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Spinoff: what do you look for in a breeder's website?

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  • #1

    Spinoff: what do you look for in a breeder's website?

    I was just reading the "find me a web designer" thread, and thought about what I would like to see in a breeder's website.

    -- lots of info on each stallion. Video of the stallion. Pedigree. For multiple stallions, when I click on an individual link, I hope to see a whole page of him, and possibly his offspring.

    -- information about why your stallion/broodmares/young stock is special to you. A short paragraph about why you have bred or own a horse is always interesting. Pedigree, show history, lineage, personality, all that stuff.

    -- good photos. I don't need to see three hundred photos of the horse grazing or running awkwardly in the field. Just two or three at various angles is probably enough. With youtube, it's so easy to link a video on the site.

    -- easy to find contact info. Fees for services.

    -- sales list. Good pics of each horse, video is even better. There's always a debate about publishing sales prices, I like a fixed price (not a range, like this horse is in the "A" range, too coy for me, but that's just me, works for a lot of folks I guess). No price is baffling, since the reader has no idea. An organized sales list is helpful (young horses, broodmares, etc.)

    -- Great visual art is fun, but it really isn't all that necessary in my view.

    -- well organized is probably my top priority. I don't want to scroll through a thousand pages of stuff to find what I am looking for. If you think of a web site as a brochure with limits on the amount of info presented, it's easier for the reader.

    -- I like to see some info on the farm and owners, on a separate menu tab.

    --no music -- please. Ipads/phones don't support flash, so just not necessary.

    --UPDATED. I always wonder if horses presented have been there for 3 months, or three years! Someone mentioned this on the web designer thread. A website can't sit static, or it really does look unprofessional. Put in some farm news, or something, so as a reader I know you looked at it in the last month.

    I often click on signature links and surf around people's sites, window shopping. A good website keeps me looking.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I try to keep my pages simple with links to more information. I am constantly amazed that someone looking at my foals doesn't look at the in depth reviews of the bloodlines/info on the sire and dam.

    I have to say I haven't considered the 'why I bred this one' info.... hmmm, interesting. I also haven't thought about info on the owners although I have a little blurb about the ranch. What sort of things would you like to know about me/owner/breeder?
    www.juniperridgeranch.us
    Visit us on Facebook!

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    • #3
      I like to see lots of info about a stallion on his page, including photos and video, test scores, and offspring. I think AHF's site pages for Fielding are exemplary:
      http://www.autumnhillfarm.com/Fielding.html

      There are lots of ways to present the information and most are fine with me. Lots of breeders who post here have nice websites. The only thing I dislike, personally, are websites where I have to scroll from left to right because they're too wide for my screen or websites with rampant mispellings.
      Kendra -- Runningwater Warmbloods
      Home of EM Raleska (Rascalino/ Warkant) and Donatella M (Furstenball/ Jazz Time)
      'Like' us on Facebook

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      • #4
        Wow! Thanks Kendra!

        I actually do not like the "videos" page. Too much scrolling. When I get a moment I'm going to change it to one-line description text for each video with a hotlink. Then it will all fit above the fold
        "No matter how cynical I get its just not enough to keep up." Lily Tomlin

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        • Original Poster
          #5
          Originally posted by hansiska View Post
          I like to see lots of info about a stallion on his page, including photos and video, test scores, and offspring. I think AHF's site pages for Fielding are exemplary:
          http://www.autumnhillfarm.com/Fielding.html

          There are lots of ways to present the information and most are fine with me. Lots of breeders who post here have nice websites. The only thing I dislike, personally, are websites where I have to scroll from left to right because they're too wide for my screen or websites with rampant mispellings.
          What a cute baby on your page, and a careful momma! I like your website, very nicely done.

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          • #6
            Thanks!
            Kendra -- Runningwater Warmbloods
            Home of EM Raleska (Rascalino/ Warkant) and Donatella M (Furstenball/ Jazz Time)
            'Like' us on Facebook

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            • #7
              Pricing

              sales list. Good pics of each horse, video is even better. There's always a debate about publishing sales prices, I like a fixed price (not a range, like this horse is in the "A" range, too coy for me, but that's just me, works for a lot of folks I guess). No price is baffling, since the reader has no idea. An organized sales list is helpful (young horses, broodmares, etc.)
              I also HATE when there is no price. I never contact someone who has a horse for sale or a stallion at stud with no price listed. We do, however, use the "price range" basically because it keeps us from having to update the price as frequently. Also, we do give discounts to elite riders because we want our babies to have good exposure so having a price range gives us some leeway in the pricing. I am going to charge more for a horse I sell to myself than a horse I sell to William Fox-Pitt (no, I have never sold him a horse obviously...I wish...just an example....) because having William riding my horse is WAY better advertising than having me ride my horse....

