Finding a suitable loan home - website recommendations?

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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Can anyone recommend a website that they've had success with finding/loaning a horse via? I'm looking at loaning out my young sports horse (bred for eventing but would be equally good for SJ or dressage, and in fact I'd probably prefer he did the latter with a loan home!) and would love to find someone with the time and facilities to have fun on him - he'd be ideal for a working pupil on a competition yard or similar. I've had a few people get in touch who sound perfect but they've been on the other side of the country, and while I don't mind him moving yards I'd rather he stayed in the same corner of the UK really.

Are there any specific websites for loaning? Or does horsequest or similar give good results...?
 
Firstly, where are you?

I am looking for the sort of horse you are talking about. There is a couple word by mouth that I've heard about and will ring up about - one via RC and the other via farrier.

I am also looking at Horsequest, H&H and Horsehunter - Horsequest seems to have the most on for loan horses, so I tend to look there more often than not.
 
i used all the free ads websites like gumtree, oodle etc. i know it doesnt sound like you would find the right kind of people but i found a great girl for my 16.2 dutch warmblood. she is a highly strung showjumper and doing great with her now.
 
Just a word of advice, having loaned out my boy last year and was daft enough to put him on at least three websites.

Choose one, only one, and choose carefully. If you do what I did you will be INUNDATED with every time-waster; fruitloop, and incompetent numpty rider from one end of the country to the other. When you put a horse on a website, first there's this deathly hush, and you worry that no-one's interested, then you suddenly become swamped!!!

Even if you stipulate within your advert that you only want him to stay within say a 20 mile radius, you'll still get people ringing up from the other side of the country - and there's always the risk that not every one of them is genuine.

If I was loaning again I'd use local sources like the local hunt e-mail-a-round system, Pony Club, local tackshops/feedmerchants, etc etc. I certainly wouldn't use a website.

Also you might think about having a questionnare ready to hand for when people ring up, e.g. questions like "riding experience", how long for, have they owned their own horse & if so what type, where have they kept their horse/worked at stables? (ask for a reference), what sort of horse do they like/what disciplines etc etc. It does help to be organised and focussed when people do start to enquire.

There's a lot on HHO archives about loaning; I think there's a place where you can get advice to try & ensure yours isn't stolen on loan (think its called "missing on loan" or something similar).
 
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