What is the typical lease fee, on farm and off farm for a PSG horse worth approximately $50,000? How about half lease fees? Who pays for maintenance shots?
Rule of thumb is the lease is 1/3 of the horse’s value plus care costs.
In this case, that would be 15-16k/year plus board, shoes, maintenance shots, etc. A half lease would be half of everything.
Of course, these are just ballpark numbers - the reality can vary significantly depending on a plethora of factors. At the end of the day, just get everything spelled out about who pays for what and when, etc.
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Honestly, there just aren’t a ton of these out there so it’s hard to talk about a market price.
It’s not like the h/j world. For a full lease, the ballpark is 1/3 to 1/2 of value plus all costs. The older schoolmasters whose purchase price has decreased due to age tend to be closer to 1/2 value. That said, I know a few of that that have stayed in-barn on care leases (i.e. all costs, but no additional fee to the owner) because the owner valued them staying in the training program they knew well.
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The old rule of thumb was 1/3 price, but most things these days are going for closer to 1/2. Also, like someone said, some schoolmasters are valuable for their skills in a way that doesn’t reflect in their theoretical purchase price, and they’re very rare.
1/2 leases would usually be 1/2 the monthly costs, plus some sort of fee unless it is an on-farm care lease.
Just ask. Unless you’re looking to price your own horse, in which case you’ll need to crunch some numbers and decide what makes it worthwhile to share your horse, put wear and tear on him, and risk undoing training/injury.
The trainer is proposing an on farm half lease. The trainer wants to ride/show the horse. In some ways I feel like I’m paying to be a working student. (I’m riding/ exercising the horse while subsidizing the trainer’s cost).
That sounds like a nice gig for the trainer and an awful one for you.
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Perhaps, but I’m between horses right now and can work on getting my Bronze. I don’t mind paying 1/2 costs, but the $1000/ month fee seems like too much. Is that fair?
Is it $1k plus expenses or $1k total? If total, that’s on the higher side for a half lease, but for a fancy horse at an expensive barn it’s not totally ridiculous. Really depends on the COL in your area, the horse’s maintenance needs, and how nice the barn is. If they’re asking you to cover half costs AND pay $1k a month in lease fee for a half lease that’s insane.
I actually see it as a perk to have the trainer using the other half. The horse stays tuned up and you get to benefit from the trainer’s work while getting use of a nice horse. You’re basically getting free training rides put on the horse. You’ll be subsidizing someone’s costs either way with a lease, may as well subsidize a rider that’s improving the horse as they go. I’ve split half leases with less experienced riders where I’ve had to spend time correcting bad habits they installed and it’s definitely not ideal.
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I leased a GP horse a few years ago (on site) and paid half his costs. Half board, half shoes, half ave vet maint, half insurance premium, etc. Owner had all expense records averaged out for a year. Only thing over that I paid was that I was required to have one of my rides per week be a lesson with her trainer, so there was that.
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Depends on the quality of the horse. I’ve seen international GP horses leased out yearly for 5 figures, not including costs.
Can I have some clarity on the trainers involvement here? Would you be splitting the lease on the horse between the two of you? Or you would be leasing the horse and paying her to ride and show?
Agree
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Only if you’re forbidden from doing any PSG moves. Are you a more skilled rider than the trainer? Would you be expected to bring him to GP? You are paying to enjoy the skills this horse took a long time to develop. You are compensating her, not subsidizing her. If you want a feed lease, look for a greenie or a training level horse.
Maybe I see this differently because I have more experience in the HJ world, but it’s fair and appropriate in my opinion to pay to ride a trained horse, so that I can work on my own skills.
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I won’t speak to what is reasonable for half of costs, because it varies so widely based on location and what training is included. Assuming the lease fee is $1k/month on top of expenses, that seems pretty reasonable for a solid amateur friendly bronze medal horse. $1k/month implies a purchase price of $24-$36k, which would be low for that horse in the current market.
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