A video of your horse for sale can create a great first impression and really catch a prospective buyer's interest, so when you advertise your horse for sale check out our tips for taking a video to include with your advert.
- Whenever possible use a video camera, not a smart phone, to take the video and ensure that the image quality is set to the highest resolution to ensure the best quality video.
- Take the video on a bright clear day. Early morning or late afternoon are the best times of the day for taking outdoor videos as taking videos mid-day can cause harsh shadows to appear in the video. Take the video with the sun behind you to get the best lighting and to avoid sun glare in the video or the horse being shown in silhouette and barely visible.
- Groom the horse - there is no need to turn it out as if preparing for the show ring with hooves oiled and mane plaited, but the horse should look clean and tidy.
- Clean the tack and ensure it is properly fitted - this is particularly important if tack is included with the sale of the horse, but even if not included with the sale dirty or poorly fitting tack won't help to create a good first impression.
- Ensure the rider is smartly and appropriately dressed - there is no need to dress in full show gear but proper, clean riding wear should be worn as poo stained jodhpurs, wearing trainers, muddy boots, etc doesn't make a great impression on a video.
- Place the video camera on a tripod if you have one or, if not, rest your elbow on a solid surface such as a fence rail, on your knee if sitting, or keep your arm close to your body if standing to help prevent camera shake.
- Follow the movement of the horse with the video camera and keep the horse in the centre of the video frame as you film.
- If the video camera has a zoom feature use this to zoom in and out as the horse moves further away and closer to keep the horse fully in the frame.
- Remove unnecessary objects from the riding area to avoid cluttered backgrounds or the horse being obscured by objects when taking the video.
- Take a video that shows the horse doing as many things mentioned in the advert as possible such as hacking, flatwork, jumping, etc. A video is a great way to really show off your horse.
- Use video editing software to combine and edit various clips into a single video. There are plenty of free video editing sites online or free software that can be downloaded online to achieve this
