Horse used for lessons

[starrunner]

I have two horses that are doing an occasional lesson now.

Rider doesn’t pay any additional cost. Horses are given credit per use (ie Bo and set an agreement on how much horses “earned” per hour.

In this case, Bo needed a couple nice lesson horses for an occasional lesson and I am welcome to help and observe lessons. Lessons are mostly just beginning walk/trotters and both horses seem to enjoy the lazy downtime and extra attention.

I would never hold the rider responsible for the bills as my horses have always managed to incur plenty of vet bills in turnout and I’m sure, knowing them, whatever injury would happen regardless.

Extreme case of negligence would be different, but simple walk/trotters I’m not so worried.

[enjoytheride]

While I have been in situations where I have paid a different price for my horse vs. a lesson horse I have NEVER and would never pay a different price for the use of a lesson horse not owned by the instructor. I have never heard of that.

[FalseImpression]

Did not read every post, sorry if this has been mentioned before. But if your horse is insured, the policy could be voided if your horse is used commercially! unless he is under the umbrella policy of the farm… still, check it out! That was the situation with my mare when I first bought her. She was still covered under the farm policy for lesson use, but the BO decided she was too hot for most riders and never used her. So I took my own policy and only my daughter and myself were mentioned in the policy.

[jen-s]

Just have to say that I’m with Jsalem. If it was a BO-owned or trainer-owned lesson horse, good horsemanship would still apply but I wouldn’t expect compensation (or even an offer) towards vet bills. If someone broke MY horse, then horsemanship is the bare minimum that I’d expect. If they offered $ on top, I’d almost certainly turn it down, but if they didn’t offer, they wouldn’t get to ride Dobbin again once he was better.

Also, I’ll ditto the liability policy. Always a good plan.

[Linny]

@Jsalem;6367258

That’s just lovely… File that one under, “No good deed goes unpunished”. Here’s your broken horse back- thanks for letting me take it for a spin. Anyone else got a free horse I can ride?

I don’t think any lesson client wants to hand back a broken horse. If I agree to allow my horse to be used for lessons (thus lessening the expense of the trainer because she’s got a horse earning income that she never bought, hasn’t paid bills for and still doesn’t feed.) In this case, the agreement is between me and trainer.
OTOH, as a lesson rider, I assume that the OWNER of the horse I ride is responsible for him. My lesson fee includes the barn’s expenses in maintaining a lesson string. If the horse is a boarded horse used with permission, I am not a party to their agreement. They need to decide what happens on the off chance that he’s injured in a lesson. Of course I don’t want to aboard if something goes wrong, and I certainly would feel awful. (I’d probably offer to help him if I could.) Sorry to say that I do know some trainers who have had agreements with boarders and pretty much used them up then told the owners they wanted out of the deal because the horse was no longer sound enough, able to jump or whatever. It goes both ways.