Lease

Hi ....
At my riding stables my riding teacher charlie had just sold her 10yr old male tb called ozzy. he recently came back after 3 months of being with his new owners as they thought he was permantly lame . Charlie asked me if i could ride him and keep him fit as she is pregnant :).He has been going reallly well and 2 chropracters have been and so has the vet and farrier and no signs of lameness ... so charlie asked if i wanted to lease him ... it is $280 nzd for i year = any vet bills as i do not have to pay for boarding or feed ... which is good :)he seems perfect ... but mum and dad are saying no... i dont know why ..?? i have tried asking why but they just say they dont want to talk about it . ?? any help would be much apreciated :) ...
and sorry if you guys think .. ohh noo another person moaning about not having a horse but i didnt know what else to do i really need advice :)

thanks :)

I'm not sure how old you are, but a lot of children don't realize that money does not grow on trees. Your parents work very hard for their money, but they may not be able to afford a horse. Horses are VERY expensive, even when just leasing. Vet emergencies can get VERY VERY VERY VERY expensive, running sometimes in the thousands of dollars for a single vet call, an expense most non horse people can't justify.

If your parents said no, and they don't want to talk about it anymore, then it means no - and begging them isn't going to change their mind, it'll just irritate them more.

I would (if you are old enough) get a part time job and start saving so that you can buy or lease your own horse one day when you are old enough to pay for everything yourself.

it really depends on why they have said no....if its about money then getting a part-time job is a good idea. then approach your parents with the idea again. there are also other reasons that they may have said no though. maybe they don't think you are ready for the responsibility and the long term commitment. Have you given that thought yourself? sometimes there are going to be things that you really really want to do but that you can't do because your horse needs to be fed or rode or needs his stall cleaned, etc. Maybe its because they don't feel that you've had enough riding lessons? IDK...but its tough to help without knowing the reasons.

Without knowing the reason why you parents will no allow you to lease it is very hard to give advice like others have stated. If you could find out the reason just ask your parents without complaining if they can explain to you why they feel leasing is not a good idea. Once they tell you then drop it and don't go any further with it. The more you ask and complain with them the stronger there no will be.

They may have very good reasons for there answer and you might not see it that way, parents really do see the bigger picture. When I was younger I always thought my parents were just being brats when they said no to something, but now that I look back on things I am happy it worked out that way.

Remember leasing is a huge responsibility and you might miss out on alot of things in life because you have to tend to your horse for whatever reason. Just because you don't own him doesn't mean you are not fully responsible. If Ozzy gets hurt and needs care - say he get a bad wound and needs cleaned and bandaged 2-3 times a day (which has happened to me before) will you be able to make it out to the farm and take care of him that much?

I think you said you are responsible for vet bills - do you have a good amount of money saved up? Remember vet bills don't mean worming, shots, teeth done etc. - it also means any injuries and illnesses. What if Ozzy got kicked by another horse and was injured - do you have money saved for the vet, xrays if needed, etc.?

Vet bills are very very expensive and they will add up very quickly, before you know it you will owe lots and lots of money. Remember anything can happen to a horse and I mean anything at all - even a completely healthy horse can all of a sudden have problems. One of my horses that I owned for over 2 years was a completely healthy horse - never needed a vet for anything other then routine stuff. One day all of a sudden out of the blue he got really ill - he had tests out the butt, the vet had to do a bunch of different things, given many different drugs. I needed the vet called out over 10 times for him and nothing seemed to help. The vets were all stumped and still are. He is much better now, but still not 100%. This went on for a good 6 months as he would get better and worse and better and worse. Anyway, in all that time and all the vet work I had spent over 6,000$ on him and he still isn't 100%. I had to go into my savings in order to pay for it. To this day he is still on very expensive drugs that are ordered from the vet which is another 400 per month and he has been getting these for 6 months now and we are no looking to stop these drugs anytime soon.

I don't mean to harp on you or sound like I am taking your parents side or anything like that, I just want you to be prepared and know what all would be involved here. There are so many other things to consider. You can't just say I can afford the monthly cost so why not - remember there is a living and breathing animal that you need to think about also.

thanks for your help ... i am 13 . I will take your advice thanks alot :)