So you want to take good sale pictures

So we've all had our fair share of laughs at the terrible pictures people use to advertise their horses...  There are a lot of bad pictures that make people not even want to read the ad.

And a lot of ads have little to no text telling about the horse anyway, or it's filled with bad spelling. They don't really peak interest but they are also short and it doesn't scare people away from continuing. My for sale ads tend to be....  something that resembles a novella.

So what does it take to get people excited enough about your horse to keep reading for ten plus minutes?

Really awesome pictures.

But what does it take to get really awesome horse pictures? Well, unfortunately it's a little more difficult than just walking out to the pasture and snapping a picture with your camera phone.

It takes:
Preparation for you and the horse. If it's summer time that may involve bathing the horse. If you have a horse with lots of 'chrome' and white- this is pretty much what you'll have to do. But you can't just wash them with regular shampoo, oh no, you need whitening shampoo.

Since I do this often, I buy the concentrate since it lasts about 10 times as long. Costs about 20 bucks a bottle (ouch) but it WORKS and it will make your horse look amazing.  Until they, you know, roll in mud as soon as you let them free.

If you have a horse with dark points, especially if they tend to get sun bleached hair, you want darkening shampoo. (yes, it's a thing)

 But what if it's winter and cold outside?! Not all of us have access to an indoor washroom (I know I don't). So how do you get the stubborn grass stains out without a bath? The annoying way. Scrubbing. With bath in a bottle type stuff. ( I haven't had good luck with this particular brand however).

Once they're brights are bright and their dark's dark you can get to your new best friend. Show Sheen! Everybody loves show sheen. Another thing I buy in concentrate form. Or if you want to get creative, olive oil hair spray.

 What it should do is transform the horse. For example:

These are the same horses, on the same day. Which horse would you want to buy- assuming they're the same price and on the same site. If I could get the second version, why the heck would I want the first? 

So now that your equine beauty is all bathed and shiny you're ready to start getting YOU ready. Get a nice button up shirt or show shirt and jeans or riding pants, do your hair and makeup.Over exaggerate your makeup since it won't show up well on the pictures.  It matters- remember, you're selling everything in the picture. Horse, yourself and your property. Congratulations, you're now ready to start selling your body on the internet! Err, wait. That came out wrong.

Now you're ready to saddle up and start snapping away. Unless you're doing 'free' shots or confo shots. Then just turn them loose and let them run. the best day to take pictures is the introduction day- everyone's excited and showing off. But if that's not an option, then one thing you can do is try and separate them from the others- new location or you take the others away out of sight.  That gets them going pretty well.

So what you'll need:
A good camera- this is a bonus. I have a Nikon D5100 (I upgraded last year from the D40- which worked fine but had no video option). I paid about $250 for the D40 used (and sold it for the same) and about $500 + for the D5100. Now if you're only selling one horse, I wouldn't bother going out and getting a shiny new camera. But if you're going to sell multiple horses, I've found this to be pretty important. Also having a high zoom lens makes everything easier- aka, less running around like an idiot. You'll also want a good memory card, I'll get to why in a minute.

But for one horse you can use a digital camera, I would just strongly advise you to stay away from camera phones whenever possible. However, you can still take good pictures with a phone, the quality just won't be the same.

Here's an example of a picture I took with my crappy old flip phone. You can see the coloring is just kind of off.

Which brings me to my next helpful thing... photoshop. Yep. You heard me. It's a god send. You can fix discoloration and blurriness, crop the photo to the right size, get rid of ugly manure piles or debris in the back ground, etc.
Now I am NOT saying that you should photoshop the picture to change your horses flaws, etc. That would be bad.

Although I am guilty of photoshopping out stains and even occasionally photoshopping in forward facing ears.  Because getting a good confo shot and getting the horse to put their ears up can be the most frustrating thing ever. So I'll borrow the up ears from another picture and fix the confo shot.  It's easier than finding two people to help me take the pictures. Otherwise I need someone to pose/hold the horse and another to get them to perk their ears up.

