Solo Select
Melanie Smith greeting three horses in a pasture at golden hour

Services · Consulting

Equine consulting with Melanie Smith

One hour of straight answers on breeding, buying, and selling. In person, virtual, or by phone. $1,000 per hour.

Book a SessionWhat a Session Covers

Advice from the operator, not the sidelines

Most decisions in the performance horse business are expensive to get wrong and cheap to ask about. Which cross to make. Which stallion fits your mare. Whether the colt sells as a weanling or waits. Which sale, and when.

Melanie Smith founded Solo Select Horses in 2018 in a handful of leased stalls. The operation has since passed $100 million in cumulative sales, runs a recipient herd of more than 2,500 mares, and built the Solo Select Sale, the online auction platform through which more than 2,000 horses have found the right hands. A consulting session is one hour of that judgment, applied to your horse, your program, and your money.

Plain-spoken counsel on breeding, buying, and selling. One hour is built to be enough.

Cumulative sales since 2018
$100M+

Cumulative sales since 2018

Crosby Ray Von, the all-time Western record (2025)
$1.7M

Crosby Ray Von, the all-time Western record (2025)

Recipient mares, one of the largest herds in the world
2,500+

Recipient mares, one of the largest herds in the world

Horses sold through the Solo Select Sale
2,000+

Horses sold through the Solo Select Sale

The scope

What a session covers

Bring the decision that is in front of you. These are the questions owners book an hour for.

  • Breeding crosses

    Which cross actually fits your mare and your goals for the foal, not whichever stallion is popular this year. Honest reads on pedigree, performance, and market for the resulting foal.

  • Stallion selection

    A specific mare, a shortlist of stallions, and a straight answer. Breeding fees are real money; a session costs less than the wrong one.

  • Keep or sell

    Weanling, yearling, or two-year-old: an unsentimental read on which horses to keep, which to sell, and which to sell now.

  • Sale timing and venue

    Whether your horse should sell now or later, and in which setting. Melanie built the Solo Select Sale and consigns at the industry's major venues; sale strategy is home turf.

  • Program building

    Structure, direction, and positioning for a breeding or sales program, whether you are starting from a handful of stalls or scaling an operation. Includes recipient mare and embryo transfer program planning.

  • Incentive strategy

    Which incentive programs are worth nominating into, and which are not, for your specific foal crop. Solo Select runs its own incentive with a payout umbrella over $1 million across four divisions, so this landscape is navigated here daily.

Red roan mare standing square for a professional conformation photo

The session

How it works

In person

At the ranch in Gainesville, Texas, or at a sale where schedules line up.

Virtual

A video call from anywhere. Most sessions happen this way.

Phone

A call at the scheduled hour. Same session, same rate.

  1. Book.

    Submit the form below with a note on what you want to work through: a mare, a foal crop, a sale decision, a program.

  2. Prepare.

    Send pedigrees, videos, or numbers ahead of the session so the hour is spent deciding, not describing.

  3. Decide.

    One focused hour, built to end with a clear direction rather than a vague overview.

The rate

$1,000

per hour

Sessions are $1,000 per hour, the same rate in person, virtual, or by phone.

Who you are booking

Melanie Smith left an ER nursing career to do horses full time and founded Solo Select in 2018 with a handful of leased stalls and cutting-bred prospects sold online. When Facebook erased her sales profile in 2020, she built her own auction platform instead. The results since: more than $100 million in cumulative sales, the $1.7 million sale of Crosby Ray Von, record prices at Pink Buckle and online, a recipient herd of more than 2,500 mares, and “The Business of Horses” podcast. Every recommendation in a session comes from decisions she makes with her own money, at scale, every week.

Read Melanie’s full story →

Fitted red roan led by a suited handler at the Solo Select sale ring

Crosby Ray Von sold for

$1,700,000

in June 2025, the all-time public-auction record for a Western performance horse. Sale timing, venue, and presentation are not theory here. They are the record.

Good to know

Consulting questions, answered

What is equine consulting at Solo Select Horses?

Equine consulting at Solo Select is a private, one-on-one advisory session with founder Melanie Smith. In a single hour she works through the decisions that move real money in the performance horse business: which cross to make, which stallion fits your mare, whether to keep or sell a young horse, when and where to sell, and how to position a breeding program. Solo Select was founded in 2018 and has grown past $100 million in cumulative sales, so the advice comes from an operation that lives these decisions daily.

How much does a consulting session with Melanie Smith cost?

Sessions are $1,000 per hour. The rate is the same whether you meet in person, over a video call, or by phone, and one focused hour is built to give you a clear direction rather than a vague overview.

What can you cover in a one-hour consulting call?

A single hour can cover a specific breeding cross, stallion selection for a particular mare, a keep-or-sell read on a weanling, yearling, or two-year-old, the right sale and timing for a horse you want to move, how to structure a recipient mare and embryo transfer program, or which breeding incentive programs are worth nominating into. You come with the decision in front of you, and you leave with a direction.

Who is Melanie Smith and why take breeding advice from her?

Melanie Smith founded Solo Select Horses in 2018, starting in a handful of leased stalls, and built it into one of the largest reproductive operations in the world, with a recipient herd of more than 2,500 mares and over $100 million in cumulative sales. She built the Solo Select Sale online auction platform, through which more than 2,000 horses have sold, and she hosts "The Business of Horses" podcast. When you book a session you are buying access to the judgment behind that record.

How does a consulting session work and what are the delivery options?

You can meet with Melanie in three ways: in person, over a video call, or by phone. You book a session through the form on this page, bring the specific question or horse you want to work through, and use the hour to get a definitive direction on it.

Can Solo Select help me decide when and where to sell my horse?

Yes. Sale timing and venue are core to what a session covers. Melanie built the Solo Select Sale, has led record results including Crosby Ray Von at $1,700,000, the all-time Western performance horse public-auction record, and Blackkout at $875,000, and can read whether your horse should sell now or later and which setting will bring the strongest price.

Can a consultant help me choose the right stallion for my mare?

Yes. Choosing a cross and selecting the right stallion for a specific mare is one of the most common reasons owners book a session. Rather than following whatever stallion is popular this year, you get an honest read on which cross actually fits your mare and your goals for the resulting foal.

Do you advise on breeding incentive programs like Pink Buckle or Royal Crown?

Yes. Deciding which incentive programs to nominate into is a real cost and a real opportunity, and it is part of breeding strategy consulting. Solo Select also runs its own Solo Select Incentive, a program with a payout umbrella over $1 million across four divisions that paid $581,580 at its first futurity in 2025, so the payout landscape is territory Melanie navigates constantly.

Can you help me build a breeding operation from the ground up?

Yes. Program building is exactly what Solo Select was: it started in a handful of leased stalls in 2018 and grew into an operation with more than $100 million in cumulative sales. A consulting session can help you think through the structure, direction, and positioning of a breeding program rather than learning it through expensive experiments.

Is the session worth it if I only book one hour?

The session is built so that one hour is enough to leave with a clear decision. Owners book it to avoid a much more expensive mistake, whether that is the wrong cross, the wrong sale, or the wrong horse to keep, and to get a straight answer from someone who makes these calls at scale every week.

Where next

Where the advice leads

Consulting with Melanie Smith

Book a session

One hour. One decision, or several. $1,000 per hour, in person, virtual, or by phone. Tell us what you want to work through and we will schedule the session.

Book a Consulting Session

Prefer to start with a general question? Use the contact page. Contact us →

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