When I was getting back into Shetlands, I loved that websites seemed to be "the rage" and were often times posted a little bit about the pony itself, with a pedigree and a group of pictures. Some had links to info about the other ancestors. I had previously been a member and then pulled out my magazines I'd gotten from the early 90's thru 2000. From the years I wasn't active as a member, I got my hands on magazines (extras and later digital), then I found breeders who appeared to have ponies I was interested in - email first, then phone, then followups with email - lots of deep pedigree info, personality info & opinions exchanged. I managed to put the word out and between 2007 & 2013, we bought 17 ponies. Most were purchased thru website pictures & email as I didn't travel across the states to go see them, instead relying on some of the opinions of others and my own knowledge based on what I saw in the provided pics & video. Many of those ponies were shipped sight unseen until they arrived on our property. 3 were picked out of a pasture - running with pasture mates when we went to pick up others (& we are very happy with the extras). That may not be many for some big breeders, but for our family it was A LOT. Of those original 17, several were sold. Of those original 17, 5 mares produced foals w/i 9 months of purchase... So from our original purchases, we had 22 Shetland ponies. We built our herd in a hurry. Since, we've bred for our own foals using 2 of the original stallions purchased and one colt from a purchased mare by our original stallion that we'd owned for 17 years.
The majority of those purchases would never have been made without the websites that were available then. Most are no longer out there now (many of the type of ponies I prefer were bred by folks who have passed or gone out of business) OR have gone to very different formats (that I generally won't purchase from).
I preferred seeing the horse in his natural state. Websites (even today) that use ONLY a "pretty" photo of the head, neck and shoulders turn me off badly. Photos only of a horse (usually a stallion, but not always) raising and striking with a foreleg or rearing - not one I'm interested in. I am not a pro trainer, yet I do most of my own training. I have children of other folks, grandchildren, beginners, newbies - all around while working with our ponies and even stallions have to be mannerly and easily managed. Funny thing - those are often the sites that only had the horse's name and maybe the sire & dam's name. I've personally had a hard time tracking some of those horses (I didn't show before and I'm not showing now, so I didn't get the pedigrees from going to shows) - trying to figure out where they've come from. O well. I don't really need to purchase more at the moment... LOL.
Our own website has massively changed. From 1999 thru 2005, I sold ponies through our free, geocities website, through local advertising flyers, through a southern "ragmag" that encompassed 5 or 6 states, and thru local open shows that our family ponies went to (often not to be shown but just to get used to the "hub bub"). In 2005, our website changed dramatically - getting our own domain name, a major facelift, I was able to get some help with videos, had a regular blog (mostly for family and friends to keep up with our activities) and informational sections (not required reading) and we sold a few more ponies. In late 2012, the company my website was with closed - I was given all the info from my site and had/still have all the data bases. Unfortunately, I've not been able to fully parse through the code to get all the info I wanted and while I struggled with it, our site stayed down for almost a full 2+ years. I have FB, but don't do as much with it as my family does. I may have lost a lot of sales during that time frame as I totally forgot to remove our website from ads & signature links - if someone went out to it - it was NOT there. Also, the original site domain name "got away" from me when I missed the 30 day payment deadline and a foreign site decided they liked it better... I went with the same name but (dot) org. sigh.
Our site is back up. Part of the design is similar (some elements) - but I designed it (AND I can change it). Each pony has a blurb about what training they've had if more extensive than just daily handling, the direction we think a youngster might go, a photo album & a PDF pedigree (I was struggling with the programming to put it on each page so PDF was easier). I went back to putting each mares produce record on her page with links to photo album of her offspring. A PDF ASPC show record is on the pages of the ponies we own that have been shown - used to have open shows as well, but we no longer have any of those ponies.
I've removed our Sales list for a variety of reasons. It's not that we don't have ponies that we'd like to sell - it's just that there is a lot of other things going on too, and right now it's easier to maintain them via pasture and show them to someone who is interested from seeing our site alone or emails. I have not done any local advertising lately either.
I am "growing" our informational area. Found out I have some really outdated info on my "Color page", plan on updating that soon... It is still missing things I had on our previous sites, but they will come. Right now, it's still mostly info for family and friends AND then anyone who finds their way to our site. I do have it advertised in a few areas (my signature blocks on 4 different forums, FB and email signature block).
Earlier this year, I went out to a lot of sites listed in the digital ASPC/AMHR Journal and most, like my site for a while, went "nowhere" - just to an error message or to a holding site. Yes, I also see a lot of out dated sites.
ALSO - LINKS. I have been told by many breeders/trainers that having links on your website is non-professional and also can lead to not selling horses. I don't agree. Since I deal with a lot of new comers, whom I than say "check out my site" - I want info on my site. And if I don't sell a horse to someone, but a "competitor" does, that can be a win-win situation. I also have lots of links on my website - because it's an easy way for me to find info, names, phone numbers & emails. I'm getting older and I can't always remember "who that person was" or, or, OMG, I know I know that horse equipment contact, I just ... er... can't quite remember it... About every 3 - 6 months I go thru my links and I remove "dead" ones and add new ones. I'm not particularly fond of the way the links are listed on our site, prefer them to be listed on a page, but this is how it is for now on the template I have...
I don't currently have Breeders or Trainers listed on my site, however, I happily give references. May be changing that again, though. I miss having those links on our site.
OP - I like your site & thank you for putting your country right on the home page! I know right away that you are in a different part of the world. You also posted your phone number in your contact area - I personally like that. I've never found that to be an issue on our site. I'm in LOVE with Hermione!!! The only thing I'd do a little differently is to put make your thumbnails all the same size and the pictures that are on the same page also the same size (at least in height). Just "cleaner" and will also load better for most folks. some of the pics in the photo albums are huge. Took a while to load and then were bigger than my lap top screen. I just made my screen smaller till I could see the horse, but why not just resize your photo? (I found a couple like that on mine today, too, that's why it was so noticeable).
MiniV - I've referenced your site for many, many years - for knowledge, for pedigree info, pictures of those bloodlines and I believe your husband transported a mare for me in 2010 (from the West Coast to the East Coast). You had hauling info that was "magic" tonic for learning about out of state hauling & confidence in your "crews" handling. That mare was in foal, she arrived safely & that resulting colt went on to do well in Foundation Halter before I sold him and he was gelded. She has since produced a colt that we've retained as a stallion. Your site has been a wonderful, confidence building tool that I continue to recommend to others!