Did I mention this is a two person job? Because it totally is. Unless you can manage to take the pictures of you riding, while you're riding...  Now if you figure out how to do that.... let me know. Because you'll be my new best friend.

Anyway, now we're to the 'fun part'. Getting good posed shots.
 Which requires some props... And plenty of self degradation and ridiculousness.
So, props I use to get perked ears include: Anything and everything that makes noise, or is shiny and unusual.

Shiny

Horses are often scared of umbrellas- spinning and opening them works well but may scare them and you don't want a frightened horse, just an alert one. 

Best. Prop. Ever.

If you can't find these, use some pennies in an old pill bottle. 

Things to throw will often make them look the direction you want.

So you know how I said you'd want a good memory card? Well, if you want to take the kind of pictures that I do, you'll want a good one. I use a 16 or 32 GB card. Why?
Same reason I asked you guys to guess how many pictures we take per shoot. (Which you didn't, tisk tisk.)

Well, we take about 1000 pictures per shoot. Seriously, but that's for two horses. Riding pictures always need more than free shots.
The saying goes, you need about 100 pictures before you get one 'good' one. So we usually take about 600 per horse to get a handful of 'ad quality' shots.

Now you'll have a crap ton of ones to erase, even if it's free running shots- because of one reason or another.
Bad lighting, ears back, legs are at a wrong angle, blurry picture, derpy facial expression, crappy background, and so on.

So then you mark the best shots and edit them. Crop and correct the color and all that fun stuff and then you're ready to go!

Yeah, it's kind of a lot of work and a pain in the ass.

I've considered offering my services though since good pictures really will sell your horse for you. You can get more money and have a wider selection of people to choose from as well. More interest means you can be even pickier about who you sell to.
Which is a really good thing.


For tips on what to look for in a 'good shot' i'm linking to a site that has some good tips: http://www.nickertown.com/page/Equine-Photography-Tips


Have fun!

Quick update! Sale barn Special- Beauties!

So, on friday my mother had to be rushed to the hospital, at 1:30 in the morning for what ended up being emergency gallbladder surgery. Although my mum's stubborn and refused to have the surgery until she looked at other options, long story short, there wasn't any so it had to come out. So I spent the fun weekend in the hospital.

So I don't have much new to talk about. But I do have some new pictures to share.

So as some of you probably know, since I've probably bitched about it, I absolutely loathe the term 'sale barn special'. Mainly because it's always used by people in their CL ads with terrible pictures of mediocre horses to imply that they are inherently better than horses who've been run through an auction.
Which, they usually aren't.

The best was when I heard someone describe their horse that way.... ... at an auction. While the horse was being run through.  Yeah. It made me head hurt.

Anyway, yesterday we did a shoot of Lacey and Loki- after nearly 2 months of work and proper food.

Isn't that the most darling little baby doll face? 

The halter was a little too big for his tiny head. 

Some times I wish there were shots of what it takes to get these awesome shots... .For this one I had to crawl along the ground on my hands and knees making sounds like an idiot. But damn does he look good. A little bit "Hey mom, what the hell are you doing down there?" but good.

Loki has filled out rather a lot since I got him. The weight and muscle looks good on him. 

In case you were wondering, the Fat-Ass-Kill- Buyer and I were bidding on Loki- no one else really was and I won him for 350. Yeah. Price does not indicate worth- nor does location.  

Miss Lacey- aka miss- I don't want to have my ears up for a single posed shot and I want to go to sleep. 

But as soon as you turn her loose- bam, the ears go up and the tail lifts. 

Na, she's not proud of herself or anything. 

In other news, I LOVE my neighbors. They let us borrow their pasture for pictures. Which is great since there aren't random piles of poop...and because they have beautiful trees that horses haven't eaten. The horses got to go eat in their pasture until they started nomming the trees. Then they got kicked out. 

And also because they bring us food. I love the south. 

