What to charge for a saddle rental?

[saffire_100]

One of my boarders has an older Arab gelding and his saddle to longer fits him. In fact, she has been told by the massage therapist not to use it any longer.

I have a few spare saddles that I’ve been meaning to sell so I offered to let her try one. My saddle works for the horse but has a more shallow seat than she is comfortable with for long-term use.

She wants to rent the saddle off me for a few months so she is not time-pressured to find a saddle that fits him. He will be difficult to fit as he is a really short-backed little guy and it took her a long time to find the one she currently has.

What would be reasonable charge per month?

The saddle was about $2k new and I’m going to be selling it for about $1200 used.

Thanks in advance.

[nu2u]

I understand you are trying to help, but renting a saddle seems like opening the door for disaster…the unimaginable kind of freak accident you only see in movies damaging the saddle or you having to turn away potential buyers. Let her ride in it a few more times to see if she gets used to the seat maybe but basically if you can ride in a saddle for months you can ride in it for long enough to buy it and being used have a pretty good chance of reselling it if your “dream saddle” ever comes along in the future.

[OveroHunter]

I leased my gelding off site and he’s super hard to fit so I pretty much had to lease his saddle out along with him. I think I ended up charging about $50 a month and wrote into the contract the saddle was worth $2,000 and if there was any damage that is what they would owe me.

[CHT]

The $50 a month sounds fair to me too. Have a buyout clause that is either the $1200 or $1200 less the rental payments (or something in between)…just in case she decides to buy it.

[saffire_100]

Thanks for your input. Good idea about the buyout clause.