Great. I care about my friends and ask questions on their behalf. Sorry if you can’t relate. You can’t identify me or these friends, can you? You’d have to work extra hard to uncover identities. I somehow doubt your “friends” would be angry about your posting their anonymous situation to an anonymous horse board but you can think whatever you want to.
My friends do not neglect the horse, they would never do that to an animal “in their care”. They actually care.
Thanks for your input.
No I can’t relate broadcasting peoples issues over the internet. Your right. Wow.
Great. You don’t know who they are. You don’t think this is an “advice” thread. You don’t think there are knowledgeable people on the BB. You aren’t interested in my friends getting advice.
Move on. You have nothing to contribute.
PS. “You’re” not “your”.
I think sometimes people who have experience in other spheres of business sometimes lose their hard-headedness where horses are concerned. In this instance, once the owner stopped getting the horse vaccinated, the owner and horse should have been kicked off the property. Not only should that have been the first red flag (even if she was still paying board), but as others have pointed out, it’s a risk to other horses.
I’m glad the horse is of good weight and seems okay, but the fact is, a horse without farrier care, vet care, regular riding is still going to need work to move onto a new home (even if an easy keeper), and the longer the BO waits, the harder it will be for her to sell the horse (if the owner sells to her, or if she repossesses the horse) and get back some of what she owes. In future, I hope she’s considering writing into boarding contracts that farrier and vet care at specified intervals is required.
Yes, I would have not made the decisions they made. But this thread is not about me, even though EmmaP thinks it is.
We all know the horse needs a new home. Yes, good advice as to what should be written into the contract and changing the contract it the future. Thanks so much!
I like some of the suggestions here a lot better than mine. 
I’m glad your friends have a range of ideas to look through. And it’s probably nothing new to them – but hopefully the mental push to think more about what they can do that will be compassionate to the horse.
My one repetition is to absolutely not accept any "I’ll pay (all or part) later". It’s already later. In rental and other monthly payment arrangements, that’s how people delay termination, and delay and delay.
The trap of “later” is that the person who is owed convinces themselves that if they can wait, they will get much more than if they settle now for a smaller number. It will not work out that way. Every month adds another month’s amount to the total unpaid balance. It balloons rapidly as the weeks slip by. Every month the problem is even more unsolvable to someone who doesn’t have the money to settle the current balance owed.
Any solution has to be a right now solution. And unless the horse owner suddenly does have the money (sometimes that happens), very likely that means that the BO’s will have a new horse under their ownership - a horse that has been there for years, of course.
The BO’s might prefer to figure out an outcome that is favorable to the horse. But unless horse owner is able to pay everything now (and 6 months in advance, with farrier etc. bills pre-paid as well, for the horse to stay), very likely the BO’s are going to have to be tough and uncompromising with the HO to get the most possible relief on the unpaid bill(s).
It is the BO’s choice how they want to handle this with the welfare of the horse top of mind. Even to just continuing to care for it forever, with or without transfer of ownership. I commend them for their compassion for the horse.
Any answer that is right for them is the right answer. Hopefully this thread gives them a lot of alternatives to consider.
Some thoughts for the specific case in which the BO’s do consider traveling a path of obtaining ownership of the horse (however that is done) and then SELLING the horse to recoup board bills …
Against a background of random information about an overinflated horse market, and an actual horse that is an unknown quantity in training and experience – (unknown to me as is reflected in the remarks in this post) – and in any case hasn’t had riding/training refreshed in months …
So: The goal of the sale is NOT to maximize the horse’s potential market value. The goal is only to reimburse the BO’s for their outstanding balance and any care they are providing.
If the horse brings more than what the BO’s need to stay whole, that is fine and hopefully they have a legal agreement with how that is to be handled. If they now own the horse 100%, it’s theirs to keep.
The point is: Should the BO’s have ownership or rights with the intent to sell, they don’t need to do things and maybe spend money such as adding riding and training, or even brush the horse to make it look tidy, to maximize the sale value. If there is an agreement for the excess to go to the current HO, the BO’s still do not owe that extra effort to the HO. The BO’s priority in a sale needs to be the money owed to them, and that is all. That should be emphasized in any written agreement.
