Hope this fits here - I have a semi-retired horse on pasture board. A girl at the barn loves to ride my horse for lessons. What should I expect as far as $$ off board? Is there a “standard”? The family has declined a partial lease.
Who pays vet bills if your horse gets hurt during said lessons?
Great point - this is why I am asking. I need to draw up an agreement.
[QUOTE=CallMeGrace;6364725]
Hope this fits here - I have a semi-retired horse on pasture board. A girl at the barn loves to ride my horse for lessons. What should I expect as far as $$ off board? Is there a “standard”? The family has declined a partial lease.[/QUOTE]
It sounds like she needs to be leasing the horse, or paying you x amount per ride (sounds difficult to track). Why would your board be reduced? Is the BO giving the girl lessons? I’m confused…
In my book: Girl rides my horse, declines lease=pay up or find a new horse to ride for free!
I’m assuming BO is giving the lessons? I’ve seen a couple of situations where the BO/instructor was giving lesson on a boarder’s horse and the BO raised the lesson price by (I think) $5-10/ lesson as a horse use fee, which was applied to board or lessons for horse owner.
Of course, this particular BO did not have lesson horses- she was semi-retired and only taught people on her schoolmaster or on their own horses. If your BO/instructor has their own lesson horses, I doubt they’d be willing to make that concession. In that case, I would think per ride horse fee should be payable to you.
Of course since I’m assuming the horse is older and not insured, you’re running a risk of having to foot vet bills if something happens…
If they declined a partial lease, they may just be wanting a horse to ride for free. Proceed with caution. Believe I’d google some boarding and lease agreements to see if there are any points in there you can use. As for how much off on board, I don’t know whether so much per hour, take total cost of horse expenses for 30 days and divide by number of days she rides him. I don’t know. Do you have insurance on your horse? Lot to be considered. Also, she might not ride him like you want. Sorry for rambling post, just trying to think of stuff.
I looked into this but of course not seriously so the details are a little hazy. The lesson program would have paid for shoes for Snort - but of course since he’s barefoot and I have no real use for shoes . . . and I think that board would have been some set fee - about 75% of the normal board rate, and would have included hay and the barn’s stock sweet feed. Veterinary bills - can’t remember, I think they would be liable if he injured himself during a lesson.
This was not a per lesson deal though, he would either have been in the program or not, almost a lease. I say almost because I’d have still been footing a board bill. And I’d have not had the use of him for show weekends and certain hours of the day/certain days of the week.
Is the girl a teen? Why does her family decline a half lease?
Personally, if I had a horse who could use the exercise and could find a kid who was good with it I would be happy to let them ride and consider that it was a mutually beneficial arrangement. Extra points if it is a kid who can not afford a horse of their own.
Is the BO giving the lessons? In that case, I would think it would fall to her to pay you, and I would just (in my case) ask for a set fee taken off my board bill per lesson. But, the way I look at it, my horse would be getting needed work (again, if this were my horse), so to me it would be a win-win.
It sounds like the BO is the one coming out ahead, and I’d take it up with her rather than the rider (who probably just wants to take lessons and likes your horse).
It sounds to me like the OP is fine with the rider taking lessons on her horse, she just wants suggestions for compensation. Part leasing is the next logical step as the rider can then have practice rides outside of lessons but this was declined perhaps for financial reasons.
For me as an owner it would be more useful to exchange rides for chores done rather than $10 per ride. You could show the rider how you like things done then get them to do mane pulling, grooming/bathing, sheath cleaning (if a gelding), tack cleaning etc. Have the rider trade labour basically for rides.
It could be that the person giving lessons & running the boarding barn comes out ahead in this deal or it could be that the rider gets to rider a nicer, more suitable horse. You’re welcome to ask for a discount on board based on rides if that’s what you’re after. Just work out how much you would change for part lease for x many days and just break it down to a daily rate. Let the rider & teacher sort out who pays you what. But again if it was me, besides having a retired horse benefit from the attention I think it would be nicer for everyone if you just got the rider to pitch in and help out in maintaining the horse.
