How to Use Foal Photos to Promote Your Breeding Business

It’s foaling season! The most exciting (not to mention exhausting) time of year for breeders. When your foal is born - a wet mass of legs and potential - you already have a lot invested: planning, work, time, and money. You’re hoping it’s also the beginning of a glorious future, because your business is to produce foals with talent and potential. Now it’s your job to let the world know what you've got. 

Taking pictures of your foal to share with the world is something we naturally want to do. As a breeder, you’ll probably have that excited, “new parent” feeling - even if you've done this many times before - and you’ll naturally want to document those first moments, first steps, first day outside, and so on. I’d like to recommend that you also consider each photo in marketing terms. Like training a horse (every time you interact with a horse you’re training it, whether you’re thinking of it as “training” or not) - every time you make an image public, you are publicizing your business - whether you think of it as “marketing” or not.

With that in mind, here are some things to think about as you document your foal’s first summer:

Get used to carrying a camera with you at all times. Phones make this so easy! You just have to remember to use it. :-) Sometimes it’s a challenge if you’re by yourself, and you’ll miss some great shots, but pull out your camera whenever you can. The nice thing about digital pics is that it’s easy and cheap to take lots - and just delete the ones that don’t turn out.

Give some thought to where you post your photos. These are my top three recommendations, in order of importance:

1. Your farm website. This is the most important place for you to post all your news, including foals born. In a 2014 survey done by Warmblood Stallions of North America, the #1 way mare owners found information about a stallion they were interested in was the stallion or farm’s own website - way ahead of Facebook in importance. The same is likely true for your breeding business as well. If people are looking for you, chances are they’ll look at your website first. Making website updates is still not easy for many breeders, but it’s an ongoing investment in your business that’s important to make. 
   
2. The owner of your foal’s sire. Ideally, you have an ongoing relationship with the stallion owner, because you have an interest in common. The success of this foal has value to both of your businesses. Keep the stallion owner informed, and collaborate to promote each other as breeders. If you own the stallion yourself, make sure you organize offspring images of your stallion so you have them to help promote your stallion in the best possible way. 
   
3. Facebook. The advantages of Facebook are that it’s easy, and that your posts automatically become part of your community of friends and followers - probably fellow equestrians who will enjoy and appreciate your foal pictures. But there are significant downsides. Posting on Facebook can mislead you into thinking “everyone knows because I posted on FB,” where the reality is that only a few people will actually ever see your post - and it’s Facebook that decides which of your Friends’ walls your post will be shown on. Second, it’s fleeting, and ultimately something you don’t have control over. That doesn't mean you shouldn't post on FB - It’s fun, and it can certainly be an effective network for your business - just keep its limitations in mind, and don’t make it your only focus.

Before you post, change the name of your photo to something with meaning. This means no “cute-fuzzy.jpg”! Simply renaming your images can do more for you than you may realize. First, your photos will be much easier to find and identify on your computer later. :-) More importantly, you can use your photo names to help search engines to find your business. Search engines like Google will find image names on your website, on your Facebook page, or elsewhere - and those images will show up in search results - IF you name them well. For example, if you include your farm name in your image name, and someone does a Google search for your farm, your image will show up in the search results. Voila: free advertising for your farm. Likewise - especially if you are a stallion owner - if you include the foal’s sire in the image name, the photo will show up in searches for that stallion or his offspring.

I recommend having your own “naming convention” for all your farm photos: a format that you use consistently to name all your pictures. One small technical point: for internet use, don’t leave spaces in your image names; use hyphens or underscores instead. Here are a couple of examples:

my-farm_bambino17_2015.jpg    
Farm name first, foal name second (with a number for each picture of that foal), followed by the year the photo was taken. If the foal doesn’t have a name yet, use something like “2015foal.” This basic format will do wonders!

my-farm_bambino23_sire-x-damsire_2015.jpg
Better yet! This provides a world of information in a short amount of space. 

Remember that every image you post is publicity for your farm. Only post images that show off your best. No matter how cute a baby picture is, don’t use if it makes the foal - or the mom or surroundings - look bad. Take a lot of pictures so you have some great choices. Consider hiring a professional photographer, and if possible, time it for when your foal is going through a “good phase”! Photographing horses is actually pretty difficult to do well. For every do-it-yourself photographer, I recommend reading some professional tips and advice for getting the best results. 

I wish everyone a successful foaling season, not too many sleepless nights, and some great images to promote your breeding business!

Anna Goebel is the publisher of Warmblood Stallions of North America, www.WarmbloodStallionsNA.com, and has been involved in equine publishing, marketing, and design for over twenty years. Her new website for international breeder news is www.WarmbloodBreeding.com.