Selling a Stallion

When you sell a horse, you actually have pictures of the animal. You may even have video. Plus potential buyers can come and see the horse. When you sell a Stallion to Mare owners, you are selling an idea. The end result is not something I can put into pictures or videos. All I can do is post awesome pictures of Roscoe that show off his movement and promote his intelligence. Maybe now that the weather is improving, I can get an updated video.

The hard part for Roscoe is that I am a no name in the horse world. I am not a breeder or a trainer. So my promotion of Roscoe has no weight beyond owning him. And because of my Turtle track plans, he does not have fancy show results to add to his credits. He has no full siblings I can compare him to and only a few half siblings showing. In some ways I feel bad that he is overlooked because he is owned by me. I can't afford to advertise him in magazines or paid websites. But a larger part of me believes this is his path. If he is meant to breed, the mares will come eventually.
Peggy asked me if I could put a number to how many breedings I would do a year what would it be. Immediately the number "3" came to mind. Which in the stallion world is very small, but seems just enough for Roscoe. This year I have had interest. Some people ask about him, then turn to more established stallions. One bugged me a bit since Roscoe is a better mover, but that older stallion has the show scores and tricks to make him look fancier. Ah well the horse world has always been subjective. Another person asked yesterday because he reminded her of a horse she used to own. Hopefully the collection costs will not drive her away since she is on the west coast.
As a young Stallion owner, I  won't make money off breeding so I can be selective. One mare owner has a Welsh Cob that is an older maiden who will need live cover. The kicker is she lives in PA close to MD. I am not sure how she wanted it to work, but I told her we use ERC to handle Roscoe. For safety I am not going to offer to handle Roscoe. I told her we needed him handled by someone with experience. Unfortunately, I have not heard anything else from her.
Selling a young Stallion is tough, but I believe in Roscoe enough to grit my teeth and keep moving forward. Once this years foals are on the ground, I can include pictures of his offspring in his ads. For some mare owners that visual will help sell the "idea". I would love to see how he crosses with a warmblood since his sire produced some great half Welsh. Maybe someday. Right now I will deal with spring Stallion antics and hope he gets to let off some "energy" this year :)

16 days left to enter his Foal Pools. Once I have the entries, I will put them on a calendar so everyone can see who picked what days. Then the wait begins for the foals.