You may have the most athletic, trainable, and successful stallion you’ve ever seen in your barn but if you’re not doing anything to help him look, feel, and perform at his best, you might be missing the mark with your breeding marketing strategies. Try these few tips to make your stud the most desirable boy on the block.

Much of marketing a horse for sale or a stallion for breeding is visual and the old adage of “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true. Maintaining a healthy coat and weight become vital when positioning a stallion. Not only does your stud need to glisten for photos used for advertisements, but even in the stall or out in the arena, he should look healthy, strong, and shiny. Every time your stallion is out in public or even seen by visitors to your facility is a marketing opportunity, just like an advertisement, and unfortunately, it is very common for stallions to lose significant weight, blossom in their coat, and performance during breeding season.

You can get a healthy coat and maintain a healthy weight by incorporating high quality nutraceuticals into your nutritional program. Strong digestion is vital for a healthy coat and weight, allowing for proper absorption of nutrients that form the structures of the skin and coat, provide the building blocks for muscles and tissues, energy, and vitamins and minerals needed for biological function. Properly formulated digestive health products, like The Assure System, improve your horse’s digestive function, allowing him to absorb those vital nutrients that you’re trying to provide him with in your high quality feed and giving him an overall strong and healthy look that your clients are looking for.

Proper digestive health can play another important role in marketing your stud you may not have considered; attitude. Many clients look for a stud that has an easy demeanor, is willing and accepting of training, and has a good work ethic. While all horse’s personalities are different, poor digestive health, ulcers, or a lack of energy can bog your horse down and manifest itself with negative attitudes and unwillingness in training or handling. For these problems, look for a product like Assure Guard that not only support digestive function, but decreases the risk of ulcers and manages the pH in the digestive tract which, can increase under stress from training, travelling, and high-concentrate diets.

Not only is a client looking for performance under saddle but they’re looking for reproductive performance as well. Higher sperm fertility and motility help to increase conception rates, help improve storability and stability of semen, and increase libido. Docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA ensures proper development of the sperm and improve flexibility and fluidity of the tail of the sperm. Stallions that synthesize DHA properly have been shown to have higher fertility and motility than stallions that have decreased or no DHA synthesis. Providing a product high in DHA, like Releira, can improve your horse’s reproductive health and function, and in turn, improve your breeding sales.

Another note about DHA is it has also been shown to improve the health of your horse’s skin and coat. DHA is a polyunsaturated, long-chain omega-3 fatty acid which is essential to your horse’s diet and can give your stud that “thousand word look” for marketing purposes. If you’re using Releira to support your stud’s reproductive health, you’ve got your DHA covered and get the added benefit of a silky smooth coat.

If you’re not using Releira, you may want to look into another DHA supplement such as Aleira, which is loaded with an all-vegetarian, fish oil-free DHA as well as a proprietary Mushroom Matrix. The DHA and Mushroom Matrix in Aleira have been shown to improve respiratory and immune function and aid in respiratory challenges such as heaves, allergies, bleeding, and coughing by regulating the immune system and offsetting the pro-inflammatory response. That’s a huge benefit for not only the respiratory challenged but those who often need high immune support and respiratory comfort, like a stud travelling and competing.

On a comfort note, don’t forget about maintaining your stud’s joint and soft tissue comfort. Both show performance and breeding performance can be hard on your horse’s joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. The more support your horse has for proper bone development, joint mobility, and soft tissue structure and regeneration, the more comfortable he will be, the better he will perform, the better he will show to clients, and the more longevity he will get out of his structural system. There are so many joint supplements on the market, but there is only one place to begin. Steadfast Equine is the only product on the market that not only supports his joint and bone health, but also supports his soft tissue and ligament health. Steadfast Equine is the premier provider of joint, bone, and soft tissue health and regardless of whether you’re breeding your stallion this year, it’s probably a good idea to have him on it to give him every opportunity to lengthen his career and reduce risk of injury.

There is a lot to consider during breeding season to develop an ideal breeding program for your stud with the best marketing possible. However, there are so many ways that you can affect your marketing program simply by providing your stud with the best health and nutrition possible. Talk to your veterinarian about how to integrate a well-rounded health program for your stud and how it can increase your sales and marketing, or contact a member of the Arenus Team to see which products work best for you. And don’t forget to always integrate nutritional changes slowly to allow your horse the time he needs to adjust as well as the time the products need to reach their potential for your horse. You’ll be glad you did.