              In terms of what horse I buy or what stallion I use, I could care less about the website. I mean, nice if it looks good, but if you are selling Secretariat on a crap ass website for $2, I'm going with Secretariat....just sayin'......
              www.witsendeventing.com
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              • #8
                as noted..my pet peeve is scrolling through a hunderd pics of the grazing horse and awkward pics. If you are advertising the horse then pick a few GOOD pics that are not at a 45 degree angle or grazing. My other pet peeve is about videos: a few bits of slo mo are fine but I hate wading through tons of video, all is slo mo. I want to see what the horse really looks like moving "naturally".
                wants: Pics of sire, dam and sibilings if there are some, pedigree and price or pricerange.
                as to why you bred/are selling that horse: I do in fact get that question all the time in sale ads.
                Providence Farm
                http://providencefarmpintos.blogspot.com/

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                • #9
                  UP TO DATE!!! When I was looking I wasted a LOT of time calling about horses that had already sold. So I got to the point where I quit calling about horses listed on websites. I only called about horses on dreamhorse or warmbloods-for-sale.com.

                  Prices... If you're trying to list a horse for sale, why not list a price?

                  Price ranges... well ok... but why? It's better than nothing but when the spread is 20k.... why bother with a price at all? 0-20k, 20-40k...
                  Fresh, Frozen & ISO Warmblood Breedings FB Group

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                  • #10
                    I have recently gone to two web sites, one recently recommended here on COTH. That one is showing this year's foals of 2010. The other one, well it wasn't updated for ages, so I thought they went out of business. Turns out they haven't. But in the past year they have put up "Updated Site Coming Soon..."

                    There is one very prominent Hanoverian breeder who had a famous Hanoverian stallion that never made it to their web site while he was alive.

                    I know two of the three breeders web sites are owned by people with oodles of money so they wouldn't care if any of their horses got sold or not.

                    Is it really that hard to keep things up to date?
                    The virtual "woodshed" seems the only remedy for willful fools .

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                    • #11
                      We are in the process of putting together our new website (yes, one with better navigation and less scrolling!). Our aim this time around is to provide "Layers" of information. All the information one could desire, however with "Click to read more" after the basics are given, rather than provide it all on every page of every horse.
                      Ryu Equestrian & Facebook Page
                      Breeding Horses Today, for the Equestrian Sport of Tomorrow.
                      Osteen & Gainesville, Florida.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Joanne View Post
                        Is it really that hard to keep things up to date?
                        IMO it's better to have a not so professional looking "plug and play" site you can update yourself rather than a fancy one with old news shown. It costs money to hire a web developer and it typically costs money for that same developer to make changes.
                        Fresh, Frozen & ISO Warmblood Breedings FB Group

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                        • #13
                          I have no idea what the cause of this would be.. but sites that are supported by Firefox ! There are two sites of breeders that Ive gone to recently that frooze on Firefox. I know I can always go back and switch to another program, but I guess I just move on to look at other stallions.
                          www.windhorsefrm.org and on Facebook too!
                          Where mares rule and Basset Hounds drool!

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                          • #14
                            ditto the up to date. I have been to endless sites that were last updated over a year ago...so baby pics not updated or sold horses marked as such. Baby prices don't change that much unless they are out there showing but under saddle horse prices can change a fair amount with training and showing...still a range is do able. When I was shopping for horses with a budget of say 15K then I am really not going to bother looking at horses priced over 20K. I don't want to wast my time or horse owners. Inquire for price and Private Treaty to me = expensive. It is not actually always the case....but that is the impression it gives. And since there are tons of em out there listed that way...no I am not going to email all of em for a price. If I can't see it is in my pricerange I move on since there are tons out there for sale to sort through.
                            Providence Farm
                            http://providencefarmpintos.blogspot.com/

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                            • #15
                              Camohn, let me ask you. If you saw an ad for a filly that said "injury requires this filly be sold as a broodmare prospect" and then "Please inquire" for price.....would you inquire if you were looking for a broodmare? Understanding that in that situation we aren't talking huge dollars?
                              "No matter how cynical I get its just not enough to keep up." Lily Tomlin

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                              • #16
                                If I'm shopping stallions the progency pics of cute babies is not enough. I would love to see a photo of the mare, the baby, then a photo added of that foal when it is more mature (as they age up and you can provide this). It would help to see how the stallion truly does cross with the mares that he's been given. Granted the stallion owner is only going to show the best tho and we'll never see the other results.

