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Free lease. Yay or Nay?

2K views 28 replies 16 participants last post by  Yogiwick 
#1 ·
:?I have recently had the opportunity to free lease a fancily bred pony. The guy lost his pastures and has huge herds so I will have my pick :D The only requirement is that I have to commit to actually training, riding, or helping out with foals depending on which I pick. (There are stallions, geldings, mares, broodmares, foals, prego mares, etc, some trained, some not trained) Would you do it?
 
#3 ·
i'll be the skeptic cautious one here.

be sure you have the time to be able to commit to handling a large number of horses. sounds like this guy wants you to help train in exchange for leasing one horse for free. you could spend all day working his horses only to have no time left to ride or work your lease.

if the guy lost his pastures, how is he going to house the horses? does the owner have the budget available to feed them all hay? is he on the verge of bankrupt and you'll be falling in love with one of his horses only for it to be sold away in short term? i know, that's very pessimistic, but you have to think of the situation from all angles, not just from your own. also, if the owner can't afford to feed his horses, will that fall on you due to association?

get a clear cut contract/agreement in place so you don't end up getting the short end of the stick in this deal.
 
#4 ·
It sounds like a good opportunity but make sure you get an agreement in writing as to what each party expects from the other and that covers who is responsible for the care/vet/farrier of the horse you lease and that covers insurance for YOU for working with the other horses.

You want to make sure all the bases are covered in case of injury to you, your lease horse AND the horses you are working with.
 
#5 ·
I see alarms here. To many demands of what he wants, how many horses are you expected to train ? If you take one horse, feed it, train it, cal lthat the free lease.
the others ... well, I would want to know why he lost his pasture, what he plans to do with the ponies. I would state, sign over whatever ponies you want, in exchange for training one, one for one type of deal. Also get it in writing who will be purchasing all the feed, farrier and Vet Bills.
 
#7 ·
This to me sounds like a bad idea. If this guy knew what he was doing he would have another plan. Its one of those ideas that when you are young and really into horses sounds like a good idea. Than as you age and get jaded it just seems like someone without knowledge looking for someone to do the work. The problem is that they don't know how or who to hire to do the job.

As yourself this, do you have experience training from the ground up? Do you have experience with stallions, brood mares, mares, foals, weanlings, yearlings? If not, does this seem like a safe environment to learn in (hint: it does not because you need a professional to work with). Can you address and correct problem behaviors: bucking, rearing, not wanting to go forward, wanting to go to fast, difficult to saddle, walking off while mounting etc. If you answered Yes to all of these questions and parts of questions than why aren't you getting paid in something more than horse? The answer is either you don't know enough, the owner does not know enough or you don't value your time/life.
 
#11 ·
Put everything in writing. You may want to consider that part of the agreement be that you have first choice at purchase in the future for x money. You have other horses and will be putting a lot of time and money into it. How long to lease? If you train, feed, shoes, vet, etc., and he wants to get back into horses or sale the horse. Even a friendly agreement needs to be written down.
 
#12 ·
Not to be a negative nelly, but I suppose there are plenty of different ways you can look at this arrangement and you would want to make sure to have everything in writing. A lot will depend as you as a person, how happy will you be when you put 12 months training into a horse who you are inevitably going to bond with for the owner to see the $$ signs and want to sell. What happens then?

Are you offered first refusal to buy? And if so at what value do you have on the horse as you are the one who had trained it.

If you aren't to buy - do you get commission in the fact that you have greatly increased the value of the horse?

Do you have the knowledge and ability to bring on a horse? Is there a chance you could get hurt, and is there a chance he could come back at you for "ruining" his horse?

DO you have the facilities, experienced horse people and equipment required?

What happens if the horse is seriously injured in your care? Who is responsible for vet bills? What happens if the horse is badly injured and needs to be PTS? WHo makes this call?

While it may be a fantastic learning opportunity for you, you need to think of the bigger picture and cover your backside in as many circumstances as possible.
 
#16 ·
Yeah I am not sure about this.

People often lease out their horse in the hope that it gets some training. It can work out okay, but it can also result in someone (you) doing heaps of training only to find the horse being sold at a large profit, with none of it coming to you.

I guess that's why most "fair" leases are for a horse that is already trained, that the owner can't look after for a period of time.
 
#19 ·
I say go for it! Last year I free leased a horse with similar arrangements and it worked great =) I also took lessons from her owner and I learned a lot the horse and respect exercises.
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#20 ·
If you are not in a position to buy outright I would ask if he'll do a "lease to own," since you're worried about getting attached and not wanting to give the pony up. Otherwise prepare yourself to give free training and have him sell the horse for profit. Not saying it will happen, but it could. Things are usually a bit more legal when money changes hands. Definitely need a contract, as well.
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#23 ·
So what happens if you don't want it anymore? If he has no pasture surely he can't take it back so basically you are stuck with it. Or what if you do great things with it then he takes it back to sell on at a huge profit? I am all for a lease (i have two on lease atm) but this one is ringing alarms
 
#25 ·
Well, we went and looked at them. I really liked the pony we would be taking, but I am thinking we aren't going to do it. :/ After we got there, he started talking about how we would have to keep shoes on her all the time. (We only shoe when we are going for long rides or in the mountains) and how he would want to see me ride every so often, or his grandkids might want to come ride her a lot and she should always have shoes on so that his grandkids could come take her in the mountains whenever they wanted. I'm sorry, but if the pony is on a free lease at my pasture, I'm pretty sure that means she is for us to ride...we feed, we ride. Not, we feed, we sometimes ride but he rides too... don't know if I am just being selfish or not, but I'm not up for that.
 
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