The pros and cons of sharing a horsebox

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mar2505

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There is a lovely little box for sale up the road and a girl and my yard and myself are talking about buying it between us.
We would both want to go to the same shows and do the same type of thing and currently have no way of getting there and thought this would keep the cost down. The box holds 2 horses and we are both in our 40s so quite sensible.

Doe anyone have any pros and cons they can tell me about as we are really keen but I am now scared of making that jump if it all goes wrong.
we have agreed that if wither wants to sell ,one buys the other out or we sell it in total ie not sell a half share.
 
personally wouldn't do it as have seen it go wrong. But if you trust each other then poss worth considering?
Other bits to have a think about:
you mention buying back if one wanted out - how would the value be calculated?
What would happen if one horse caused damage - ensure the owner of that horse would cough up. Def make sure each of your horses travels well so one of them doesn't regularly trash it!
Going places individually - make sure lorry is not left empty of petrol!
Do you both have a similar idea of budget and essentials for the lorry?
Make sure that each person can't use the lorry for gain by travelling other horses.
Do each of you have a similar view to how you look after your stuff and how you drive when travelling the horses? You don't want a situation where one of you really values it and keeps it clean and looked after, and the other one is less careful and leaves it in a mess and scratched etc.
Make sure you both know the cost of mot / insurance / road tax / breakdown / repairs / new tyres etc so you can both be sure you are able to meet your share of the cost and it doesn't come as a nasty shock! If one of you isn't able to meet half of the cost of one of the bills, then what?
Sorry, just read back and it sounds really negative, didn't mean it like that! Just think that things are much more easily discussed and sorted out in advance of any potential issues! Hope you get it sorted well and enjoy getting out and about!
 
I do agree about the negatives. The other lady wants me to drive as she is not confident driving and we have loaded both horses so they seem happy enough. We said that if one of us leave the yard we would keep it in cheapest place and share for a year then review situation. Has anyone ever drawn up a contract for this sort of thing??
 
Is it a lorry or trailer?

I can see problems but also that it could be a great solution to your problems. I think you should definitely draw up a contract though that deal with all the potential issues.

Think about what would happen if one of you wanted out and the other couldn't afford to buy you out.

Think about what happens if there is conflict about where you want to go.

What about costs of repairs etc? What if one of you has an accident? What if it is stolen or vandalised? What about accidental non-fault damage like one of the horses damaging the interior?

Who drives? If it is a trailer will you both have towing vehicles?

Will you allow each other to take another friend out if your horse doesn't need to go out?

What if one stops going out (say due to horse injury) are they still supposed to pay half of the costs? What if that person wants to sorn it and the other wants to keep it on the road?

I think if you get everything worked out up front and are honest and sensible it could work!
 
I know 2 people who did this succesfully for a number of years.

Things have now gone pear shape, so strongly recommend that you put something in writing about dissolving the partnership.
 
Is it a 3.5? If it is, then take it to a weighbridge and check how much payload is left to carry two horses. These boxes can normally take two ponies or smaller horses, but not larger.
 
I kind of shared a lorry once. It was a friends and my horse stopped travelling in my trailer. I contributed towards the costs (though not full half) and always left it full of petrol, and in general it worked very well. Tbh I got a brilliant deal out of it, she was paying quite a bit more than me. I think in this circumstance I'd want in writing who will pay for maintenance, insurance and any repairs to be made on the lorry during use. Make sure you specifiy for both breakdown repairs (like a broken windscreen wiper) and repairs caused by someones horse. They may both travel fine now, but that can suddenly change in an instant.

As we were both on the yard we made up a diary and wrote down our planned outings. As it was, nothing coincided as she chose not to compete much that year. As she was very much the owner I would always have conceeded the lorry to her. What will you do if this happens to you? Maybe next year you'll find yourself moving up to BS (if it's showjumping you do) and she'll be wanting to stay unaffiliated. Things may work out smoothly now, but things also have a habit of changing. I'd get a plan down for this sot of scenario.

My friend left the yard a while ago. At this point, my horse had developed an incurable lameness and was about to be pts, so it didn't affect me that the lorry was removed from our yard. She left quite suddenly, however. Its great that you have a buy it all or sell your share already planned, but what will you do if one wants to sell, the other can't afford to buy, and the lorry doesn't sell? I know someone who's had a for sale lorry for 6 months before finally selling it. What happens then? Secondly, I'd also include a written notice in the contract so if things do turn frosty, the other person can't turn round and say I'm selling it, you have a week to get the money or sell it.

Not trying to cast any assertions on your friend, who I'm sure wouldn't do such a thing. Just reflecting on the experience I had made me think of these things.