I feel like I might want to do a post on what it takes to get decent pictures for people wanting to sell their horses. What do you guys think?

Also, just for fun, you guys can try to guess how many pictures we take per photo shoot to get what we deem amazing or ad worthy. 

If what you're doing isn't working...

Do something different.
 That sounds pretty obvious, doesn't it? Yet how many times have we kept doing what we were doing even though things were going from bad to worse?

The thought process goes something like: Other people should change their methods, but mine have worked so far so this horse will come around soon.... probably... .maybe..... it's not looking so likely but it could still happen.....
Or not.

What's the quote, I think it's something like; "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results".

Well I think that applies pretty darn well to training methods, and we're ALL guilty of it at one time or another.

Recently I was guilty of it with Loki.  He'd been doing pretty good at first, he had no muscle tone so we started off walking and working on collection.  When I felt he had that down and was ready to start trotting he started getting nervous. So I went back to walking him.

It didn't help. Day after day he got more and more nervous and jumpy until he finally spooked at something and tried to run off. I reined him in (I was trying the bitless bridle that day to see if maybe it was a tooth issue) and he freaked out. He reared and the second time he reared he went so high that I was absolutely positive he was going to flip over on me.

I took that as my cue to bail off.  Thankfully and miraculously he didn't- and he headed back to the barn at a run. So I tromped off after him and when I got close I called him to me. He came and I rewarded him- because if I get dumped in the middle of a trail again, I want my horse to stick by me and come back if they leave.

Anyway, I got back on, he was still very nervous so I did a quick half lap and got off- ending it on a good note.

So the next ride was about the same- very nervous, antsy, spooky but no rearing.

This is weird because his personality on the ground is laid back, inquisitive and pesty.
Anyway, it continued like that so I tried switching to bareback so I could feel his energy easier, and we worked on retraining his response to nerves. Instead of spooking and running off- I wanted him to stop, think and try to calm down.

This worked pretty well but I was still frustrated  at his behavior. But I am a believer in 'if what you're doing isn't working, do something else' so I did. We went in the round pen the next day and I let him pick his own speed.

Apparently Loki's speed is fast. Now our round pen isn't real big, I normally dont feel comfortable cantering in it... at all.
Loki however, did not share my concerns. He zipped around that pen, making sharp turns like it was his job- and never slowing down or slipping.
Well, I guess it was his job- he was a working ranch/cattle horse before.

Loki was happy though, he liked to see just how close he could come to the mounting block before turning. (Close, if you were wondering.)
I think Loki would make an excellent barrel pony.

So it turns out that my taking things slow and steady was driving him a little crazy. When all the energy  he built up got to be too much he started freaking out.  Sometimes a horse like that needs a little release.

But it was a good reminder that the way you think things should be done isn't always the best way. Sometimes you need to be fluid, flexible, and pushed out of your comfort zone.

Abandonment. Shame. Dishonor on my family.... annnd now we're moving on.

Thankfully I'm not talking about some abandoned horses, although we all know they exist. Shamefully, I do mean this blog. I abandoned you. I can't even lie and say I was busy- I have however been in a post graduation funk with no desire to write. For that you have my apologies.

Recently I went to a week long mindfulness retreat with the Buddhist master, Thich Nhat Hahn, it was called 'Healing yourself, healing the world'. It was truly awesome. This is where I got back my motivation. It is also why I'm determined to take this blog in a more positive direction, there's enough negativity in the world without my adding to it.  I cannot promise that I wont slip up some times.

Also I chopped all my hair off at the start of the summer. I also dyed it blonde, pink and maroon brown before going back to black. It's awesome for working horses- no pony tail to get in the way of my helmet and no hair going in my mouth when it's windy! Hooray!

So, a long overdue update!

I think the last real thing I blogged about was just after a got Evanna but just before we got River Song (I brought her home the following week.)

So, I'll fill you in about those two and where they ended up, and introduce you to my two current projects- Rhythm and Lace (Lacey) and :Loki (Lightning Cran Bar). They were both bought from Beebe.

