In the event of your death

[Absolut_Equestrian]

@wsmoak

I discussed it with a friend and then named them as the person the horse would go to, with I think it was $10k to cover costs. She was welcome to keep him or sell him, totally her choice.

I have a similar arrangement with my trainer. She happens to love my horse, so occasionally enjoys joking about making me disappear so she can just have him

I have a an “emergency fund” for the horse, which would support ~6 months of his current lifestyle (boarding, training, vet, farrier, etc). It’s outlined in my will that this fund would also transfer to the trainer in the event of my death. Maybe this is a bit of a “luxury” but I think it’s an important consideration when leaving a horse to someone. Willing a horse to a friend seems neat at the surface, but may also create an unexpected financial burden that some are not able to bear.

[SBrentnall]

Both my horses will go to my trainer (with her permission), together with a lump sum to cover their care.

[jcc813]

This is my thought as well. If someone left me their horse tomorrow, I don’t know if that would be a situation I would welcome at my current stage of life. Even the process of selling a horse someone bequeathed would involve time and effort, unless I were to hire someone else to do it.

This thread has me rethinking our potential plans. What we might do is leave husband’s 6 yo, whom our trainer has been working with the past couple years, to trainer with expenses for up to 1 year. At that point he can decide if he wants to keep and take over care of the horse or sell. I don’t know if it makes sense to leave him the horse plus lifetime expenses when those funds could go to our son.

Our 7 yo, whom we just purchased, I would have sold with proceeds going into our son’s trust. I might designate a close horse friend to handle this. She’s also a lawyer so I trust her ability to handle these things. And I might stipulate that she get a small % of the sale price for her trouble even though she’d probably do it without payment.

For the senior horse, I’m still torn. He’s a buddy to our 6yo, so maybe I would also leave him to our trainer with expenses for up to 1 year + costs to cover euthanasia. After a year they could decide if they want to keep him as a companion horse or PTS.

[jcc813]

So I clarified this with our attorney and in case it may be helpful to others, this is what he said:

“The point of your trust is to avoid probate so if you and your husband were to both pass, the successor trustee would be able to use funds from the trust pursuant to the terms of the trust almost immediately. The lag time worry would only be a concern if you only had Wills and not a trust. In your trust you can provide for whom and whatever you wish. You could have a monthly amount for the care of the horses and keep them their whole lives or have the trust contributions to their upkeep terminate when they are sold. When we say set up a “pet trust” or trust for an animal, it is a trust within the human’s trust. You could set up a trust for a tree if you wanted to. It’s your estate. You can have the trust do anything you want as long as it is not illegal or causing harm, and anything in the trust does not have to be probated or go to court.”

I have to say a tree trust sounds nice

[Hayburner]

Making suitable arrangements is very difficult for some of us. My small family does not have any interest in horses nor experience, but luckily their extended family does. So they would have good guidance.

I set up a trust with very specific details for my horses care. So that no one gets antsy to have her euthanized thinking they would inherit the balance of the trust, the balance is to be divided to good friends and rescues. 2 vets would have to agree that the horse’s quality of life is diminished, that is the only way she can be euthanized.

I have named 1 person to care for the horse and also a back up person should the 1st one not be able to do this.

I have listed all current medications, feed, supplements etc. there is a big list of what can and can’t be done with them horse.

The caretaker would also be compensated for their time and any expenses incurred.