Good side of loaning

benson21

benson21

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After reading all of the horror stories about having a horse on loan, I thought it was a bout time for some positives!
It was 2001 when my OH was pursuded into allowing me a horse. I met Benson at the begining of December, rode him in his field, and fell in love! 3 weeks later he came to the livery yard, where he lived happily and contently for the rest of his life. He was 15 when we got him, on a full long term loan from his owner.
Benson took both me and OH from very very nervous novices, through our first lessons where we were too scared to cantered round the corners of the school (!!!!!!) to riding on the beach, at the racecourse, and round a fair few hunter trials!
He made us. We loved him as though he was ours, we couldnt of felt more for him if we had paid a million pounds.
So please, anyone who is thinking of loaning their horse out, dont just read about the horror stories, remember, there are good people who loan as well.
 
That's so lovely to hear. Given that I am one of those posting a 'potential horror story' I will add some balance and say that I agree entirely. I think the lady who has my horse is slack at keeping in touch (see other post!) but he is happy and when I do hear from her, she is full of praise and adores him.

I would always only let them go close to home, and would do everything possible to find a loaner highly recommended and with references. And do appreciate a good loaner if you have one; they are looking after a horse you can't or don't want to keep for whatever reason, but you still have the option to have the horse back. This isn't actually a bad deal in my book - too many people think that loaners have an easy time because they got a 'free' horse and forget the work and expense they do incur.

Thanks Benson. xx
 
benson21 said:
After reading all of the horror stories about having a horse on loan, I thought it was a bout time for some positives!
It was 2001 when my OH was pursuded into allowing me a horse. I met Benson at the begining of December, rode him in his field, and fell in love! 3 weeks later he came to the livery yard, where he lived happily and contently for the rest of his life. He was 15 when we got him, on a full long term loan from his owner.
Benson took both me and OH from very very nervous novices, through our first lessons where we were too scared to cantered round the corners of the school (!!!!!!) to riding on the beach, at the racecourse, and round a fair few hunter trials!
He made us. We loved him as though he was ours, we couldnt of felt more for him if we had paid a million pounds.
So please, anyone who is thinking of loaning their horse out, dont just read about the horror stories, remember, there are good people who loan as well.
Click to expand...

We don't wish to put anyone off loaning, but at the moment we are receiving one to two cases A DAY, i loaned my first 3 horses and never had a problem. Done correctly there should be no problems but in this current economic climate there are dealers preying on people being unable to keep their horses and we recognise that people get desperate and find a home and some of these people are offering a home for life with fantastic facilities etc only to find they are not real.

We would never wish to put anyone off and we offer advice on loaning.
 
I have had two very happy loans. Both of them were horses I had on loan, I loved them like my own. I had a very happy relationship with both owners and everything was just peachy :)
 
benson21 said:
After reading all of the horror stories about having a horse on loan, I thought it was a bout time for some positives!
It was 2001 when my OH was pursuded into allowing me a horse. I met Benson at the begining of December, rode him in his field, and fell in love! 3 weeks later he came to the livery yard, where he lived happily and contently for the rest of his life. He was 15 when we got him, on a full long term loan from his owner.
Benson took both me and OH from very very nervous novices, through our first lessons where we were too scared to cantered round the corners of the school (!!!!!!) to riding on the beach, at the racecourse, and round a fair few hunter trials!
He made us. We loved him as though he was ours, we couldnt of felt more for him if we had paid a million pounds.
So please, anyone who is thinking of loaning their horse out, dont just read about the horror stories, remember, there are good people who loan as well.
Click to expand...

Great to read good things about loaning on here! Go Benson! Sounds like you really found your perfect horse :D

I got my first horse on loan around 16months ago. I was a novice when it came to keeping horses, despite having ridden for 13 years previous to that. I was messed around a lot with the frist horse i was meant to be having on LWVTB. I then found an advert online for a beautiful 17hh WBxTB. I was very reluctant to contact them but my OH, at the time, persuaded me to do so and the next weekend I went to meet Quin. I fell in love with him instantly. I had a little ride and I have never felt so at home on a horse. We had a chat and arranged for me to go back up the next weekend, have another ride and see if I still liked him. After the 2nd ride, all I could think about was Quin and knew he was the horse for me. The following sunday he came down to his new home with me and, despite the ups and downs we've had, it's honestly been the best 16months! He has taught me so much, from looking after horses to building my confidence up when riding and teaching me to trust the horse more. We've got the strongest bond I've ever had with a horse. Although his owner and me dont keep in contact, in the sense of phoning or emailing or whatever, i keep them updated with how he is via FB and always inform her if I have had to have the vet out for any reason and keep her updated with his progress. We didn't really go about the loan in the right way as no contract was drawn up (and i know now it should have been for both of our sakes!) we had more of a verbal contract.

i got my 2nd loan pony 10months ago as a companion for Quin. A contract was drawn up and I always keep her owner updated with how she is via FB as well and she also came down to visit her last week. she too has taught me a lot, that not all horses are the same and that, even though you think you know your horse, they are still very unpredictable and always have the ability to suprise you! They have both really built my confidence up around different types of horses so i owe a lot to them for that!
 
