[JustDressageIt]

1. What is a reasonable price for an on-farm lease/half lease?
Leases are a completely individual basis. Everyone will have different ideas on lease prices. A lot of it will depend on the caliber of horse - a top-notch schoolhorse will command $1000+/month lease fee, and on top of that you have to take care of the horse's care. Some horses are literally free leases, like what I have set up with my lessee, which I'll explain in a moment.

Basic guidelines:
Part lease: You pay for the care on the days that you ride the horse. For example, if the horse's board is $350/month, that's $11.67/day. If you ride 3 days a week, you pay $35.01/week, or roughly $140/month. Then you negotiate farrier and vet care on top of that - usually with a part lease, the horse's owner will take care of those.
For a full lease, some horse owners will ask for a bit of money each month, and then you pay for 100% of the horse's care on top of that.
What I have with my lessee is a free lease. I pay for Denny's basic care, and if she wants to buy anything above and beyond that, she is welcome to; for example, I will pay up to $350/month in board fees. She opted to keep Denny in a stall, and so pays for anything above and beyond $350/month. The one thing I do have her pay for is insurance.
Clear as mud?


2. What is basic lease etiquette? I don't want to accidentally breach some unwritten rule.
I strongly recommend talking everything through with the potential lessor. I also strongly recommend carrying insurance on the horse for the lease period.

3. When someone asks what "level" rider you are, is there some specific criteria for beginner, intermediate, and experienced that I'm unaware of or is it pretty subjective?? I never know what to say...so I always end up writing them a novel about what I have and haven't done.
Will answer later.

4. Anything else I should look out for/be aware of? I know I should read the agreement carefully, and be very clear about what is expected from me and what I'm responsible to pay for...anything else?
Insurance, insurance, insurance. I can't say it enough. It will give you both peace of mind, and in case the horse does get hurt or sick during your lease, you (or the owner) would only have to pay the deductible (usually a few hundred dollars.) In the event of death, the insurance payout would be considered payment to the owner.

 

[JustDressageIt]

**oops, schoolhorse should be Show horse

I'm glad I could help. I had lots of questions when I was looking to lease Denny out, so the least I could do is pass on the favor!
I've had a fantastic leasing experience thus far. I was extremely nervous going into it, but Denny seems to really like Linda, and vice versa. It has worked REALLY well. I think the reason it has worked so well is that our training ideas are very similar; she won't push Denny any further than what he can give, and she's in it for the training journey, not the destination -- this is VERY important to me.
It also helped that Denny 'chose' Linda. When we first met, Denny had been on stall rest for a few days due to his feet being trimmed too short. We let him run around the arena, and afterwards he came up to me, nuzzled, then went over to Linda and put his head against her chest. It was really cool
The best thing you can do is talk to the owner lots. If you don't click, or have some major training discrepancies, I'd highly advise saying "thanks, but I don't think it's going to work for us" and move on. I think that's where a lot of lease problems stem from, is differences in ideas. I'm also a very laid back owner, so that might help as well haha
I strongly advise getting insurance. If the horse is in an accident or dies in your care, the last thing you want to have to worry about is "do I have to pay for the vet care and/or loss?" -- With insurance, you just have to negotiate who pays the deductible.
My best piece of advice is getting EVERYTHING in writing.
Do you want to sh