                                I would not mind a progency owner's brag page - to be able to follow the stallion gets' progresses as they get out and about in the world.

                                And updates, now that folks are using Facebook they are neglecting their websites and not 'everyone' is a Facebook devotee.
                                The cue card kid just held up an empty cue card. For a minute there I thought I had lost my sense of humor. --- Red Skelton

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                                • #17
                                  Yes I would

                                  Originally posted by ahf View Post
                                  Camohn, let me ask you. If you saw an ad for a filly that said "injury requires this filly be sold as a broodmare prospect" and then "Please inquire" for price.....would you inquire if you were looking for a broodmare? Understanding that in that situation we aren't talking huge dollars?
                                  Course I would inquire on price no matter the age of the horse if it piqued my interest enough. I love the price range pages as those really do help but I wouldn't bat en eye to price ranges and then the filly mentioned above being a broodmare prospect.

                                  Stallion owners! Love your boys! Give him his own page with his accomplishments and a few of his foals. For those long established stallions see if you can get show pics or adult pics of what they look like and do kind of a fan page. If he managed to land a dream mare display her foal proudly!

                                  Mare owners! Love your ladies! Give her a page of her own if she merits it and brag like there is no better mare on the face of the planet if she's got accomplishments. Show off those performance pics and vids if she's got em and if she doesn't do be shy to post the inspection pics and vids.

                                  I can't judge a baby to save my life and therefore will often look to the mom and the dad. If the mom and dad are horses I wouldn't mind having look at me every day I will most definitely be more interested.

                                  For the babies, they are so difficult to market to some because they change so much. I'm probably one of a very few that could do without the still wet outta momma pics. I prefer to have pics once they unfold. I also want to see movement pics and love the running out in the field and the inspection vids.

                                  I love the kudos page for the horses and love hearing when the kids get the championships.
                                  Adoring fan of A Fine Romance
                                  Originally Posted by alicen:
                                  What serious breeder would think that a horse at that performance level is push button? Even so, that's still a lot of buttons to push.

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                                  • #18
                                    I would love to see a photo of the mare, the baby, then a photo added of that foal when it is more mature
                                    Stallion owners would love to see these photos too. But they don't. If they get pictures at all, they are of the foal nursing, the foal's face in the camera, the foal walking away from the camera, and the foal twisting his neck to look at the camera.
                                    "No matter how cynical I get its just not enough to keep up." Lily Tomlin

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                                    • #19
                                      Originally posted by ahf View Post
                                      Camohn, let me ask you. If you saw an ad for a filly that said "injury requires this filly be sold as a broodmare prospect" and then "Please inquire" for price.....would you inquire if you were looking for a broodmare? Understanding that in that situation we aren't talking huge dollars?
                                      yes. Understanding that situation makes it pretty apparent we are likely not looking at a 20K horse/ out of my pricerange.
                                      It is a bit easier to do this with your own webpage. Where the no price becomes a bigger issue is when I am cruising websites like equine.com. If I am searching a place with hundreds of horses for sale and lots of them pop up inquire for price I am going to skim right over em. I have tons to look at. Or just as bad...if not worse...the owner that puts 1.00 in the ad and then in the body of the ad it says see website for price and I go to the website and the horse is 15 or 20K and nowhere close to 1.00. I suppose the farm owners see this as a lure to get people to their website....but I just see it as deceptive advertising and refuse to deal with them on that principle alone.
                                      Providence Farm
                                      http://providencefarmpintos.blogspot.com/

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                                      • #20
                                        One of the things I enjoy looking at is the stallion pages here:

                                        http://www.gestuet-haemelschenburg.d.../e_swpst2.html

                                        Pictures of Songline from 12 hours old to Bundeschampion in 2010. His foals can be seen on other pages.

                                        It is fascinating and very educational to see how he has developed.
                                        www.juniperridgeranch.us
                                        Visit us on Facebook!

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