My mare (who was talented but quirky when she was younger) went out on loan when she was 7 (when I became unable to ride her due to a dodgy hip) and came home to retire @ 20. She and her loanee moved to the other end of the country but I still kept in touch / visited when I could. They had a fantastic time together doing a lot of showing, hacking & dressage & my girl was wonderfully well cared for. I still sendmy ex loanee updates re how 'baggage' is doing 10 years later. Loaning can work really well if you get the right person and are clear about what you want out of the arrangement. My loanee got a horse she could not have afforded to buy and I got the satisfaction of knowing my mare was well looked after & out doing all the things I couldn't do with her.
 
Its nice to know some loans go well, but Id never dare to loan a horse out, its just too scary! Id rather just reluctantly sell and not have the worry hanging over me, which it would :)
 
My first loan ponies went very smoothly! Never had a bad experience loaning.
First pony, Lucky, was great! Gave me so much confidence! It was only a part loan, so I wasn't expected to deal with vets bills or anything (I was only 6, so parents did most of it! I also had very had asthma at the time, so I couldn't even groom :()
Sadly, he had an episode of colic and then was retired from work, but they happily exchanged him for a new pony.
William was so fun, he was like a dog! You could tell him to stay, then call him and he'd canter over. He was sold soon after I got him (not by me, by owners) and they replaced him with Tessa. She was a little madam! She knocked my confidence a bit and the owners picked up on this and offered me one last pony, Snowy!
He was nice enough, but such a plod!! Soon after getting Snowy, for some reason (I don't know, I was 7 at this point) the owners had to give up all the loan agreements, but I could still ride there.
Anyway, I was happy with everything that went on and my parents never complained!

I'm going to be getting my first loan horse in years soon :D I'm excited! I doubt anything bad will happen as he's not moving yards and the owner will be there on hand if anything does happen! I've been with her since I was 9 and I'm her best customer (And a good friend!), so I don't expect she'll try anything sneeky with me. We've come to a good arrangement that we both benefit from :D
 
My sister and I have a small herd, so good stories as both the loaner and the loanee!

We've had 2 on loan for a friend of mine who's too short to ride ours. The first was a lovely 18 year old mare, who was skin and bone when she arrived, but quickly improved and was worth her weight in gold as a first horse. She was with us a year and went back to the owner as she started to slow down and the rider started to speed up. Saw the owner once in the year.

The second little mare we have now is coming up for a year. She came from 1.5hrs away, but the owners wanted her to go to an adult rider. We went to try her once, they saw our yard the day they dropped her off and haven't seen them since, though keep in touch on FB.

My hairy boy was a loan with a veiw to sell for the owner, with a pre-agreed price up front that she wanted for him. However, when I fell in love with him and wanted to keep him she dropped the price down as she was so pleased he was staying, so everyone was very happy.

We've a big grey who's just got a few screws loose who's been out on loan twice, since he was just sitting in a field wasted! The first time was 3 months over the summer to a girl we knew. He's now been with a girl just over 2 hours away in the lorry, who we don't know. Day 3 we got a call from her vets asking for permission to give him a GA. OMG! He managed to slice his leg up escaping their really nice post and rail fields to go play with the ponies, not like he'd ever field hopped before. Horses!!! We have the insurance, she paid for the excess/travel etc.

He's been with her just over 3 months. Given that in the first 2 weeks he spent longer in the vets than he did at her yard, and she couldn't ride him for 6, and he's still there and looking fab can't fault her. I will confess we did very nearly drive down the night he injured himself, but nothing we could have done anyway and she's been fab with him. Going up this month (and taking our boys as she has fab hacking!) for a ride, but we're updated via FB and so far so good.

I think the loans that work match the right horse with the right person AND the right owner and the right contract, with a trial period that means you can walk away with no hard feelings and enough time to get to know the person you are loaning to. The girl who has our big grey came and saw him 5 times at our yard and brought her instructor once (her idea) before we let him go. Ok, doesn't cover everything, but we had an offer for a home about 25 mins away, but she didn't have time to come see him more than once... Was quite an easy choice for us and so far so good.
 
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Here here!

I was just thinking about doing a positive loaner thread.

As I have my beloved Sec A Sid out on loan to a lovely family, I get almost daily reports and weekly photos. I couldn't be happier even though I miss him everyday.

We also have a pony on loan who has slotted in and is doing a great job of teaching my daughter all he knows and I'm trying to persuade his owners to sell him to us as I can't imagine the yard without him now.
 
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