The HO created this situation and will have to live with that. If the HO wants to do the selling in order to maximize the final sale price, put a SHORT deadline on it and as soon as that deadline passes, move ahead to next steps.
My point is to not have the BO’s obtain the right to sell the horse but then be held up by ideas and/or demands to get the maximum potential value for the horse. This could be yet another wormhole of delay, along with a whole lot of demands that are hard to satisfy (maybe impossible).
Just sell asap to a good home for as much as can be obtained without a bunch of folderol. That has to be good enough to avoid yet more layers of complication … and delay … and contention and impossible demands/goals.
Maybe send the horse to a reputable sale barn, give them a timeline, and let them apply their expertise. If that seems like the $$$ advantageous thing to do and good for horse welfare.
Sales barn might also create a buffer between BO and owner, too, if the owner suddenly becomes difficult, and allows the BO to move on with life more quickly.
With a written agreement that doesn’t allow HO to intervene and make demands and cause delay in the sale barn … something like that. Maybe restricts BO as well – but don’t offer that at first ask.
Sometimes people agree just to be expedient in the moment. Then later they are not so agreeable. A prevention for that needs to be written into any agreement.
I think there has been great advice given in this thread.
It is very easy for a BO, even one with a great business background to find themselves in this situation.
I particularly liked the advice to investigate the horse owner’s financial situation, because it may not be what you think. We tend to assume people who aren’t paying the bills are in dire financial straits, but that may not be a case.
In one memorable scenario, I had a boarder who was months behind on board and not responding to requests for payment. I kept this info from the teenage owner, who was a great kid. Great kid invites me to her HS graduation party. I try to decline. Kid insists she really wants me there. I’m told it’s just a backyard party. So I get a good photo of her and the horse and put it a nice frame, and drop by the party, intending to do a quick hit and run. It was in the backyard. Under a tent. Catered. With a hired bartender and wait staff. And floral arrangements that alone cost more than the back board.
Drafted the stableman’s lien letter and sent it certified the next day.
That is the best story I’ve heard in a long time !!!
I have to know – did they pay? Did you take their money and then evict them anyway for acting like deadbeats? Or did you end up with the great kid’s horse? 
Of course there’s no way to know if they staged that party entirely on credit cards that they had no intention of paying … But it doesn’t matter to your back board collection. 
Several years ago there was a sort-of similar thread posted by a small-scale BO. A boarder had stopped paying, although in that case I seem to remember that the BO stayed in touch cordially. There were promises to pay, to partial-pay, but over time the amount owed was getting larger one month after the next. (This is the problem with delayed payments and partial payments – every month the balance grows again. The hole keeps getting deeper, not shallower.)
In that case the BO was torn that she really needed that board money but at the same time she knew that the boarder was undergoing a difficult pregnancy and had some other genuine personal problems not of her own making. Then the baby was born with some medical issues. Just a hard spot in life, as it were.
But the happy-ish ending was that the boarder and her husband turned up at the barn one day and paid off the board bill in full! And then moved the horse as requested. Politely and apologetically. BO and boarder parted on good terms in the end.
The other part of the ending was that the BO left the board business after that.
With this added information, the delay is more understandable. Sounds like this BO is sort of like me…I am a white-collar professional and just happen to board my trainer’s clients. The cash flow of the boarding business isn’t all that important to me. It can cause slow pedaling and/or being more lenient than the contract. While I don’t have any delinquent boarders, I also regularly waive things like 30 days’ notice or charging for fat supplements. Or if a boarder is out of town on the first I don’t care a check gets here a few days later.
The key is to think of it like Accounts Receivable in a business. It’s just a good business practice to keep those under 30 days. You have a lot less to lose than if the client continues not to pay.
Live and learn. Start the stableman’s lien process on this horse and find someone who wants a project to bid on it, so you know it is going to a good place. That’s in the best interest of the horse…making sure there is a soft landing when it is auctioned. A public auction doesn’t need to be at an actual professional auction, it can be at the barn, but it has to be advertised in a specific way at a specific public date and time. They aren’t going to have to take the horse to a sketchy auction house or anything.
