# Horse injured on lease clause



## SKB1994 (Sep 28, 2014)

Hi everyone! I've found someone who would like to quarter lease Hawk. This is my first time leasing out my horse, while he has been ridden by close friends I don't know this new leasee aside from meeting them today during a trial ride. I'm working on drafting a contract currently but I've run into a road block on how to phrase an injury/loss of use clause if my horse were to be injured while she was riding or handling him without me there. 
The leasee is a college student, so I don't expect her to buy insurance, especially for her riding him only once and maybe twice a week. Plus I don't think he's valuable enough to insure anyway. I'm concerned that if he were to be injured due to negligence on her part, I don't want to be up ****s creek with a broken down horse while she gets to terminate the lease and walk away from massive vet bills. I don't expect anything to happen as she seems like a very caring and careful young lady, but I'm naturally mistrusting of people and like I said I don't know her. Obviously by negligence I mean crashing him through a jump that's too high for him, putting polos on wrong and having him bow a tendon, galloping over bad terrain and him breaking a leg etc.
Does anyone know how to write this or maybe have an example of how its written in their own lease contracts? I'm having a hard time finding examples. Thank you!


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## mmshiro (May 3, 2017)

"Lessee shall be responsible for ___% of vet bills for injuries sustained while under lessee's control."

That'll help her not to take stupid risks.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

I would contact somebody like Jarvis insurance and find out how much that kind of policy costs and offer to split it with her, if you don't want to make her take out the whole policy. Bottom line is, break it, you buy it. It's your horse and if he is injured while she's riding, regardless of fault, it's YOU who will be out a horse either temporarily or permanently. I wouldn't even consider doing a lease unless they agreed to a policy with me as loss payee.


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## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

I am supet paranoid about insurance as also got a sharer. I have horse insurance and separate rider insurance. I checked with the company - as long as the chick has formal permission to ride and she stays within the share agreement parameters my horse is covered for everything. The having permission and formal share contract ia the important part. The only thing my sharer is not covered for is riders insurance if SHE sustains injury but again... i put in the share agreement that personal riders insurance is her choice and responsibility.

So before writing anything I would check with ur insurance first. I dont expect sharers to pay insurance and frankly i just want my girl covered. Are you just insuring for vet fees - what about liability if your horse damages property or a person etc. Also insured for all uses. As for exempt pre-existing conditions (like they wont pay out for a horse with a known.. leg problem) then I would consider having them contribute 50% of those fees if injury occurs with them at no fault of their own. If it was avoidable or they were doing an activity outside of the agreement then 100% IMO.


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## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

Kalraii said:


> I am supet paranoid about insurance as also got a sharer. I have horse insurance and separate rider insurance. I checked with the company - as long as the chick has formal permission to ride and she stays within the share agreement parameters my horse is covered for everything. The having permission and formal share contract ia the important part. The only thing my sharer is not covered for is riders insurance if SHE sustains injury but again... i put in the share agreement that personal riders insurance is her choice and responsibility.
> 
> So before writing anything I would check with ur insurance first. I dont expect sharers to pay insurance and frankly i just want my girl covered. Are you just insuring for vet fees - what about liability if your horse damages property or a person etc. Also insured for all uses. As for exempt pre-existing conditions (like they wont pay out for a horse with a known.. leg problem) then I would consider having them contribute 50% of those fees if injury occurs with them at no fault of their own. If it was avoidable or they were doing an activity outside of the agreement then 100% IMO.


I don't know how it is in the UK, but here in the US, it would be mighty hard for her to collect any money from a college kid. The insurance is probably around $100-200/year depending on how much coverage there is, WAAAAAAY less than the cost of even 1 vet call.


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## farmpony84 (Apr 21, 2008)

If you are concerned about injury to your horse then leasing it out may not be a great option. I had a kid riding one of my horses under my supervision. She took the horse up on a hill where we had extra siding stacked and backed her into the siding just as I told her to get away from that area. It happened in under a five minute timeframe. Medical expenses were around $10k. I never asked for a dime from the kid and she never came by to check on the horse or offer help. I wasn't really mad at her - she really didn't DO anything wrong other than ride up into an area that was off-limits, but she was walking and didn't "think". It wasn't her being a moron, it wasn't the hrose being stupid, it was me letting a kid ride my horse on my property and it happened....


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## Kalraii (Jul 28, 2015)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> I don't know how it is in the UK, but here in the US, it would be mighty hard for her to collect any money from a college kid. The insurance is probably around $100-200/year depending on how much coverage there is, WAAAAAAY less than the cost of even 1 vet call.



I'm only talking about exempt stuff (and I agree basically no chance of getting an upfront payment). In UK at least from all the insurers I tried I learned they will not insure existing issues. So if I bought Katie and she already had TMJ Disorder they would not pay for literally anything related to her TMJ (and vet has to provide proof). It's these sorts of things I would worry about not the other :< My insurance is 80 quid a month RIP.... but I went for one with a fat allowance and tbh it has already paid for itself SEVERAL times over in what I'd have paid other wise ><


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## 4horses (Nov 26, 2012)

Yes I would be concerned as well. I had a girl up for lessons who ran my horse til exhaustion. All she wanted to do was canter the entire time. Good thing my mare is lazy to begin with! I would hate to see what a rider like that would do on a forward moving horse. Run the horse into the ground probably. 

