Loaning and sharing - explain.

[sjames86]

I was having a discussion with a lady on the yard who said i was either very brave or very crazy to have bought my own horse without ever loaning or sharing first.

So it got me thinking and i know nothing about loaning or sharing and want to plug that knowledge gap.

Can someone explain what happens when you loan or share a horse.

 

[Daisy_Roots]

loaning is when you pay for the day to day running costs of a horse, you organise it's care, DIY = you or full = you pay for it.
You treat it as if it was your own horse. There are short term loans, owner is pregnant or at university etc, loans with view to buy, ie if you like the horse and the owner is happy with your standards, after a set amount of time you buy the horse, or long term loan, for whatever reason the owner can no longer look after the horse, but to give it some security they loan rather than sell.

Sharing is where the owner either wants to lessen her work with the horse or have help with the bills. Sharing is a very individual arrangement between owner and sharer, regarding how many days, how much work and how much it will cost.

 

[ladiva]

The share i have just started (and hopefully will continue) is 3 times a week for £25. Owner just wants someone to exercise horse, but i want to help out with all the other bits like mucking out etc. In return she has said she will give me lessons but to be honest i dont expect that as the dirty side of it is part and parcel. I will happily pay extra for lessons, or get someone else to teach me.

 

[TEmily]

I think sharing is a really good way of getting some experience, as you are usually quite well supervised by the owner, and because you are picking up their routine you don't have all the worry of deciding how you are going to do things on your own.

 

[Sofi P]

full loan is where you take full responsibility of looking after the horse but you dont own it. Specific vary from owner to owner, some say the horse has to stay on their yard, some will pay for some aspects of the care like farrier, vets, insurance.

A part loan and share are pretty much the same thing and vary hugely. Usually it involves riding/ looking after another person's horse for x number of days a week, either set days or ad hoc. Could be that the owner has more than one horse so needs help with the exercise or they might just want help with the costs and to be able to have a night off!

I have my horse on full loan, the owner is a good friend who was going traveling for 6 months and had planned to sell her horse but chickened out and sent her to me instead. She still pays farrier, vets and insurance and I pay everything else with the horse at my yard 100miles away from where she lives. She's back from travelling now but has bought another horse so Ruud is staying with me for the time being! Works for me though as I can afford to keep a horse but it would take me a while to save up to buy one, plus I have plans to travel/ work abroad myself so it's nice to have the option of sending my horse home if needed!

The negative side of loaning is when the loanee does loads of work on a horse and then an owner wants it back. Or a loanee neglects a horse and the owner has their horse ruined. Or loan horse disappears... takes a lot of trust on both sides to work well!

 

[Happy Hacker 01]

I agree with all already said. I started sharing my loan horse, initially on a twice weekly basis, which then increased to 4 times per week, and I now have him on full loan as his owner (who's become a good friend through sharing Shads) wanted to move on to a more advanced horse, which she also has on full loan, in order to compete at a higher level in dressage.

I pay for everything, livery, feed, vet, insurance, farrier etc.

A good tip is to get a loan (or share) agreement drawn up between the two parties, no matter how well you know the other person. This is just to ensure that each side knows where they stand, who pays for what, any tack/rugs that are included in the loan etc

 

[sjames86]

thanks for the info - interesting to read.

My mum did suggest i had a go at loaning first but i didnt like the idea of being responsible for someone elses horse, i would rather make a few mistakes with my own pony than do anything wrong with someone elses.

Completely off topic but i finally got back on her for a ride today, she was much better than i expected, i was very pleased. Can't wait to hack out

 

[B.O.B.]

We bought our own without loaning or sharing first. The reason for not loaning was the same as you, and the reason for not sharing is that one of the main points of having a horse (for us) is being able to ride when we want!