Hello all! I bought my jumper last April, but we didn’t get to do any rated shows last year due to my other horse’s vet bills! So I’m just now transferring ownership through USEF, and I noticed that on the bill of sale, it’s the previous owner’s mom who signed it, not the owner. At the time they purchased the horse, he was still a junior, but at the time of sale to us, he was a professional working for a BN trainer. The horse is listed with USEF with the son’s name as owner. Do I need to contact him and get the signature to transfer ownership, or can I send in the bill of sale as is?
Just email USEF. They are prompt with replies and very helpful.
Thank you! Will do.
The transfer form states it needs to be signed by the last USEF recorded owner.
I sent the bill of sale with mother signing as owner when my horse’s USEF registration showed the daughter as owner, and didn’t have any problem with it. They processed it without any question. The mother and daughter had the same last name.
And the problem with that is if the last owner was a junior, a bill of sale from a minor can be a voidable contract, so there is a little bit of a disconnect between the USE form and contract laws in the situation with a junior involved. They did not hassle me about sending in a bill of sale from “Jane Smith” when the last recorded owner was the junior daughter “Mary Smith.” I was prepared to go back to the seller’s agent and ask them for an additional signature from the daughter if needed, but it wasn’t a problem.
I had the opposite experience. The mother/daughter had same last names, mother owned the horse on the papers, daughter owned the horse with usef. I sent in the bill of sale with the mother’s signature, and usef rejected the change of ownership. I had to go back and get the daughter to sign. Both were adults in my case.
Similar experience here with a horse owned by a partnership (and registered with the USE that way) and a bill of sale signed by just one partner.
Weird! Apparently I caught them on a good day, for me! Mine was processed without even a follow up email or question.
What happened if the horse is 3-4 owners removed from the last USEF recorded owner?
This happens quite a bit. There is an affidavit form that can be completed in that case. It would be submitted with the bill of sale. It has to be notarized by the person the horse was purchased from.
There is a disclosure on the application form. The horse application is not made to get into legal disputes such as these; it is for showing purposes only. A parent would be allowed to sign for a minor.
By signing above, I acknowledge that the Federation is not a registry, does not verify legal horse ownership, and does not decide or become involved in ownership disputes. By recording this horse with the Federation, I attest that i am the owner or I have the requisite authority to submit this horse recording/transfer.
My point about contracts was referring to why people were unlikely to have a bill of sale to submit signed by the minor rather than by their parents or guardians. Definitely not suggesting USE is, would be or should be wading into whether the bill of sale was valid! If USE wants the minor’s signature also, buyers could have both the parent and the kid sign, but you would never want to have a bill of sale signed just by the minor who is listed as the owner on the USE registration.
I had to deal with this. The last recorded USEF owner was a farm/company, and my bill of sale was signed by an agent of the farm so USEF wouldn’t accept it. The farm had closed and dissolved by the time I got my horse (he had one owner between the farm and me), so I had to fill out the affidavit mentioned above. It was really easy and USEF processed the transfer with no issues after that.
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