I am curious what the norm is.
If you, the owner of the horse, part leases their horse out (say 2-4 days), what do you do when your horse is lame? Let’s say takes a month to go back to working.
Do you refund the lease fee for the month? Chalk it up to that’s horses, good and bad? Offer extra days if available?
I’ve never had this issue before as my horse generally is healthy and only off for short amounts rarely.
This should be talked about when laying out the lease and sadly never is - says someone who spent months “half leasing” a lame horse who “would start to get better” at the end of every month.
I’ve always chalked it up to “that’s life with horses” and offered extra ride times when the lameness is resolved. That being said, I’ve only ever part leased my horses out to a really close friend so things are bit less formal between us.
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer, but the key is to communicate it to the part leaser and put it in writing in the contract at the very beginning of the lease arrangement.
Speaking as a part leaser it has always been “that’s horses” and no refund, which is perfectly fine and reasonable to me. I’ve been offered extra days when horse was sound again to make up for the lost time, which I thought was generous, but I don’t expect it. I figure that when I’m signing on to part lease, that just because this is a part lease doesn’t absolve the horse of still doing horse things - it’s just part of the business.
It’s a good thing to address at the beginning of a lease or in a contract though to make sure the expectations of all the parties are the same.
Unfortunately never really covered long ish periods… person has been leasing for over 4 years I think and first nearly month long period of no riding.
It’s been settled now but I’m just curious what do people typically do/have in their contracts.
Half leases on decent horses are not always easy to find, so the the one I’ve been involved in was month to month until you wanted to end the lease. No refunds. If situation looks unsatisfactory, free to end. In this case I was first the lessee for close to a year, then bought the beast and 8 years later 1/2 leased him to another rider for year.
This
I would assume that this is what it is like dealing with a horse and not expect extra rides or anything in place of the missed rides.
Horses get lame…
They still have board and expenses.
If the owner has the ability to offer something else to ride then sure, go for it. But no one should expect that.
I might also add, as I mentioned in another thread, that the only time I asked for a partial refund on a lease was when the horse was lame b/c of poor management. Was going way too long in between trims and the owner couldn’t/wouldn’t get a farrier out and I lost ride time because of it. Obviously that’s different from the typical run of the mill lamenesses horses get themselves into every so often.
This whole idea of asking for/giving a refund if a horse goes lame during a lease is pretty new to me, and pretty ridiculous IMO. The entire purpose of leasing a horse, whether full or part leasing, is to get to ride a horse that you might not otherwise be able to afford, plus get experience with horses outside of just taking lessons. This means that you should be expected to help with all aspects of horse ownership.
Poor management from the owner causing lameness? End the lease.
Serious injury that will have horse out for more than a month (that didn’t happen under your care)? End the lease.
Horse acted like a horse in the paddock and has a scrape or tweaked fetlock or what ever else? That’s part of the life of owning horses. If you’re unwilling to accept such risks when leasing, then don’t lease, certainly don’t buy, and stick to taking lessons.
I don’t share this opinion. If i were a leasee i would be willing to keep paying, but if i were the leasor, i’m almost positive i’d refund. As long as i owned the horse, i would consider her/him to be my 100% responsibility in all aspects, but especially where health became an issue.
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