I think insurance is the way to go here. A college student will not have the money to cover vet bills. If the student can't afford insurance, I would look for a different student who can. Horses are so accident prone to begin with, and it is a huge liability to let anyone ride your horse.


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## SKB1994 (Sep 28, 2014)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> I would contact somebody like Jarvis insurance and find out how much that kind of policy costs and offer to split it with her, if you don't want to make her take out the whole policy. Bottom line is, break it, you buy it. It's your horse and if he is injured while she's riding, regardless of fault, it's YOU who will be out a horse either temporarily or permanently. I wouldn't even consider doing a lease unless they agreed to a policy with me as loss payee.


Thank you for this! I did contact Jarvis for a quote and their rates are quite reasonable. I will probably be insuring him when I get back from vacation regardless of if he is leased or not. I never knew how cheap (relatively speaking) it was, it definitely seems worth it.


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## SKB1994 (Sep 28, 2014)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> Kalraii said:
> 
> 
> > I am supet paranoid about insurance as also got a sharer. I have horse insurance and separate rider insurance. I checked with the company - as long as the chick has formal permission to ride and she stays within the share agreement parameters my horse is covered for everything. The having permission and formal share contract ia the important part. The only thing my sharer is not covered for is riders insurance if SHE sustains injury but again... i put in the share agreement that personal riders insurance is her choice and responsibility.
> ...


I agree, I think I may insure him and have the first months lease include a fee for his insurance once I have him insured. I always figure getting money out of a college kid would be near impossible if he were to get hurt. But at the same time I don’t want a 10k medical and rehab bill solely on my shoulders if she were to cause it insurance seems to be the way to go for sure!


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## SKB1994 (Sep 28, 2014)

farmpony84 said:


> If you are concerned about injury to your horse then leasing it out may not be a great option. I had a kid riding one of my horses under my supervision. She took the horse up on a hill where we had extra siding stacked and backed her into the siding just as I told her to get away from that area. It happened in under a five minute timeframe. Medical expenses were around $10k. I never asked for a dime from the kid and she never came by to check on the horse or offer help. I wasn't really mad at her - she really didn't DO anything wrong other than ride up into an area that was off-limits, but she was walking and didn't "think". It wasn't her being a moron, it wasn't the hrose being stupid, it was me letting a kid ride my horse on my property and it happened....


This is exactly why I want it written into my lease contract. I may have something along the lines of her being aware that the horse is insured and she may be held liable for bills in excess of what insurance would pay if the injury/ illness is caused by negligence on her part. 

Hawk is very healthy and sound, he’s sensible enough to not hurt himself for the most part I think. The potential leasee seems to have a good head on her shoulders and I think will mostly be flatting him in the arena. But like in your situation the girl was told specifically not to ride there prior to the accident happening, ignored the rules and you and your horse had to pay the price while she walked away without ever looking back. I don’t expect anything bad to happen at all with this lease. But I know crap happens and if she were to deliberately breach contract and my horse got hurt... I plan to come after her for it. I expect people to own up to their mistakes.

I should add that I do plan to add guidelines such as no galloping on trail rides, only jumping with a trainer on site, proper warm up and cool down times, etc to try and prevent unnecessary accidents. But IMO if you know the rules and break them and proceed to break my horse... that’s a different story altogether. I don’t want anyone who rides my horse thinking they can be reckless and walk away without a care after breaking him to leave me to pick up the pieces.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

My situation might be a little different, but I have a semi-retired mare here with me on "permanent free lease" as a pasture buddy for my older mare, with the understanding (in writing) that she may be used for occasional trail/limited distance rides. So I am the lessee. Her original owner retains ownership and her papers, but the mare is hanging out here and treated like one of my own horses for the forseeable future. Our injury clause in our contract says:


Care of Horse: Lessee agrees to follow all usual and customary practices for care of horse at Lessee's own expense, to maintain horse in good health and provide any and all necessary and prudent veterinarian and farrier needs at Lessee's cost and at no cost to Owner. If, for any reason the Horse must be euthanized, all costs associated with euthanizing said Horse shall be at Lessee'sexpense. If said Horse should, at any time, become missing, lost, seriously injured,sick or dead,the Lessee shall immediately notify Owner by telephone. All Pre-existing conditions of said horse will be cared for at the Owner's expense.

Risk of Loss: Lessee assumes risk of minor to moderate injury/illness of said horse. Lessee will contact the Owner in the event of any illness or injury within one calendar day.In the event of any singular illness or injury resulting in veterinary fees in excess of $1000the owner will be responsible for any additional fees over the initial $1000. In the event of untimely death of said horse as a result of negligence or mismanagement, Lessee agrees to pay Owner a replacement cost of $_0. Negligence or mismanagement is defined as follows: not providing the basic care necessary, resulting in the death of the horse; or placing the horse in a fatal situation knowingly and/or purposefully,resulting in death of the horse.


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