on tape.....There are a number of criteria you need to keep in mind to create a successful sales tool. Take a good look at national commercial spots on TV. They pack a punch in 10 to 60 seconds. Now, your tape will be longer than one minute, but you need to develop a critical eye and eliminate all the fluff. What's fluff? Depends on your market. What's your market?

This is your first important question. Your market is determined by the horse you are marketing and its price.

1. You have an trustworthy, relatively sound senior citizen with no bad habits, great stable manners, a real "people-person", and small, by current standards. Who's looking for this horse? Maybe another senior citizen who's enjoying a little exercise; maybe a young pony-clubber excited about a first horse; maybe an amateur just getting started. What's important to these potential buyers? Manners, both on-board and on the ground; diversity; adaptability; "broke-ness".

2. You have a younger horse with a ton of potential, who needs understanding whether you're working with it on its back or on the ground. You know it has the ability to go to upper levels (you REALLY know it, not just because it's your horse and can do no wrong), but you also know that you cannot take it there. Who's looking for this horse? And what's important to these buyers?

3. You have an FEI horse that you bought as an investment several years ago; it's doing well at Intermediare levels, and you want to find and bring along another one. Who's looking, and what's important?

By now, you realize that what you need to show on your sales tape is partially determined by your potential buyer. You are not going to produce identical tapes for these three horses. The buyers for Horse 1 will want to see some ground preparation (leading around, tacking up, cleaning the stall with the horse in it); that will all be "fluff" for the buyers of Horse 3.

How long should your tape be? A semi-pro friend of mine received a 2-hour tape of a low-level dressage horse for a potential buyer. It showed the horse in its stall, being led out, groomed, tacked up, ridden through a one-hour lesson, untacked, hosed down, walked out--and tying-up. No, not being tied to a tree--physically tying-up. She sent the tape back without showing it to her customer.

Studies show that the average person's attention span is abysmally short--5-10 minutes--so plan on making your tape fit that time frame. This means you should not copy your ten best rides, but you CAN send pieces of them. Maybe you had an awesome extension in one test and a terrific pirouette in another and an 8 on the "serpentine from hell" in a third.

With time and effort, and decent equipment, you can produce an inexpensive, attractive 7-minute video. You can use still photos by taping pictures of them arranged in a collage for an introduction; Circuit City and similar stores sell an inexpensive audio mixer if you wish to get fancy and add music. One trick--use your camera as the recording machine and your VCR as the source, unless you have an expensive VCR. Reason: most camcorders have a flying erase head, most consumer level VCRs do not. This feature, which I sort of understand but cannot explain, allows clean cuts without the rainbows and junk that you can get otherwise. Some camcorders also have effects such as slow or still, which can be used creatively (but sparingly).

Production or studio time is tedious and requires great concentration and precision to create a clean, quality tape. This is your marketing tool, so create a product that equals the quality of the product you are selling. If you are selling a $1500 horse, a nice clean, no-frills amateur tape will suffice. If you are selling the equivalent of a up-and-coming Gifted, you definitely want to invest in a professional tape. Professionals can use clips from your tapes if they are clean, add some stills and perhaps some at-home footage, and create a piece of art in the studio. But it will cost you!

Remember that each time you copy a tape, you lose a generation, and therefore some quality. Depending on the original, this loss can be barely noticeable or tremendous. Start with decent original material, create your master onto a good quality tape, and copy your master onto good quality tape. I use high-end Fuji or Maxell tape. If I know I am going to be editing, I use SVHS or broadcast quality (which are not available in your local WalMart) for both original and master, but you can create passable tapes with good quality consumer tape. You will note that I suggest copying your master tape, and you may think, "Why bother--I'll just send it and they can send it back." Maybe. But once you have taken the time and effort to produce a sales tape, you won't want to risk having to do it again. Making a copy is much easier!

One last thought--if you have several horses for sale, you may want to show more than one on a tape. I would suggest that you show similar level, or price, horses on the same tape, rather than combining Horse 1 and Horse 3 (from my original example). You may, however, wish to combine Horse 2 and Horse 3.

Remember, consider your market. Good luck!