They say ignorance is bliss. I can honestly say that I have been blissfully ignorant at times when dealing with horses, in so many ways but lets focus on one area.
Loaning, leasing, selling, trading – Exchanging horses.
Horses are both inherently dangerous and fragile creatures.
Dangerous, yes, half a tonne of muscle and bone designed specifically to flee at a moments notice. That can be very dangerous. Have you ever felt the air rush past your face as a horse lets rip with both barrels with only millimeters to spare from redecorating your face.
Fragile, half a tonne balancing on thin bones and tendons. How easy it is to turn a multimillion dollar race horse into a broken hack or worse.
Even superstar horses can get colic. I understand that successful colic surgery costs somewhere in the ball park of $5-10 grand. For the average rider medical bills like this can be crushing.
In my limited experience I have competed on loaned horses, no written agreement, just a handshake. You break it, you bought it was the principle. Sounds fair. But I suspect the purchase price on these horses would normally been under $5 grand.
There is not a lot of medical attention or surgery you can get for a horse that costs less than $5000. So if, I as the rider damaged a horse, I would have been better off, maybe? If the horse was euthanized (don’t get me wrong I am not advocating it, just making a point).
That is, of course, if we were able, after the fact to agree on the value of one of these OTTBs I rode was $5000 or less. Perhaps, it may have skyrocketed in value thanks to my (very) inexpert attempts to get it round 80cm (31.5 inches) and now was valued at $15 – $20 grand as an experienced Eventer. God help me if I managed first to get it round something serious.
I have gotten horses for free, loaned horses and even given horses away. Last time I did that, my asking price was $1. I had a signed and dated very basic letter passing all responsibility to the new owner.
I am not going to comment on the legal minefield of trading, leasing etc, especially in the USA. Only to say, we humans MUST BE COMPLETELY BONKERS.
There is one transaction with horses that I definitely don’t get. The “free lease”. This story started from an email I got from a friend and a free lease arrangement that was a complete balls up thanks to a third party.
That is, despite complex and well researched legal documents and a multitude of lawyers. The horse didn’t even make it out the front gate of her farm before the deal was canned. Like I said we must be bonkers.
So this is my understanding of a “free lease”
You give your horse to someone else to look after, feed, keep shod, vaccinated, fit, happy and healthy. You don’t charge any money for the privilege as long as they pick up all of the bills above. At some time you may want the horse back. You write a detailed contract (or not) to cover some of the thousands of possibilities that could lead to the relationship going south.
Now remember where I started, inherently dangerous and fragile creatures. Perhaps I am being simplistic about the whole issue but perhaps it may be simpler to have a contract where you sell the horse for one dollar and reserve the right to purchase the horse back at one dollar say for the first year of the relationship, after that time you have no rights to the horse. Personally, the free lease raises more questions than it answers but every horse has its risks and rewards.
Enjoy your riding, love the relationship with your horse/s and I hope they are fun, safe and without unnecessary expenses.
A final note: Just in case you missed it, I have absolutely NO legal experience at all, please seek your own appropriate legal advise when trading horses.
See you all at Red Hills.
ESJ
