How to video a young horse for sale

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

Hi - we met at the Pam Goodrich Clinic.


Your website is very informative - I will definitely recommend you folks to anyone looking to sell their horse.


Thanks for looking - would appreciate any comments, feedback, etc.
Thanks much.

Thanks for your email. Here are a ideas you might want to consider.


My first suggestion with him would be to get him going under saddle before trying to sell him. I think your investment of time or money to get him started under saddle would pay back very well.

It was difficult from your video to get a good feel for temperament, conformation and basic gaits which are the primary areas as a buyer I would be trying to evaluate.

With an unstarted youngster I would be looking for the following for evaluation:


Temperament

  • Catching/Leading
  • Grooming
  • Aisle Manners (cross ties etc.)
  • Picking Feet
  • Clippers
  • Walk and Trot straight away and to the camera on a lead line
  • Loading on and off a trailer (in standing wraps)

Total length of completed video section should be 3-5 minutes.


Conformation


Still Photograpgy: all shot with a 50mm lens to minimize distortion

  • A nice head and neck shot (braids are recommended)
  • Front
  • Back
  • Side  showing all four legs (open pose) with neck out
  • Closeups of legs: Front, Back and Side
Still Shot of Trot - Usually I take these with the my Nikon but you can also get good shots out of the video editing software if shooting 29 Frames a Second (non-interlaced mode). Most video editing software lets you put still pictures in your video like a slide show (allow 3-5 seconds for each picture.


Movement

  • Walk and trot in a straight line away and back towards the camera.
  • A few minutes of Walk. Trot, Canter in and enclosed area at liberty in wraps.
  • As a 3 year old, I would want to see Walk, Trot and Cantor  both directions on a lunge line at a minimum.

Other information:

  • Introduction Titles

  • Pedigree if that is a selling point

  • Credits including how to reach you for more information

Final Thoughts:

 

Some people really like lot's of creative presentation in their videos "slow motion" and other "special effects". I feel that it is easy to over do it and creates a distraction to the subject matter so I would avoid extreme creativity.