Hi all-
I’m a current NCSU student, and being in college, I don’t have too much money to spend on horses. The most ideal solution I’ve come up with is to find someone who would be willing to offer an off-site free lease on a green horse or just one they don’t have time to work with. The problem is, I’m not from the Raleigh area and I really don’t know how to go about finding a horse like that. (I haven’t even settled on a barn I could board at-- I’m trying to find pasture board for under $400… Any suggestions would be appreciated!) Anyway, I’ve looked around a little on craigslist, facebook groups, horse sale sites, etc. but free leases don’t get much advertising, and it seems like it would be obnoxious to ask people if the horses they’re trying to sell would be available for free lease. Anyone have advice on how to go about this?
Honestly, it would probably be better for you to take lessons or do a part-lease with a barn. If you’re limited on funds to that extent, how would you cover the horse in an emergency? What about the other bills like vet and farrier? What if you suddenly can no longer afford the upkeep and the owners can’t or won’t take the horse back?
Even if you did find a free lease, you still have to convince them to allow you to keep the horse in the place you can afford. They may not approve of the location you find, or the horse may have needs that location can’t meet.
It’s the off-site part that is the dealbreaker. Most especially, it will be difficult if you want to take the horse off-site to an inexpensive barn rather than that of a locally well known and respected trainer.
Instead, I’d shop for barns by shopping for your free lease or half lease situation. Call up trainers, say you’re currently horseless, and looking for a place to ride, and are open to a lease or half-lease situation. As you say, people don’t advertise them, but if you’re an experienced rider, it’s very likely that there’s a barn somewhere that would meet your needs that has a horse that would benefit from more riding time.
[QUOTE=BulldogSalute;8403032]
Hi all-
I’m a current NCSU student, and being in college, I don’t have too much money to spend on horses. The most ideal solution I’ve come up with is to find someone who would be willing to offer an off-site free lease on a green horse or just one they don’t have time to work with. The problem is, I’m not from the Raleigh area and I really don’t know how to go about finding a horse like that. (I haven’t even settled on a barn I could board at-- I’m trying to find pasture board for under $400… Any suggestions would be appreciated!) Anyway, I’ve looked around a little on craigslist, facebook groups, horse sale sites, etc. but free leases don’t get much advertising, and it seems like it would be obnoxious to ask people if the horses they’re trying to sell would be available for free lease. Anyone have advice on how to go about this?[/QUOTE]
I recently graduated from college, so believe me, I understand how hard it is to be horse-less. However, I truly think the best plan would be to allocate what you would spend on board/care, and use that for a couple lessons a week. It ensures you will be able to balance your time and prevents you from being stuck with any surprise horse expenses.
Also, when I “settled” for that in college, I ended up finding rides (sometimes more than I really had time for!) at the barn where I lessoned. Take good care of the school horses, convey your interest to the trainer, be friendly to boarders and something might shake out!
I too think the off-site is a deal breaker. I have considered free leasing my horse once he gets a little more under saddle time with trainer, however I would not let him go off-site (though I had previously considered) without approval or suggestion from my trainer. However, if someone wanted to take him off site, I would require lessons with their trainer at least weekly or that they put him in training board. He just isn’t the type of horse that needs a “different” or irregular program without someone I don’t know.
I would suggest getting in with a lesson program. Honestly, I now would probably only free lease inside the barn. I know I can trust my trainer to have the best interest of my horse, and I know she would make the person take lessons. I could also continue to pay her to do training rides. I think a part-lease would also work a bit better for you. That way you still have time to do school and maybe some other activities, without all the $$$ and time spent on a horse. I also think a greenie during school is probably not the best idea. I really wish I had a push button pony sometimes as a full time college student and worker. It’s hard for me to get to the barn twice a week at the least. Lately, I’ve only been getting out once a week. My horse needs a more consistent program, but I can’t allocate for the time right now.
You never know, getting into a good lesson program could lead into some awesome opportunities for you! If I could do it all over again, I would have come into college horseless and just lessoned/worked at the barn with my free time.
Find a Facebook group relevant to your location, and post an In Search Of ad. I did this, and got many responses. Most of those weren’t advertised.
But 99% were on-site. The only time an off-site lease might work would be if it was with a barn/trainer that the owner knew and trusted.
If you can only afford paddock board, that narrows the field too. Many horses don’t cope with it, and for many of the barns I looked at, it involved living with several other horses. This can be fine, or it can lead to lots of fights and injuries. If it’s a shared paddock board, many also require no back shoes. Few owners are going to be ok with this.
