Affiliate program terms
What you earn, how credit is decided, when you are paid, and what we ask of you. These terms apply from the day your application is approved.
Last updated September 17, 2026. They sit alongside our terms of service, which apply to your account either way.
Who can join
The program is open to US taxpayers only. You confirm this when you apply, and Stripe collects your taxpayer details when you set up payouts. You must have a HoofnHorn account, and approval is required.
What you earn
You earn a share of the closing fee HoofnHorn collects on a sale. You never earn a share of the animal’s price, and that money never passes through us.
20% of our closing fee when a seller you referred sells an animal, for 12 months from the day that seller creates their account. Every sale in that window earns.
10% of our closing fee when a buyer you referred wins an auction, for 12 months from the day that buyer creates their account. Each auction they win in that window earns once.
You do not earn on a sale you are part of. If you sell an animal to a buyer you referred, that sale earns you nothing. If you buy an animal from a seller you referred, that sale earns you nothing. Your referral is not affected: it stays valid and keeps earning on everything else that person buys or sells in their window.
Our closing fee is capped at $2,500 per sale, so your commission on any one sale is capped with it. The fee rate varies by seller, and your share follows the fee we actually collect. If a seller is on a reduced rate, your commission is a share of that reduced fee. The same applies when a welcome offer reduces the fee on a sale.
How credit is decided
Credit is settled once, when someone creates their account, and never revisited.
If they enter a referral code while signing up, that code is credited. Otherwise we credit whoever’s link they clicked first, for 60 days after that click. If neither applies, nobody is credited.
A person can be referred once. There is no way to add or change a code after an account exists.
A referral is valid only where a real person, acting on their own behalf, followed your link or entered your code. They did so because they wanted what we sell. Where the cookie is set or the code is entered by anyone other than that person, or by any automated means, the referral is not valid, whatever the reported figures show.
You will not refer yourself, and this applies however the referred account is arranged. You will not refer a second account of your own, a member of your household, a business you control or that controls you, or any person acting at your request. Bidding or buying through your own link on behalf of another person is treated the same way. Where the person on the other side of a referral stands to share in what you earn, the referral is not valid.
When you are paid
A commission is held until 60 days after the end of the calendar month in which the sale occurred. That window is for refunds and disputes, which surface later here than on an ordinary online order, because the buyer has to travel and collect an animal first.
After the hold it becomes payable and is paid in the next scheduled payout, initiated on or around the 10th of the month, by bank transfer through Stripe. A balance below $100 is held until the next scheduled payout. You need to set up payouts through Stripe before we can pay you; Stripe handles the identity checks, your bank details and your tax forms.
Where we have reasonable grounds to believe a commission arose from a breach of these terms, we may hold payment on that commission while we review it. If the review clears the commission, we release it in full and pay it on the next scheduled payout. Nothing is forfeited because of the delay.
You are responsible for the tax on what you earn. We will provide the tax documentation the law requires of us, and Stripe collects the details needed for it during onboarding.
If a sale is refunded
A commission only exists because a sale completed. If that sale is refunded, the commission is reversed.
If it had not been paid out yet, it simply is not paid. If it had, the amount is deducted from your next payout, and your dashboard shows what is outstanding. A payout that was later reversed stays in your payout history: it is a record of what was sent.
What you must disclose
You must tell people you earn from your link. US law requires it, and it applies wherever you share: posts, videos, livestreams, podcasts, email, and your bio.
Put it where the link is, before it, in plain words a listener or reader takes in without effort. “I earn a commission if you sign up through this link” is enough. A hashtag buried in a wall of others is not, and neither is a disclosure a viewer has to tap to expand. If you are speaking rather than writing, say it aloud.
If a platform offers a paid-partnership label, switch it on as well. It does not replace saying so yourself.
How you may promote us
Share your link with people who would genuinely want to know. That is the whole rule, and the list below is what it excludes.
- Bidding on HoofnHorn brand terms in paid search, or running ads that could be mistaken for ours.
- Unsolicited bulk email, texts, or messages. Every contact must be someone who agreed to hear from you.
- Buying, farming, or automating clicks, accounts, or bids.
- Setting the referral cookie without a real click, by any means.
- Offering cash back or rebates for using your code. Telling people about the welcome offer is not a rebate.
- Claiming to speak for HoofnHorn, or describing yourself as an employee or agent.
- Stating rates, fees, offers, or guarantees we have not published. You may state the welcome offer exactly as your affiliate dashboard shows it.
- Coupon, deal, or discount-code sites, which do not bring us buyers we did not already have. That includes posting your code or the welcome offer on them.
If you link to us from a website or blog you run, mark the link as sponsored. In the page’s code that is rel="sponsored"; many website builders offer it as a “sponsored” or “nofollow” setting on the link, and either is acceptable. Google asks for this on any link someone is paid for. You never have to link to us from your own site to earn.
The people you refer receive a welcome offer. You may tell people about it exactly as your affiliate dashboard shows it, and link to the welcome offer terms. It applies only to accounts created through your link or code, so never offer it to someone who already has an account.
You may say what our animals and our marketplace actually are. You may use our name and wordmark to link to us. You may not alter them, and you may not register domains, handles, or business names containing them.
Ending it
You can stop at any time. We can suspend or end your participation at any time, and we will tell you when we do.
Commissions you have already earned are honoured. They finish their hold and are paid on the normal cycle. What stops is new ones: your referrals stay in our records, and no further commission is created from them.
We may withhold or reverse any commission that we have reasonable grounds to believe arose from a breach of the rules above, or from a sale that was not genuine.
If you believe a decision made under this section is incorrect, you may appeal it. Email support@hoofnhorn.com with your name, your account email, and the reason you believe the decision is wrong. We will review the decision. Our determination after that review is final.
Changes
We may change these terms, and we will post the new version here with a new date. A rate change is never retroactive: commissions already earned keep the rate they were earned at, and a new rate applies only from the day it takes effect.
Questions about any of this belong in an email to us, and we would rather answer one before you build a campaign on an assumption. Your affiliate dashboard shows your own rates, your referrals and what you have earned.