sales videos and You Tube

[columbus]

My friend was posting her sales video(and you don't want to hear how hard it was to get the few minutes of good video with a jokester not co-operating) and said it was 2 to 3 minutes long but took 2 hours to download on You Tube with a fast connection. We are working to get our collective acts together to do a good job selling horses. We are discovering that this is not so easy. Congratulations to those who do this marketing thing well. I seem to remember hearing there were better places to post these videos but I can't remember where. Any advice on how to make posting videos easier(quicker...much quicker)...or must we accept our fate. I won't be posting my videos at the library if it is 2 hours.

Also we have 1st, second/third level horses as far as training goes but in one case he is not fit to work at that level and in another case he has the training but has not shown yet. The fear is he shows and screws around and gets a bad score. I know that this is a big issue when we CALL horses as a certain level but there is no video proof or scores to back this up. What would you consider evidence of being ready for 3rd...or second...or 1st SHORT of a score at that level and how would you deliver that. My understanding is to keep the You Tube vids to 3 minutes(and with 2 hour load times I can see why). In the keep it short idea is it sufficient to spotlight the more difficult elements of the level. These are incredibly fun horses but sometimes that means they have a less conventional approach to the levels...they beg to do harder stuff. Don't want no stinkin 2nd level...I want CHANGES!!! Showing these things on a sales video might be counter productive but then it is why the horse are fun to train...and some times frustrating. What would you do. Thanks PatO

[twofatponies]

If it's taking that long, something is wrong. I've had it happen occasionally that the upload feature is kind of "clogged" or stalled - and if you try again later it loads right up.

Also, there's two parts to the "uploading".

1)The part where you choose the file and then fill out some of the details like description etc. That shouldn't take more than a couple minutes.

2) Then the part where it's processing on YouTube's end, so it's not ready to view yet, but it *is* uploaded. You don't need to sit around waiting for this part. Once you've filled out your description stuff, you can go on about your business and come back later to view the final video.

[YankeeLawyer]

I have a 6 minute video of one of my foals on youtube and did not have a problem loading it. My videocam shoots high definition vids for bluray, which are huge files. But I convert them to .wmv before uploading, and the software I use has a function that alows you to optimize the file size for sharing on sites like youtube (I am not sure if that function is part of Windows Movie Maker or the Sony software that came with my cam as I use both).

Youtube's vids can be grainy, though soon they will be offering high def options (they have just started rolling that out). viddler.com is better, I think, and I also like the video sharing on photobucket.com

Regarding how to demonstrate the horse's capability without taking him to a show, ideally I would video him doing a test at the level you are claiming (i.e., Third Level horse = Third Level test). At the very least, I would get footage of him at all 3 gaits under saddle and demonstrating any moves required at the level that people are likely to wonder about (e.g., if the test requires a flying change, get video that shows the horse doing a clean one, etc).

That said, here is a very typical sales video from Germany of a horse under saddle - short and sweet (though note the mare had less than 6 weeks under saddle at the time):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVEiIymZOis

Also useful to look at are the auction videos of the riding horses. The ones for the Hanoverian Elite Auction are up on the Hanoverian site:

http://service.vit.de/pfauktion/pfliste/list?id=2310