I am sending a horse out of trial tomorow for 10 days. I have a contract in place, I trust the people he’s going to, and I’m delivering him so I can check out the barn. I am including a 10 day supply of his grain/supplements, his blanket, his saddle that was custom fit to him, bridle, and his boots. Is this normal? What do others (for those who do send a horse on trial) include with the horse? I have never sent a horse for a test run before. I did insist on the full purchase price of the horse in the form of a cashier’s check before allowing him to go.
I’ve only ever taken two horses on trial. The first came with blankets and grain. The second came with turnout boots and blankets, and I bought him a bag of his grain. Neither came with tack, and that is not typical in my experience. It comes with some risks (i.e. damage to equipment), but certainly sets the trial up for success by ensuring that the horse is comfortable/in familiar tack.
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I have only done this once. I had the full purchase price and had them insure the horse. I included tack (the woman bought the saddle with the horse), turnout boots, and grain. It was not cold enough for blankets.
I visited the horse midweek during a 7 day trial to check on her.
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The few trial horses I have experience with did not come with tack. They came with halters, some grain (not all were on grain at the time of the trial), and some boots.
Personally, I would not send tack I was not prepared to lose with a horse unless paid for it. A friend of mine had several items never returned to her when she leased her horse out and sent him with his therapy gear, blankets, and tack. After that instance, she either just tells people what type of tack horse is used to or sent them out with old/plain tack that she wouldn’t care if it went missing.
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Tack isn’t necessary. Personally, I would want to take some of the hay he’s used to. Maybe not a 10-day supply, but enough to help with the transition.
the horse is going to a first time horse buyer and they don’t yet have a saddle. I’m probably not going to need the saddle for now but I did write an addendum to the contract of everything that is included and what needs to be returned regardless of whether they buy or not.
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We never have sent or sold a horse on trial, the horses we have sold the purchaser either knew the horse from competitions or came here to ride… the only way the horse left here was as a sold animal
Horses we bought remained at that farm/ranch until we fully paid for the horse
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^^^. This
When I took a horse on trial it did not come with any tack or feed, just the horse and the halter it was wearing.
Include in your addendum about the tack complete photos of the condition of the tack and what happens if it is lost or damaged.
good point about pictures. I added the replacement value to the addendum.
Yes, it’s a good idea to have pictures of everything that you’re sending with the horse that you want to get back. And probably you want to take pictures of the horse as well.
I’ve only ever had one horse on trial, and I did not get any tack or blankets with her. I think it’s a good idea to send some hay along as well, and you might want to look over the kind of hay she’ll be fed at the new barn.
How long of a trial is it?
I haven’t seen many trials. We’ve had two come in on trial at our barn. One came in a halter with a piece of paper listing feed. The other had a halter, a mismatched pair of bell boots, 3 turnout boots, and a bale of hay. Neither had a lead rope.
Trial is for 10 days. I sent about a half bale of current hay as well. I delivered him so I could see his living quarters. Stall with a run and pasture turnout. He seemed to settle right in and tucked into his hay after checking everything out. Everyone who was at the barn came over and oohed and ahhed over him exclaiming how adorable he is. The trial is for 10 days and they already have a PPE scheduled for him.
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