It is vital to have a PPE before starting a lease.
Like the others have said, be careful. I’ve been on both sides. I free leased a wonderful old Appy gelding whose owners had outgrown him and they eventually gave him to me. I loved that old boy and kept him for the rest of his life.
However, I also experienced the down side when I free leased one of my ponies out. I thought he’d be happier with a job, so I free leased him to a woman named Karen in Wilbraham, MA who owned a farm with green meadows and a lovely barn. She signed a lease agreement and we stayed in touch regularly - she had told me that her pony died and she just wanted a pony to love and trail ride and I thought Merlin would be happy with her. A year into the lease, I got a call from her that Merlin had an eye infection and she wanted $500 from me. I got in the car and drove through 2 states to drop in unannounced to find out what was really going on - and my dear Merlin was gone. She went berserk, screaming at me to get off her property, telling me my pony had died but she ‘didn’t have the heart’ to tell me. When I asked her when, and where he was buried, she couldn’t remember and started screaming at me to get off her property.
This was before the internet and I searched for a year. I put ads in newspapers, sent flyers to every vet, farrier and feed store in the area and met some incredibly nice people along the way. Mr. chai made 2 trips to an auction house who kindly called us twice when ponies that were close to the description of Merlin came through but we never found out what happened to him.
I never leased out one of my horses again and I never will. To this day, I regret trusting that awful woman.
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I free leased a horse to a woman and she kept him at her farm. It worked out so great for both of us that I eventually “sold” him to her. So yes, its possible, but depends on what you are looking for. In my case, I needed to let my horse step away from FEI dressage work, and he really didn’t want to work in the ring anymore. She was looking for a good trail horse that she could do some other fun things with. It worked out well for both of us, but may have been a pretty rare situation.Schedule
I’m another one in the “free leases can be great” camp, but I could not agree more with everyone who’s said to put it in writing. Talk through common problems that might occur, make sure you’re on the same page with how to handle them and who pays for what, and make sure what’s in writing reflects what you agreed on. (Most of the time you will never need to look at the written agreement again, exactly because you talked stuff out in advance and have shared expectations.)
Make sure to talk about: accidental injury or death (and paddock vs competition), short- and long-term lameness, who makes (and pays for) decisions for both routine and non-routine veterinary care, service providers (vet/farrier/etc), where the horse lives, how hard the horse can be worked, how the lease ends.
IMO anyone who says “oh, I don’t want to think about that, it’ll never happen” should be run away from very fast, and “we can work it out if it comes to it” I would still avoid.
None of the above advice is specific to the lessor or lessee; both sides can be wildly unrealistic. Ideally you should always be ready to walk and only deal only with hard-headed pragmatists who recognize that shit happens sometimes, especially with horses. In reality it’s a judgment call as we’re talking about the horse world and nobody is truly realistic. 
FTR I have the most amazingest horse ever on free lease right now. (Through the owner’s pregnancy.) He’s a little bit of a clueless seven-year-old goofball, but he gets some experience and training and I get the ride on a super-fun and stunningly talented warmblood. Everybody wins. (Also, to be clear, after board/vet/farrier/etc my budget for this “free” lease is still the better part of a grand a month.)
I think the OP has opted out of this thread b/c no one said they would pay for everything but let her take the horse to wherever she wanted.
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So, does everyone who opts for a free lease, have a PPE done first?
I did on the last one and they said the mare passed but didn’t give me the results. Turns out she flexed off. And I spent months trying to figure out why she was NQR with no diagnostic work from their vet. Lesson learned. Also different people have very different definitions of “sound”.
I think the other golden rule with leases, is that it has to be somebody in your circle whether you’re the leaser or leasee. Somebody in your barn is ideal, but if not, don’t lease out to or lease from just any rando who responds to or posts an ad. Make sure you at least have mutual friends with, or you know the barn they ride at, or they’re in your area, or something. ANYONE can easily make up references but you can’t do that when you’re in the same circle.
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I think it depends on the contract and what you want the horse to do. A month to month lease on a trail horse may not need one compared to a year long lease on a performance horse.
I knew the people with the unsound horse. He was sound when I took him on but went off a few months afterwards. When he was sound he was great, loved riding him. Also, he was older than they told me, according to them he was 19 but looking up his show record, he was 22 going on 23.
It can be wonderful for the right people (and horse) in the right circumstances. I am able to have a dressage schoolmaster because someone was willing to give me a free lease on him. He’s older and a little quirky without a super-extensive show record, so he’s not what many people look for in a schoolmaster. However, his maintenance and quirks don’t bother me and he has great training and does not give the correct response without the correct ask, so I’m learning a lot with him. In this case, he is essentially my horse for duration of the lease–he lives with me, I cover all his costs and have full authority to make all care decisions.
:eek: Wow, that is a harsh leap.
The OP, for whatever reason, has not logged onto the forum since the day they made this post so it is likely they have not even read all of posts.
You can read all the posts without logging on though.
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I didn’t, because I wasn’t responsible for vet bills. A couple of times when there was a short term issue, I continued paying my share of the board and farrier. When it turned out to be several months of no riding for one horse, the owners told me to stop paying until he was rideable again. I still continued to help care for him during that time and help with his rehab.
Sadly, almost the exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. She gave her mare to a woman for light riding. After several months and no contact, she sent the police to the farm who discovered the mare was long gone, most likely sold to slaughter. And yes, the woman had signed a contract specifying it was a lease and that if she didn’t want the mare she would return her.
https://equineink.com/2009/07/13/when-your-retired-horse-goes-missing/
The link is about an adoption, not a lease.
Sad story though.
You’re right. I forgot that she’d done it as an “adoption” but the situation is similar. She had a formal agreement, the woman lied, and the horse disappeared.
I did not with either of the long-term free leases I have done, though I think it’s generally a good idea so that there is a baseline health status.
In my case, I leased both horses from the same person who I’ve known for years. In the first case, the horse had been a client of mine, so I was well aware of her health history. In the second, the horse had been pulled from a bad care situation and immediately had a full vet workup, which the owner shared with me w/o prompting. So in both cases, I already had the baseline health status and there was no need to re-do what had already been done.
My husband had an old mostly retired horse that he thought was doing a good thing for when he gave him to a woman who wanted an older, safe horse for light trail riding. She had a large pasture with other retirees, and a barn. About a month later, we happened to be in the area and stopped by. What had been a happy horse was now a shell of what he was. The light was gone from his eye, he had lost weight, and just looked so sad. My husband went back with the trailer, paid the woman for any board she thought she was owed, and brought him home. DH went out every day for a week and apologized to him for doing that. When we went for a short trail ride, that old horse’s head was up, his tail was up, and he pranced down the road happy that he was still needed. Sadly, he had to be put down less than a year later when he had a stroke.
This thread just popped up over on Reddit and it’s completely bizarre to me that someone is asking about a free lease twice in the same week…
https://www.reddit.com/r/Equestrian/comments/jbqlcg/leasing_a_horse_for_the_first_time/