So, Evanna- she finally got (kind of) better about lowering her head- this was an issue. But she was an absolutely fantastic trail horse who would go through or over anything you pointed her at.  She went home with a nice woman in her mid twenties who had a overly spunky arabian. In truth, I was a little concerned about the sale as I felt she was not as experienced as she had said and because I thought Evanna might be too much horse for her. But they liked each other and they were close enough that I could help them out if they needed it. So far I've heard nothing so I'm assuming all is well.

Now on to River. River came to me without a name, so I named her River Song because I'm a Doctor Who fan. She's nothing like the character. In other news, I'm going as an androgynous 11th Doctor for Halloween. Because short hair is fun and lets me do awesome stuff I couldn't do before.

Meet River when I got her.

Sweat strains and some serious dehydration. 

Someone left a halter on her and it had grown into her face in parts. 

River was covered in wood ticks- hundreds of them. 

Those aren't all scabs- no, most of those are wood ticks too. 

Tiny, evil little seed ticks. I spent all morning picking them off. They were EVERYWHERE. Thankfully River was a champ about it and never even offered to kick.

My morning- aren't you jealous? 

So you understand just how bad this was: River was so swollen from all the tick bites on her vulva and under her tail that she was completely unable to urinate. After I got them off and cleaned her all up (Not the most fun thing I've ever done- yet somehow also not the worst) she immediately urinated and looked much happier. 

I feel the need to restate, this horse who did not know me at all, that was in a completely strange environment, let me spend 5 hours painfully picking half embedded wood ticks out of her most private areas, clean her vulva, and then bathed her. All without out pinning an ear back, offering to kick or even move.  If that's not a horse with a temperament that doesn't deserve to go to slaughter, I don't know what is. 

The person next to me (a trader/KB) told me she was lame when I was bidding on her. Her owner heard and said that she was absolutely not and he'd put it in writing. Which he did. Also he was right and she wasn't lame at all. 

Such a trusting horse

She just looks unbalanced and uncomfortable doesn't she? 

 The only thing she had a problem with was loading in the trailer. So after a few hours of clicker training and slow steps, River got to where she'd go in when I pointed. 

Her face healed up completely (much to my surprise- I assumed she'd have some scarring), she put on some healthy muscle and after lots of testing, River was ready to find a new home. Actually she never even got listed. She was rehomed before we even tried to put her up.

She went to go live with my friend Christy, the lovely woman who bought Honey. 

River liked people. And giving kisses. 

Look ma, no hands- River was very concerned as you can see

So here are some pictures of River at her new home! (where she's doing great by the way)

River and Honey 

Much prettier movement 

I showed my chiropractor this picture (I was recently in a car accident) and she commented that she really liked the horse on the right. Her jaw dropped when I told her it was the same horse. Amazing what a difference proper care makes....


Oh, and just for fun, Kota's owners sent me some nice new pictures a little while back:

Apparently her grandma just loves him and brings him carrots and they bring him to see her. He looks pretty proud of himself. I think this is about the cutest picture ever. 

A better update on my new babies to come! For now just the pictures

Lacey (Rhythm and Lace)- 8 year old TWH mare. Possibly used to be shown in big lick- previous owner was rehabbing her feet. She moves more like a BL horse than the other walkers I've ridden. Apparently she was registered at one point but they were lost in a fire. 

Loki (Lightning Cran Bar)- 8 year old registered QH gelding- previous ranch horse for most of his life. Big motor...  aka, loki likes to go fast. Loki is good at going fast. Loki likes to make sharp turns without slowing down and would make an excellent barrel horse. He's roped cattle and even had a gun shot off him.  Loki is a pest and a half. 

Seriously, he won't leave you alone. 

Lacey was impossible to catch when I got her. After some clicker sessions she's now easy to catch every time and will even come up to you. She no longer runs away when we approach and doesn't try to freak out and escape if someone makes a sudden movement. She's also one ground covering speed gaiting trail horse.