This season has been especially distressing. I am just home from the First Annual HBPA Auction, and it was not a flaming success. All too many lovely horses went through the auction unsold because of not being bid on at all or, for a very few, not meeting their reserve. And, there were quite a few who sold for $100 or $150.
We at the Trainer's Listings:
http://fltrainerlist.proboards.com/index.cgi?
have been discussing what to do if this were the case. We have decided that, for the rest of the season, we will offer to escort serious buyers around the backside, to look at horses. We're focusing primarily on Saturdays, though we do have one volunteer who will be able to escort people on other days. We will also take you over to the Adoption Program barn, to look at the horses there.
These escorted walks will be by appointment only. You can PM me here if you are interested. Please, we are asking that you only request one of these escorts if you are serious about buying. We are a very small organization and this is going to stretch us to the maximum, because we will also be doing our listing walks. But we are doing it because the horses at Finger Lakes are beautiful, athletic animals, who deserve every chance that we can give them to find a new home, where their talents can be used and appreciated.
Please help them by passing the word about the escorted walks and the Trainer's Listings along to those of your friends who may be looking.
Escorted Buying Walks Around the Finger Lakes Race Track Bac
Moderators: Roguelet, hpkingjr, WaveMaster
Escorted Buying Walks Around the Finger Lakes Race Track Bac
Check out the retiring thoroughbreds from Finger Lakes Racetrack, for sale through FLTAP (a 501 (c) (3) ) at http://fltrainerlist.proboards104.com/
Sigh, I was afraid of that.
Since the horses being auctioned were primarily those who were ready for retirement, I don't think that they advertised in any of the racing publications. I know that they advertised in Horse Bits, Yankee Peddler, and a couple of other horse publications. We also tried to get flyers spread around.
Just in case they decide to do this next year, any ideas about how to get the word out better?
Since the horses being auctioned were primarily those who were ready for retirement, I don't think that they advertised in any of the racing publications. I know that they advertised in Horse Bits, Yankee Peddler, and a couple of other horse publications. We also tried to get flyers spread around.
Just in case they decide to do this next year, any ideas about how to get the word out better?
Check out the retiring thoroughbreds from Finger Lakes Racetrack, for sale through FLTAP (a 501 (c) (3) ) at http://fltrainerlist.proboards104.com/
Louise wrote:Sigh, I was afraid of that.
Since the horses being auctioned were primarily those who were ready for retirement, I don't think that they advertised in any of the racing publications. I know that they advertised in Horse Bits, Yankee Peddler, and a couple of other horse publications. We also tried to get flyers spread around.
Just in case they decide to do this next year, any ideas about how to get the word out better?
1. Raise money for adds in the Racing Form and/or contact the publications and ask for free space (based upon it being a charitable cause).
2. The multiple online forums (sporthorse, rescue and TB) are good sources of advertising. The Horse Journal, MyHorse.com, etc., all good sources for advertising.
3. Send mass emails to past donators and to known ethical sport horse barns, etc. (Include pics of some of the sale horses with little info, so they have to come or call to see the horses.
4. Ask the city to be able to rent billboard space for a deal (if possible). But make a rule that all entering have to show ID and figure out some way to be sure no "dealers" or meat buyers show up. Make the bill of sale contain a no slaughter clause or something. (Just a thought).[/code]
NorthStar -- Thank you for those constructive ideas. I'll pass them along to the folks who managed this year's events, in case they decide to do this again next year.
Check out the retiring thoroughbreds from Finger Lakes Racetrack, for sale through FLTAP (a 501 (c) (3) ) at http://fltrainerlist.proboards104.com/
I learned about the sale late on one of these boards. In addition to the other suggestions, you might try to make a deal with dreamhorse.om or some other site to post information on the sale horses on their site - pedigree + picture would be huge (don't know about the cost). A sporthorse auction listed all their horses on dreamhorse this summer. The situation was a bit different - I'm sure the trainers want to place the horses without paying for advertising. But my point is that any time anyone clicked on one of those horses, they learned about the auction, too.
I appreciated how quickly I got a reply for this year's sale when I saw the information on a bulletin board, emailed the contact on the website & got a sales list. But it was only Jockey Club name, filly/horse/gelding/broodmare, & otherwise just listed with the seller's last name. So potential buyers were seeing just names. No other information. You had to really work hard to put context to names. I guess I'm saying that I understand how difficult & time-consuming it is to put on an auction or other event & try to help the horses find second careers. And I'm sure it wasn't easy to even get horses names from some trainers. But even so, buyers need more of a reason to come to Finger Lakes to buy a horse than just their name/sex on a list.