First thing I would do is send a certified “demand letter.” It will include the amount owed and their intention to file a stableman’s lien if not paid in full in however many days, and the horse removed. A local attorney can draft one for. A few hundred bucks, or they can look online for samples. Certified mail, return receipt. May solve the problem.
Also if the lien process does require that the horse be auctioned, find out if a private auction is acceptable. Find out what auction process is required, especially WHERE and WHO must be involved.
The horse may not have to go to the local livestock auction house if it is possible to have an auctioneer come to the stable to do it. You may be able to hire a local auctioneer to come do that (many auctioneers do private auctions).
Maybe the BO’s are the only bidders. Maybe the BO can put out a flyer (email or snail mail) among local horse people and horse barns to let them know about the auction and that would satisfy any requirement for competitive bidding.
I also want to hear the end of @McGurk’s tale!
For many years, I worked for someone who dealt with many high income clients and, naïve little me was shocked at how many very wealthy people routinely don’t pay for things (or only do if chased down and cornered and pay late). Sometimes they are living on credit, or sometimes they would just rather hold onto the money and cash in on the perception that if someone is known to have money, they will pay eventually.
The only boarder who didn’t pay me was in the news for selling his business for $25 million a few years before he came to my barn. I never dealt with him, only his personal assistant.
They paid.
The mom and step dad both spoke to me before I skipped out on the dreadful party, I suspect that had as much to do with it as the stableman’s lien letter. Nice kid went to college and leased the horse to another student in the barn, who eventually bought the horse.
Thank you, everyone!
I saw my friend today and she is lurking on this thread. She appreciated the link above from @Posting_Trot on a legal law blogpost on the stablemen’s lien. She has it written into the contract that she could seize the horse after 2 months delinquent board, but she’d rather not involve lawyers and isn’t certain that the contract would hold up in court. Apparently, the owner paid most owed money but is still delinquent.
My friend has presented options to the horse owner and my friend’s main goal is to get the horse into a reasonable home. The owner doesn’t want to relinquish the horse.ff Much may change in the near future.
Thanks again for your advice!
This is the hard part. There will have to be the right kind of pressure, but this has to be done if she won’t pay and move the horse.
Understandable that owners may see their horses emotionally as pets. And be very attached.
BUT – she can’t afford to care for this very expensive animal. One option to approach to the owner may be just that.
What if the horse needs surgery – how will she pay? An extended treatment for something like EPM? Or some injury? (It’s a horse, it can find a way to injure itself or be sick even if it’s relaxing and doing nothing.)
(If she says she can pay for that … then she can pay the back board.)
She is already not doing basic vet and farrier. Point out that the farrier neglect especially causes suffering for the horse, even at a low level, as his feet are out of balance and stressing muscles and tendons. Gently point out to her that this is “neglect”. Use that word more than once. It will upset her, but she needs to hear it.
And so on. Focus less on what she owes, but on the impact on the horse.
Immediate, current impacts on the horse are very important to emphasize. The owner may be a bit short-sighted, focused only on today. Long-term health and injury possibilities need to be raised as a concern, also.
And finally, that relinquishing the horse solves all of these problems. The horse will get care, the neglect will be caught up. This horse she loves will go on to live his best life.
She will be doing the best, kindest, most loving thing for the horse by relinquishing him.
Definitely better than an auction if the BO’s have to take him legally.
Make these things her choices – relinquish to best life, or hold out until he goes to auction.
One reason she isn’t coming to see the horse may be that she is having problems facing the sight of her horse’s feet, etc. Doesn’t want to see the evidence of her part in neglect. As well as avoiding uncomfortable encounters with the homeowners.
But whatever the approach … sounds like she needs to pay and move the horse if she won’t relinquish it. The BO’s can decide which is their preferred outcome.
I tried to take the compassionate and empathetic route. But given this statement I think that the BO has to take a hard stance here: pay the past due balance in full and move the horse. At this point your friend (BO) is just being taken advantage of.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