Our hunt barn growing up had “full board” and “lesson board.” Lesson board was about 30% less. My horse was on it. I had first dibs and could take him to shows at any time, but he was expected to be available for lessons two days a week. Worked out fine for me. I usually rode 3-4, he did 2 days of lessons and had 1 or 2 days off. Saved us a little money, provided the barn with a good lesson horse. I didn’t worry about insurance back then, but would give it a good think now… My semi-retired pony was injured in the lesson program (just a freak thing) but who could say if it was a result of the lessons or that he was just old? Vet expenses and lay-up were at my expense.
That said, I had 100% confidence in the trainer that my horses would only be asked to do things they were capable of and would never be overworked. Without that sort of trust, I don’t think I’d ever allow it.
Thank you all - excellent points! I will sit down with the BO and discuss some alternatives.
Also, do you want your horse ridden, or not? If you want him in some kind of work then he gets worked and you are not charged so it is win-win. But if he does not need to be in work, or you don’t particularly want him to be ridden, then I agree some form of compensation either from the BO if she’s the one using him, or the rider, is in order.
Does the BO have a different lesson rate for students if they ride a lesson horse vs bringing their own horse? Some do, some don’t. That could factor in to whether your BO should be compensating you. For example, if the BO charges $10 more per lesson to use one of her horses, and she is charging the student the extra $10, you should really be getting that extra money. If she is not charging the student extra for a barn-owned horse, then no, I don’t see why you would be compensated by the BO.
I was the horse-crazy kid who couldn’t afford their own horse teen. For several years I did all sorts of barn work in exchange for extra ride time on the horse I used for lessons. It was a win-win situation because the owner had several children that kept her busy and I kept her horse in reasonable shape plus kept her stalls clean, water clean, cobwebs out… you get the picture. I would suggest something along those lines.
We’ve had a couple of people at our barn who leased their horse for lessons. They were not fancy show horses, so the owner just asked that the lessor pay for insurance and for the farrier trims for the year.
[QUOTE=oldpony66;6365354]
For example, if the BO charges $10 more per lesson to use one of her horses, and she is charging the student the extra $10, you should really be getting that extra money. .[/QUOTE]
This what my trainer does. She credits the fee toward our lessons. She uses DD’s mare for a lot of her brand-new beginnners so it’s not a lot of extra work on the mare. Mare fits a need in her lesson program. The riders love her. I get a little back towards lessons. Win-win-win in my book!
I receive a $100/month discount on board to allow my horse to be used in lessons taught by BO. This discount is about 15% off full board.
Great advice in this thread that I hadn’t thought of, to get an agreement in place for financial responsibility for vet bills if injured during a lesson.
My trainer gives a $15 per ride credit as that is the same amount he charges clients to use one of his horses in a lesson. I have more than one horse and having them ridden in lessons with select students helps me keep them fit.
I let me BO use my horse at no charge in lessons for her show team. At the time, my mare was somewhat green and needed more mileage. The show team kids were all good riders – better than me. And lessons were supervised closely by the BO, a person I also took lessons from. I was happy with this arrangement. My mare got fit, got show mileage, and flourished. I could not have done it all myself. I didn’t care about getting money for it.
Today I have my own farm. Currently I am letting a family ride several of my horses for free, just to exercise them. Mom really knows what she is doing, the kids are talented, and I have plenty of horses that could use work. Family is not in a position to own a horse right now and Mom is just finishing her cancer treatment. Again, it’s not about the money for me.
[QUOTE=ottbee;6365783]
Great advice in this thread that I hadn’t thought of, to get an agreement in place for financial responsibility for vet bills if injured during a lesson.[/QUOTE]
Just wondering, would any of you expect the rider to be responsible to pay for a vet bill if your horse was injured during a lesson?
Like really, unless they were jumping 4’ when you told them no jumping, I really don’t get how you would put the blame on the rider.
If I was paying to ride a horse, and it came up lame during the lesson, there’s no way in hell I would be paying the vet bill!
