Injured lease horse - advice needed!

[kg8185]

Here’s the situation: I took an 8-year-old OTTB on a month trial for a year long lease without a pre-purchase exam (due to a good deal) on January 31st. I signed the lease officially on March 1. On March 29th, the horse came up lame. The vet found a small fracture in the long pastern aggravated by arthritis and work.The vet/surgeon recommended 60 days of stall rest, followed by potential surgery or continued stall rest depending on healing. My questions are:

Who’s responsible for future vet bills and potential surgery costs, ie does this count as emergency?
Should the horse stay at my barn or return to the owner’s facility during recovery?
Can I request a refund for the lease fee, considering the timing of the injury?

The clause from the lease agreement is here

“If medical intervention is required, Leasee (me) will reach out to Leasor (owner) to determine the course of action. Leasor assumes responsibility for any and all emergency medical care the Horse requires unless the emergency medical care is a result of neglect, negligence, or improper use of the Horse by Leasee. Leasee is responsible for any elective veterinary visits not deemed necessary by Leasor. • Leasor shall not hold Leasee liable for any serious injury or death of the horse arising from events not resulting from negligence on the part of the Leasee or the Leasee’s agents. Leasee shall hold the Owner harmless for any injury to persons or damages to any property caused by the leased horse.”

[LCDR]

Lessor. Return to lessor’s facility. You owe the lease payment for March. You have contacted the lessor, right?

[equest]

Was the lease fee paid up front for the entire year? Or was it a monthly amount and paid only for March? Since you did not provide any detail on payment, I suspect that there was no pro-ration of the lease fee or refund provision?

Based on the excerpt you provided, the lease does not address the return of the horse to the owner/lessor in the event of a serious injury. Since the lease does not appear to have any other provision regarding injuries, the “emergency” provision you provided would seem to govern and that would require owner to pay the vet bills. As far as whether horse must remain in your care, I think you will need to reach out to lessor and figure out the best course of action (whether the horse stays with you or returns to owner).

Unfortunately, the lease agreement should have been more detailed as far as return of the horse upon injury as well as payments and refund in the event of injury. When I leased a horse, I made sure the agreement provided for a prorated refund of my large down payment if the horse was injured without my fault, as well as the ability to return the horse to lessor/ owner.

[kg8185]

Yes lessor knows! Thanks!!

[kg8185]

Yes paid up front for the whole year on March 1. . Not in the event of a serious injury but we do have a 30 day notice clause for me to send back to the owner. No mention of payments but crossing my fingers since he is a reputable trainer that he will do the right thing and refund the majority since I only had him for a month on the lease

[Horsegirl_s_Mom]

There may be other provisions in the lease agreement that apply. For example, does the lease agreement represent that the horse is sound? Is there any place in the agreement where the lessor agrees to provide a horse that is rideable?

Also, if the lessor is a reputable trainer, is there any chance he has another horse that might be suitable for you to lease? That might be a possible solution, if the trainer balks at giving you a full refund.

[kg8185]

That was definitely another idea i had too, i wasn’t sure if that was normal or standard, especially since the level this horse is at is not like crazy competitive or super strenuous for him (meter to 1.10). I honestly wouldn’t expect a full refund but at least the rest of the months I hypothetically would’ve had him, I’d even be fine to . Nothing in the lease that I can see directly guarantees a rideable horse and they did not vet him in the past (he came off the track) or have xrays. Would i be screwed because of that?

[vxf111]

Hard to give legal advice (which is what you’re asking) with only a snippet of the lease and not knowing what state law applies. Before you dive too far down the rabbit hole here, have you spoken with the owner to see what s/he actually wants to do and what s/he thinks the lease means? You might be assuming a difference of opinion here that doesn’t even exist.

Did a lawyer draft this? If so, whose?

[kg8185]

Good point. I am a very anxious person naturally so my brain goes to worst case scenario. My trainer and the other trainer/owner are in contact and from what i am gleaning they have quite a long response time (perfect for overthinking!) Lawyer did not draft, my trainer had the template and I added the injury clause with one of the barn girls’ dad who has added legalese to leases before!

[vxf111]

@kg8185

Lawyer did not draft, my trainer had the template and I added the injury clause with one of the barn girls’ dad who has added legalese to leases before!

Hindsight is 20/20 but this is why ideally you ask a lawyer to draft a contract and not someone who specializes in legalese Same as why you see a doctor for a rash and not your neighbor who sells MLM supplements. Because that clause in your contract… is kind of a mess and this situation illustrates why.

BUT… hopefully it’s irrelevant because you and the seller are on the same page. I certainly hope so. Regardless of the language, it seems really unreasonable to stick you with a year’s worth of lease payments on a horse who apparently had a serious latent issue neither side caused or was aware of. So hopefully it all just kind of works out. Fingers crossed.

[NaturallyHappy]

@kg8185

Here’s the situation: I took an 8-year-old OTTB on a month trial for a year long lease without a pre-purchase exam (due to a good deal) on January 31st. I signed the lease officially on March 1. On March 29th, the horse came up lame. The vet found a small fracture in the long pastern aggravated by arthritis and work.The vet/surgeon recommended 60 days of stall rest, followed by potential surgery or continued stall rest depending on healing.

So…is this a new fracture? You had him 2 months? Did this horse have an accident?

[kg8185]

reposting to directly reply

Not a new fracture. Vet said looks old and is relatively common in ottbs. He came off the track about a year ago and its thought that it happened then. Yes have had him since end of Jan. No accident that I’m aware of and definitely nothing since he came to current barn. If I could bubble wrap him I would’ve!

[NaturallyHappy]

Oh…thanks for clearing that up. I hope it works out well for all.

[fourfillies]

Seems to me like a very reasonable lessor wrote that. Assuming you weren’t negligent I’d say from the snippet that you pay for the initial X-rays. Rest is on the lessor. I don’t think the excerpt covers your lease payment options. If paid upfront I’d assume I’m out that. Month to month that I’m out March, maybe April pending when the horse returns to lessor or how the trial period was defined.

[victoriakent]

My brain over thinks too, which is why I brainstorm every worst case scenario ahead of signing any contract, and make sure clauses are included if the world implodes! Can’t say its the healthiest for my anxiety but it has saved my butt a few times.

[Baybear]

The injury clause seems very fair so I’m wondering why with an injury clause there wasn’t a follow-up clause about pro-rated lease pay refund should the horse need to be returned due to illness /injury?I hope it all works out for the horse and lessee/OP

[SpicyPRE]

I hope that the owner/trainer is fair: 1. takes the horse back and 2. either returns the remaining lease fee or offers a replacement horse.

[kg8185]

Update: lessor offered replacement horse (that I declined), then agreed to giving 6k back to me as a refund! Glad this is almost over