Off site lease- what does your contract require

[jay0087]

My friend is currently looking to offsite lease a horse from an acquaintance of mine. There is some disagreement of the value of the horse but they have settled on an annual lease amount. A little about the horse: around 5 years old tb mare that was bought from an auction in 2021. Once health started riding and was good for kids but owner wanted to race the horse. Horse went to track for 8 months and never ran, came back and sat for over 7 months. A couple months of work has been put into her. Owner wants 12k purchase price for this horse but has offered to lease her. Owner wants mortality and loss of use in the contract. My friend is okay getting mortality and medical but doing some research loss of use she does not qualify for.

I would love to hear what everyone includes in their offsite contracts. What insurance do you require? I have always done mortality and medical, knowing you pay for all medical expenses to try to get back to 100%. What happens if you can’t? With the issue of the two not agreeing on her value this is creating a What if problem. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[blondewithchrome]

For my own horse, as well as any horse I have ever leased, owner should have the policy. If owner wants the horse insured, it is owners responsibility to do so. I have passed the monthly premium cost along to my leasee but I retain the policy. I clearly spell out that I retain policy and any medical bills can be submitted to insurance and upon approval of coverage and payout, I return the payment to lessee/whoever covered the vet bill. I give my lessee a copy of his policy so they know deductible/what’s covered. I’ve never had a problem with this.

Loss of use is rarely available for a low value animal. It is actually quite expensive and requires some pretty extensive proof of value in my experience.

[Arzny]

I require my horses to stay in the barn of the trainer who is brokering the lease. So if the person leasing my horse wants to switch programs or barns, we have to renegotiate the lease. This is because I will only lease to certain programs.
I also don’t require insurance, rather I maintain the insurance and the person leasing reimburses me for the expense up front, at the beginning of the lease. It helps prevent tricky situations where they forget or don’t maintain insurance to save $$. My horses are not insured for major medical or loss of use, only mortality. Fwiw, loss of use can be very expensive, and some companies will not offer it depending on the chosen sport / value of the animal.

[CuriosoJorge]

Additionally, loss of use coverage means the insurance company then becomes involved in medical decision making for the horse, sometimes to the point of contradicting the owner’s wishes. It’s not something I would pursue, especially for a horse in this price bracket (if you can even find someone who will bind it).

[IPEsq]

Owner should have the insurance policy and name the lessee as additional insured. Premium usually passed on to the lesser, and lessee who pays for medical can get reimbursed by the medical policy. Mortality payout goes to the owner. Owner can decide whether to refund any money should mortality incident occur during the lease, but if the mortality value is $12k, I don’t see that happening.

Loss of use insurance is not worth it the majority of the time, and I don’t think you can even get it on a horse in that value range.

[jay0087]

She walked away. My friend was willing to do a lease with an annual payment but the who loss of use for 12k is crazy. We told her over and over we don’t see the value of the horses at this. There is alot more to the story but that was just the jist.

[Madison]

The owner was lucky your friend was willing to pay any kind of fee, this horse on paper is a care lease situation at best! But based on the owner’s skewed point of view, it sounds like it is good that your friend walked away. Loss of use, even if available, makes no sense on horses worth way more than this one in most cases, and definitely no sense on an OTTB that’s been mostly out of work and definitely isn’t worth $12k!