Loaning problems, advice urgently needed

[PeterF]

Hi all, an all too common problem I'm afraid but one that hasn't affected us before. My daughter had a horse on full livery at a yard and decided to sell because of other committments. The male owner of the yard asked to buy her but as money was tight, could he defer payment for six months. A contract was drawn up regarding the terms, loanee was responsible for insurance, farrier and all feed and vet costs until the payment was complete six months down the line. Anyway, six months later, no money, he has had a bad time and was unable to pay but promised it in full if we gave him an extra 4 weeks. Still no money but the scenarion was begining to unfold. He has had my daughters horse running with the stallion for the last 4 months and as my daughter has been away, she was unaware of this. I told him we would be taking the horse, a thorougbred 15.3 mare away as he obviously had no intention of buying her. I was amazed at his attitude, he refused and said he wouldn't allow us to take the horse unless we paid full livery for the last 8 months and if a foal was born, he demanded the right to come and take it away. Now comes the best bit, when I pointed out the terms of the contract and how he had broken just about every point, he said, I didn't read the contract and trusted you not to mess me about after doing you a favour! The horse is in a massive field approximately 20-25 acres and is running not only with the stallion, but a small herd and I'm afraid to say she has been impossible to catch. If we could manage to put a lead rope over her, no problem, I would simply turn up with a box and lift her. The legal option seems to be the only way but from what I have been told, the yard owner is no stranger to litigation and knows how to get around things. A problem I know, any thoughts would be very welcome.
Pete.

 

[AmyMay]

You'll get more response to this by posting in New Lounge.

 

[squiz22]

What a complete nightmare.

First, if he is in breech of the contract they you should be within your right to take your horse back.
If you mare is in foal you are legally allowed to claim for the vet costs of the pregnancy and birth and he has no claim over the foal.

Have you got the contact details of the other horse owners who keep theirs in the herd? It may require some coordination but you could have the others caught so you can retrieve your mare.

You are also well within your rights to call the police and take them down with you. It would be good if you still had your mares passport too. You could also called the RSPCA and have one of their officers there.

I have not experienced this before but the last livery yard treated me and a number of others very badly. One lady could not get her pony back when she loaned it to them for lessons. Now she wants it back (it was very thin and poorly looked after) they are saying she owes various livery charges and are basically holding the pony to ransom!

However, they owed me money for separate reasons and thought they could bully me like they did her. I took them through the small claims court and received 100% of my money back.
This man sounds like a typical bully that is throwing his weight around you simply need to be patient and out smart him in the correct and legal way which you are able to do so as he is at fault.

Personally, I'd turn up with the police/RSPCA officer, catch all the other horses if required and quite simply take mine away from there. Surely, having a stallion running around in a herd with other peoples horses is enough to alarm the owners/RSPCA officers?

Best of luck - keep us posted on your progress.