Also - as you know, this was a terrible year to try to sell anything. Not that it makes anyone feel any better when there are horses at risk. But in a different year, with a bit of notice & some more information about the sale candidates . . . could be you'd get better results. (Again, I know how hard the work is to do what I make sound like a simple thing.)
I appreciated how quickly I got a reply for this year's sale when I saw the information on a bulletin board, emailed the contact on the website & got a sales list. But it was only Jockey Club name, filly/horse/gelding/broodmare, & otherwise just listed with the seller's last name. So potential buyers were seeing just names. No other information. You had to really work hard to put context to names. I guess I'm saying that I understand how difficult & time-consuming it is to put on an auction or other event & try to help the horses find second careers. And I'm sure it wasn't easy to even get horses names from some trainers. But even so, buyers need more of a reason to come to Finger Lakes to buy a horse than just their name/sex on a list.
Also - as you know, this was a terrible year to try to sell anything. Not that it makes anyone feel any better when there are horses at risk. But in a different year, with a bit of notice & some more information about the sale candidates . . . could be you'd get better results. (Again, I know how hard the work is to do what I make sound like a simple thing.)
You know, I tried to sign up for Facebook earlier in the year, because we, of course, run the Trainer's listings the whole season and I thought it would be an excellent way to get more exposure. I tried to sign up personally first, just to practice, before I did a Trainer's Listing one. I'm not computer savy at all, and I just couldn't figure out what I was doing, so, I dropped it. Maybe I had better try again. If I could get that up and running, it would be available for next year, at least.
I'm going to print out this thread when it is done, and give it to the woman who ran this year's event. I'm sure that she will appreciate all of the ideas, so, keep them coming.
I had to laugh when I read your post, KBEquine, because we have the name problem sometimes on the Trainer's Listings. We have had several horses listed with barn, or even made up names, because the trainers couldn't remember what their Jockey Club names were. It doesn't hurt the geldings so much, but it really does hurt the fillies and mares. People want to know those girl's breeding.
Edited to add that I want to say how grateful I am for the response here. The Trainer's Listing is working with only four active volunteers, and others who fill in when they can. We couldn't give the Auction all of the attention it deserved, because we had to maintain our own listings also, and work for a living, lol. It is gratifying to know that there are people out there who care enough to sit down and think about how we can do better.
I'm going to print out this thread when it is done, and give it to the woman who ran this year's event. I'm sure that she will appreciate all of the ideas, so, keep them coming.
I had to laugh when I read your post, KBEquine, because we have the name problem sometimes on the Trainer's Listings. We have had several horses listed with barn, or even made up names, because the trainers couldn't remember what their Jockey Club names were. It doesn't hurt the geldings so much, but it really does hurt the fillies and mares. People want to know those girl's breeding.
Edited to add that I want to say how grateful I am for the response here. The Trainer's Listing is working with only four active volunteers, and others who fill in when they can. We couldn't give the Auction all of the attention it deserved, because we had to maintain our own listings also, and work for a living, lol. It is gratifying to know that there are people out there who care enough to sit down and think about how we can do better.
Check out the retiring thoroughbreds from Finger Lakes Racetrack, for sale through FLTAP (a 501 (c) (3) ) at http://fltrainerlist.proboards104.com/
Louise wrote:You know, I tried to sign up for Facebook earlier in the year, because we, of course, run the Trainer's listings the whole season and I thought it would be an excellent way to get more exposure. I tried to sign up personally first, just to practice, before I did a Trainer's Listing one. I'm not computer savy at all, and I just couldn't figure out what I was doing, so, I dropped it. Maybe I had better try again.
Me, too. Tried & couldn't figure it out, that is - or else didn't want to give the information they thought they needed.
By the way - have you considered getting a copy of the front & back of the papers of ALL the horses who are on the trainer's site? I'm thinking that not only will you have correct names/ages for folks looking for broodmares, you've also got a list of people you might contact to let know the horse is ready to retire. Some breeders will thank you for helping them retire their own; I know a couple exercise riders who've tracked down a favorite older horse. And you may find out the horse passed through the hands of a Maggi Moss or Nick Zito or someone else known for wanting to help retire their runners. Even if that only works for one or two horses, at least it worked for that one or two.
You might also think about the types of volunteer jobs that don't necessarily require the volunteer to be located near the track - writing the information about the horses who are ready to retire, contacting prior owners/breeders/trainers for help retiring them, etc., heck FINDING the people in the first place, who might want to help retire the horses.