tobianotales

[tobianotales]

7 Tips for Great Horse Sales Photography

Clean up your horse. They don’t have to be show ready, but a quick brush down and detangling of their mane and tail will make a horse look far more desirable.

Get photos with the horse’s ears up. This will make the horse look kinder and friendlier than a horse at “neutral” or, even worse, with their ears pinned back.

Be sure to get photos of both sides! There is nothing worse than looking at a sale ad and having to wonder what the other side of the horse looks like. Is there something wrong? Does it have an ugly brand? An old scar? Try to kill the suspense by providing clear photos of each side.

Use a clean, simple background. While it’s good to know that the horse you are selling will tolerate a bouncy castle, some food trucks and a million little kids, that shouldn’t be your first few photos. Show potential buyers the horse itself first, then prove what it can do.

Get video. Like I said previously, you should be able to prove what this horse can do. Whether that is running 1D times or jumping 3’6” or simply packing kids around an arena, get some video to show potential buyers that.

Get photos of the horse. It’s awesome to have photos of you and your beloved horse to look back on, but sale photos should be separate from those, at least on the ad. Unless you’re showing the horse being ridden, try to avoid having people in the photos completely.

Show your horse’s best features. If your horse has a luscious mane and tail, beautiful eyes, or a unique marking, show it off! You are trying to sell them, after all.

[tobianotales]

Feeding More Fat: How It Impacts Your Horse

Every horse owner is looking to improve their horse’s performance in one way or another, and there’s a million ways to do it. One unexpected choice may be adding fat to their diet. While fats and oils are often used to put weight on a horse or improve coat condition, there are a few other benefits to adding fat to your horses regime.

If you were to increase your horse’s dietary energy intake to 10% from fat you could see:

Increased endurance due to possible increased energy intake, increased lipid oxidation, and muscle glycogen sparing (Hintz, 1994; Geor, 2007)

Better speed and endurance performance because of decreased bowel weight

Decreased heat production

Calmer demeanor

If you were to increase it to 25% you could see:

Lower respiratory exchange ratio

Improved endurance through decreased stored glucose use during low intensity exercise (Geor, 2007)

While feeding more fat is an attractive idea, there are a few things to keep in mind:

It is not recommended to feed more than 10% of energy from fat per day

Fat does not contain the same nutrients as other feeds, so nutrients need to supplemented in other ways (Geor, Harris, & Coenen, 2013)

There may be an increase in your horse’s perceived effort and response to training (Geor, 2007).

Feeding more fat in your performance horse’s diet seems like a no-brainer to me, but what do you think? Will you be making a change to your horse’s diet?

References:

Geor, R.J. (2007). The role of nutritional supplements and feeding strategies in equine athletic performance. Equine and Comparative Exercise Physiology, 3(3), 109-119. doi: 10.1017/ECP200690

Geor, R.J., Harris, P.A., &  Coenen, M. (Eds.). (2013). Equine applied and clinical nutrition. 156-167, 261-288. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-7020-3422-0.00046-8

Hintz, H.F. (1994). Nutrition and equine performance. Journal of Nutrition, 124(12), 2723-2728. doi: 10.1093/jn/124.suppl_12.2723S

[tobianotales]

Hi, Internet!

My name is Melanie, and I am so excited to share my passions with you! I am a sophomore in college majoring in animal science with an emphasis in biotechnology, but I have a love for sharing my knowledge with people like you. I enjoy learning about animal nutrition and the physiology of exercise, which does stray into the human realm occasionally.

I have two (lazy) cats, JJ and Sassy, and one (pasture puff) horse, Koda, and they are truly where my passion for animals came from. In my time at college, and my time on this blog, I simply want to make your pets and my own healthier, happier animals. The only way to definitively do that is through one thing... science!

Each article you will find here will either be a thoroughly researched and cited blurb, or something from my own experiences with animals or research. If you have any burning questions about nutrition, health, or anything else, reply here! I am so excited to get writing.