I think if everything is clear cut black and white, it could be a good solution, especially if you two are fairly accustomed to each others ways already :)
 
Thats a point, can someone explain payload to me. it is a 3.5tonne lorry my horse weighs 600kg from weight tape and hers 515kg, how do we know what weight wtc is safe.
 
mar2505 said:
Thats a point, can someone explain payload to me. it is a 3.5tonne lorry my horse weighs 600kg from weight tape and hers 515kg, how do we know what weight wtc is safe.
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To be honest I doubt if you will have sufficient payload to carry both horses, yourselves & tack etc without going overweight. You need to find out what the vehicle weight, take it to a weighbridge. When you get the weight certificate subtract that weight from 3.5 tons & that will give you payload. Many of these vehicles are lucky to have 1.2 tons & that is not enough for carrying your two horses. Assuming your horse weights are right that amounts to 1115kg leaving you only 85 kg left to carry each of you, tack, water, hay etc etc.....as I said I don't think you will be able to carry both horses. I believe 3.5 ton lorries are designed really for one large horse or 2 ponies.

You'll know more once you have weighed the lorry.....DO NOT BUY WITHOUT HAVING A WEIGHT CERTIFICATE FIRST!!!!! otherwise you will be wasting your money & have a totally unsuitable vehicle. ;)

Also if you are caught overweight the fine I think is up to £5000 & you cannot continue with your journey, horses have to be unloaded, other transport arranged...an absolute nightmare.
 
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I did this with friends, but it was a trailer.

When my friend's daughter gave up riding & she no longer wanted it we sold it, but I already had my eyes on a newer Ifor Williams which I then bought. She used it in summer for shows & I used it in winter to hunt.

We put the older trailer on ebay, but ended up selling it privately & both parties were happy with the price which we had agreed in advance. We had it for 6 years & it cost us £350 each during that time. (Difference between price paid & what we sold it for divided by two.)
 
mar2505 said:
Thats a point, can someone explain payload to me. it is a 3.5tonne lorry my horse weighs 600kg from weight tape and hers 515kg, how do we know what weight wtc is safe.
Click to expand...

if the GVW is 3.5 tonne then the gross vehicle weight of 3.5 tonne or 3500kgs is the maximum you can take this vehicle on the road weighing. That includes the vehicle, horses, tack, haynets, feed , driver and any passengers, boots, picnics, rugs and whatever else you normally take to a show. Dont forget if you take a container of water this is heavy. As Tinypony said you probably will not be able to carry 2 large horses.

I think there was a useful article in H & H recently about this.

It really is worth checking out as if stopped by VOSA and
found to weigh over 3500 kgs then someone is riding home as they will not let the vehicle move until the weight is taken off.

The only reliable way to check this is to take it to a weighbridge and weigh it. Councils usually have a list available on the website. Other good places to find one are quarries or scrap yards.

A lot of small boxes can be 4 tonne and even 6 tonne GVW so check out the different types.
 
Darn it, that doesn't sound good. These little lorries are great because they are so easy to drive, but as the other said, it's probably not going to do the job you need. Some are uprated to 3.9 t, but they are rare. You need to take it to a weighbridge, don't take anyone's word about it, because depending on how they are fitted out their weight will vary.
 
Sharing/borrowing can be fraught. My 7.5 tonne took heavy damage from someone who borrowed it who then claimed 'not to have noticed'. Fortunately it was just before it was 'drydocked' for a major overhaul. Anyway that is an aside.
The weight issue is the one that you have trouble with, that said dont rule out looking at a 7.5 tonne. The more modern ones are no more difficult to drive than a car and much safer than the small boxes and you should get both horses in.
 
What would you do if one person was taking their horse somewhere and the engine blew up - very expensive to repair.

This happened to someone who borrowed someone else's box in our yard to take their horse to the vet hospital. It caused lots of problems as they argued about whether it was the box that wasn't right or it had been driven badly or a warning light had not been taken notice of.
 
TobyZ's calculations were very good - my friend has just found this out! She bought a 3.5t with the intention of travelling two and has just found out that when the horses, tack and people are all on, it's a fair bit overweight.

I've read through this quite quickly so apologise if anyone has already said this, but have you thought about what happens when you want to go in different classes? You have to be there for 9 or 930 for your dressage time, but your friend who's first show class is at 12 has to go with you. What happens if one of you is showing and qualifies for a chanmpionship to be held at 4 in the afternoon, and the other didn't get placed and has finished their class by 11 in the morning?

There really is nothing more frustrating than having to either be somewhere 2 hours before you needed to be or hanging around for 4 hours after you could have gone home because you are sharing transport!
 
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