If your budget is ~$400, you might be better with a half lease. Lots of people are looking for a way to keep riding their horse, but either can’t ride enough, or are looking to split bills. You can find some really good situations this way.
It’s all about networking… which sounds like it will be very difficult for you since you’re not from the area. I have free leased 2 horses in my life. The first one I leased from a friend of mine’s mother who had known me since I was 12 so she let me do an offsite lease. The second horse I free leased was owned by a friend of a friend who vouched for me, but that one was also onsite.
As an adult I have free leased out my gelding twice. Both times I knew the trainer well and it was a student of theirs. I’m interested in free leasing out my mare at this time, but again, it will only be to a student of a trainer in my area that I know well.
Like everyone has said, your best bet is to start taking lessons so people in the area get to know you. Once you’ve established yourself a bit you will have an easier time finding horses.
Also, I would not expect free leases to be advertised… At least not the good ones. The good ones will be known by trainers because the owners want to make sure they find the perfect situation for their horse. The last thing I would ever do is advertise my mare on Craigslist and have god knows who come out to try her.
I can’t imagine that anyone would be advertising any kind of decent horse for an off-site free lease to a total stranger. The very idea of doing something like that makes me go :eek:
Like others have said, take the money you would spend on boarding your hypothetical off-site free-lease horse and use it to take lessons at some nice barn. Once they get to know you, if you are a skilled rider and they like you, you may find yourself being offered opportunities for free rides or for an on-site partial lease that you can afford and that would give you some more riding time.
The off-sight is going to be an issue. For me (I’m currently trying to free partial lease out my children’s hunter horse while I’m in college (4 days a week)) I’m asking that he stays in my barn. The only thing is that I want them to pick up boarding costs, I’m still paying for his smartpaks, and most vet fees, but board is expensive but we want him at my facility. The only reason we’re willing to do a free lease on him is because we really need him at that facility because it knows how to take care of him.
Now, I know a lot of you are saying you can’t imagine anyone advertising a free lease horse, but they do happen. As a matter of fact, they happen right here in the Giveaways section. Over the years I have had several free lease horses. Some have worked out, some have not. So, you can sometimes find them.
With all that being said, I do agree with the others here who said to either take more lessons, or find a half lease. With your situation being in college, I think it’s a better option for you right now. Plus, with a half lease you will be in a nicer barn probably than you want to/can afford to pay for.
Good luck!
I went to State and still live in the area. Have you checked out Triangle Area Equestrians and NCHJA on facebook? I’m not on facebook much, but I sometimes see free leases advertised in those groups.
How far are you willing to travel? I may have a few suggestions for you.
Also, since you’re not from the area- what will you do when you go home at Christmas/the summer? Usually winter break is a month (or more) and summer is 3 months. Are you going to keep ‘free leasing’ then? Will the owner be ok with that?
I agree with other that your $ would be better spent taking lessons or joining the IHSA team (I know they have one- a friend is on it!)
I think you’d be better off offering to pay $400 towards board at a barn with a program for half use of the horse.
Somebody looking to sell might be in to that, especially if you go there first and make friends with the trainer by taking a couple lessons. Then the trainer can help grease the wheels.
Somebody messaged me once about a made children’s hunter I had for lease because her daughter “needed” (eyeroll) a 3’ move up horse. The plan was to pay me $0 and keep it in their backyard and they had “excellent references from 4H.”
I said EN OH.
Now, if they had said can we pay $500 a month toward his bill at your trainer’s and we will participate in her program a couple days a week, I would have been fine with that.
I’m from the complete opposite end of the country, but I live in a college town and ride at the host barn for the school’s IHSA team so I see a lot of riders like you. I WAS you, not too long ago!
I started out taking once a week lessons, which I quickly bumped up to 2x. I tagged along to all the shows to help and bring snacks/take photos/videos/do the coffee run. I didn’t have the money to show myself very often (maybe one schooling show a year) until my last year of college. But because I’d made myself part of the community, the trainer was more than willing to help me out. I studied abroad for a year but when I came back, she had a free lease figured out for me where I could work off half the board by helping her 3x a week (lunging, turnout, tacking/untacking, keeping an eye on the little kids, etc) and when they were gone at shows. The horse was a AA/Ch hunter packer whose mom had graduated college and hadn’t quite settled enough to move him to her new location. It was a perfect situation and it only happened because I hung around a lot and made myself useful.
Unfortunately, the horse had a bad accident a few days after I started leasing and had to be put down (freak thing, we think he got stung by something and he took off in a lesson, then smacked his pastern on the arena fence and just decimated it). But the trainer and barn owner worked out another scenario where I could half lease one of the BO’s horses, which ended up being the same as a full lease as nobody else really rode him. Once again, they should have charged me full price for the lease. But because they knew me and liked me, they wanted to work with my budget. And I am NOT a great rider who was helping these horses haha.
