Horse lease agreement

About this document

Leasing your horse or pony is a good way of letting someone benefit from keeping it, reducing costs of ownership and possibly training the animal to a higher standard than you may be able to achieve.

You might use this agreement to loan a young, energetic horse for eventing to an upcoming youth rider who will give it national competition experience as well as feeding, stabling and caring for it. Or you may have a pony that requires recreational riding for exercise but no-one to ride it. Leasing it might be a solution that reduces the cost to you of upkeep, allow someone else to enjoy riding (maybe including at local shows), and keep the pony fit and healthy.

This template is designed to form the basis of an agreement that suits your exact arrangement. It covers a number of possible uses: including general riding, eventing, jumping, and showing. The value of the animal could be high or low, the lease amount paid could be any amount and the term could be measured in months or years.

Your arrangement may be for full board, where the borrower pays for stabling, feed and veterinary costs, or you may agree to split some costs in some proportion between you both.

A well drawn legal agreement protects you and the horse. Importantly, if there are any disagreements, having the terms of the lease written down allows you to refer back to what you agreed and resolve potential disputes before they arise.

To make your life easy, we have provided multiple options in many areas including responsibilities for care and maintenance, payment of the lease, options for buy-out at the end of lease, participation in competitions, insurance obligations and much more. By and large, you can set the terms you want.

The document should be edited so that it reflects exactly how your deal works. Our guidance notes will tell you what you can change safely, and what we don't advise changing.

Application and features

• Comprehensive agreement suitable for a horse or pony
• Suitable whether the horse is for eventing, jumping, dressage or cross country
• The term of the lease can be as long or short as you like. We suggest a short period so that the contract can be renewed and terms (such as the lease amount) updated
• The document allows use of several schedules to record the detail of the agreement. This keeps the "legal" wording of the commercial transaction separate to the "subject matter", creating an agreement that is easier to read, amend and reuse.
• Written in plain English
• With explanatory guidance notes

Contents

• Full description of the horse - subject matter of lease
• Warranties and exclusion by the owner
• Testing and checking of horse by the lessee and conditions of acceptance
• Prohibition on selling and subletting
• Termination or premature termination
• Optional provision for insurance
• Responsibilities of lessee for care and maintenance;
• Options that lessee shall compete in specified competitions;
• Supply to buyer of documents and record of achievement;
• Buy-out provision
• Owner’s right to inspect horse during lease and many other strong provisions on owner’s rights
• Set of lessee’s obligations
• Lessee to indemnify owner
• Various legal matters to protect your interests.

Alternative to this document

Use this agreement if you are lending your horse or pony to a friend or family members on simple terms, or where you have a high level trust with the borrower.