POINT OF VIEW A Potential Win-Win-Win
n a lease, owners, riders and horses can all benefit. For the horse, an equine athlete can stay in work with another rider. A proven show horse can continue to thrive while competing and still remain with the same owner. The owner (known as the lessor) can see a horse increase in
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value when schooled and shown by qualified horsepeople. The lessor can charge substantial fees when leasing a champion. Also, an owner who’s unable to ride can lease a horse for a short period until she’s back in the saddle. The rider (the lessee) has the use of an experienced horse, without paying the full purchase price. She can pursue learning goals and compete in shows to the highest level. Sport horses that are leased are often quality animals that
may never be for sale, but are available under appropriate conditions. In a satisfying agreement, a lease is a winning situation for all parties involved. Spy Coast Farm trainer Ali Sweetnam (based in Long Island), says, “When I lease a horse, I want to return it to the owner better than when it came to me.”
HOW LEASES WORK The lessee arranges a contract with the lessor for a specified term. Often leases are initiated and set up through trainers who know one another. The horse may remain at his own barn (an on-farm lease), or the lessee may stable the horse with another trainer in an off-farm lease. Daniel Geitner of Aiken, South Carolina, explains, “Usually the horse will stay in my barn. Sometimes I lease a horse out to others, such as to a friend of mine fairly close in the area.” Daniel is a trainer of hunters and jumpers with 55 horses at his barn. Anne Sparks of Horses Unlimited, Albuquerque, New Mexico, has leased her dressage champion, Pik L (Pik Bube II x Abajo xx), to three different junior riders, all through her trainers. She says, “I’ve had a number of people approach me, but they wanted to send him to trainers I don’t know. I didn’t want to do that.” Dressage trainer Jody Cressman, Moorpark, California,
remarks, “If there’s an ability to lease a horse for dressage, the leasing is within the barn. Rarely in dressage do the horses go from barn to barn.” Natalie Rooney Pitts at Four Star Farm in Bodega, California, has nine horses she leases regularly to clients. “All of our horses have competed in upper levels of eventing or dressage. For me, it’s being able to keep the horses and have the good horses for
90 January/February 2012
Above & Opposite: Four Star Farms’ Pluto, a Pinto/Dutch Warm- blood, is leased frequently. The rider is Natalie Rooney Pitts.
lesson horses.” Four Star Farm is also a U.S. Pony Club Riding Center. One of her stars is Pluto, a Dutch Warmblood cross sired by Oberon and out of Redwings Vicki, an Irish mare. This pinto gelding, a winner at the Intermediate eventing level, is a barn favorite. “He’s kind and easy about everything,” says Natalie of the striking gelding. “He has his own Facebook page and his own fan club. People lease him, and he teaches them so much. I never have to get on him to tune him up.” At Four Star Farm, riders typically lease for six months. “After six months, the rider is ready to move up a level, or buy a horse.” Lisa Lourie of Spy Coast Farm (Kentucky, Florida, and Long Island) describes the length of a lease as varied: six months, a year, or, she notes, “For equitation, it could be maybe only for the finals. Or only for the winter show season.” Spy Coast Farm breeds and shows hunters and jumpers. Spy Coast trainer Ali Sweetnam adds, “Sometimes we lease
for the winter circuit. People may come from afar, and they’re only here in Florida for a week. It could be for a weekend, a month, a year, or even just for one show.” Jody sees leasing as an effective introduction to sport horses. “If you lease a horse, it can introduce you to the idea of
All photos are by Charlene Strickland
Leasing Sport Horses By Charlene Strickland
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