I half-leased that horse for 3 years and showed him on the A circuit for basically no money. I told the BO I wanted to show but I couldn’t pay for it, so he set me up with a job working the back gate at the spring and summer shows. And here I am, still working for the show company, and mid-search to buy my first horse ever.
I see a lot of girls come in looking for that kind of situation. The ones that find it are the ones who are willing to show up on a Saturday at 8AM, ready to work. At first, they just came to roll polos and set fences. They came early for lessons to watch and stayed after to sweep and clean tack. They made it known that they’d love to hack an extra one if trainer ever needed it. And voila, extra rides appeared, and one was even given a horse as a project to ride 3x a week for free.
My advice is to start with some lessons and if you make yourself useful (even if you are not a stellar rider, as I’m not!) something good will come your way.
I think everyone is spot on- I started lessoning regularly when I retired my jumper, and had a couple free leases fall into my lap. They weren’t/aren’t the fanciest, and definitely not the easiest rides, but I got there by building a rapport with my trainer. I got offered the opportunity to school a handful of lesson horses, and rode 2-3 horses a day every weekend for a while.
Let them get to know you and your abilities through the lesson program. I doubt you’ll be able to move off-site with a free lease; I know I would never ask that of an owner, but I’m sure once a trainer gets to know you, they will work within your budget.
I have a horse in Southern pines that is sitting, and I have been looking for someone to do a free lease. However he must stay on property. If you are interested OP, PM me.
[QUOTE=NCtoCO;8403814]
I went to State and still live in the area. Have you checked out Triangle Area Equestrians and NCHJA on facebook? I’m not on facebook much, but I sometimes see free leases advertised in those groups.
How far are you willing to travel? I may have a few suggestions for you.[/QUOTE]
This. I would also be looking for a place you would be willing to go to, not an off-site free lease situation. I went to school in your area and was able to catch ride, so it can be done. I did some networking through my old trainers. If you have references re: your ability to work with greenies, then that will help you.
Since you don’t know the area and don’t have ties to a barn, why do you want an off-site lease? Just for cost? Not everyone around that area is open to sending their horse off to field board. Maybe you should look for a part-board on-site lease if you are working on a budget.
[QUOTE=BulldogSalute;8403032]
Hi all-
I’m a current NCSU student, and being in college, I don’t have too much money to spend on horses.
…
Anyone have advice on how to go about this?[/QUOTE]
I found a free lease when I was in college.
I literally called around to the boarding barns and told the BO I was a college student in the area, my horse was at home (with my parents), but I was still wanting to ride once in a while. I asked them if they had anyone who was looking to lease a horse out.
I didn’t say anything about free.
However, I came across a lovely paint mare who was just plain spoiled because her owner didn’t have time to ride. I contacted the owner and I offered to train her for free, in exchange for getting to ride her. Owner still retained everything (boarding bills, vet, farrier, etc) and of course still rode her when she wanted, but I came out a couple nights a week and rode her.
Worked out great for the both of us for a semester. I got to have a stress-reliever of working with the horse, and she got some free training.
So I think it is possible, to some degree. You have to just start asking around. Or start by taking lessons at the barn so you get to know the people there.
Leasing is tricky when you are in college. Essentially, you aren’t a great risk. You don’t have the funds for emergencies and all leases have contingencies stating that the person who is leasing the horse is responsible for emergency vet bills, not the owner. It can really suck if that happens.
Try finding a partial lease on a horse already at a facility. A lot of people aren’t comfortable with a full lease since they still want to be able to get on. That would also give you some more flexibility in your time since your college work will come in waves with midterms and finals.
Or you could go the lesson route and do that 4x a month or so. If you have a limited time to ride, lessons are honestly the best bang for your buck at keeping your skills sharp.
[QUOTE=thehorsedream;8404795]
all leases have contingencies stating that the person who is leasing the horse is responsible for emergency vet bills, not the owner[/QUOTE]
This is not correct. I have leased before and was not responsible for emergency vet bills. It can be written into a lease to go either way, or to split costs.
When I didn’t have the funds to lease/buy I made up a little ad on craigslist for catch-riding. I found a lady 30 minutes away who wanted her horse ridden. Not exactly the ideal situation for what I was looking for as there was no possibility to show and couldn’t transport the horse to lessons. However, I still got to work on my riding and what I learned from my regular lessons. If you are open to not just riding a specific horse (or necessarily for showing/lesson purposes) you might check into a situation like that.
