Hey guys,
So Phoebe is still doing well. She's actually been almost completely sound for most of our rides, though she got her feet done yesterday and was definitely back to being ouchy. Gayle says another trim, maybe two, and she should be in the clear with her feet. She probably still needs another chiropractic adjustment or two, but I think she's going to be completely fine.
Riding-wise I think we're doing pretty well. She's the first horse I've really felt an instant connection with since I sold my mare in college. I enjoy her and her personality. She's very much a "push" horse and lately I've been spending the first part of the ride trying to sharpen up her responses at the walk and trot. If I don't get her sharp at the walk and trot, I have a lot of trouble getting a good canter transition. At least all the walk/trot transitions should also be helping her build muscle! I haven't really had a "bad" ride where I feel like we're not on the same page. Some days I never get her as sharp as I want, but it's not hard to find a good note to end on. I've ridden her bareback a couple times and she's the same horse as under saddle, maybe even a bit more forward since we don't have a not-great fitting saddle to worry about.
Which brings me to the decision-to-be-made part of the post. Her owner is buying a house with some land and planning to move her other horse to her house. However, there aren't any riding facilities so she's going to leave Phoebe at the barn, at least for now. To offset the cost somewhat, she's offered to let me formally half-lease Phoebe, probably for the cost of half-board. That'd come out to about $100 more than I was paying when I was riding Pro since I was paying for 2 lessons a month on him. It's still a pretty awesome deal to ride a pretty well trained, talented mare, but I got spoiled by not paying to ride for most of the last 18 months. On the bright side, I wouldn't have to do any chores, so that cuts 30-45 min off each barn trip.
So, I've got to think about it for a bit. Luckily I don't think anything is going to happen in the next month so I've got some time. This would be my first official, paid leasing arrangement. I almost set up one with a horse before Pro, but the owner and I had a disagreement about training strategies during the first 30 days and I bailed on it. Do any of you have leasing experiences or opinions to weigh-in with?
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6 comments:
It's good to hear Phoebe is still doing well, and that you guys are connecting so well! Wow, it sounds like you had a great arrangement with Pro. It sounds like Phoebe would still be a pretty good deal, though.
I don't have a lot of personal leasing experience to add. The only horse I sort of leased was one during college, and rather than paying a flat monthly rate we worked it out that I paid $10 a ride. It worked for both of us, no contract. I have since had people (on NCHN) tell me that it wasn't really a lease, but that is what she and I called it.
With Phoebe having some lameness concerns I would want to have who is responsible for what covered, and also what would happen if she suffers a prolonged down period. (I hope not!)
I hope your decision making is going well. Any news?
I guess I have to sort of take that back...I did free lease a horse at one point. I.e., no fee but I paid all expenses. The mare was also for sale, and I would have gotten a percentage if she had sold. I really liked her, though, and ended up trying to sell my horse to buy her. The owner broke her end of the contract before I could accomplish that, though, and took her back.
I 1/2 leased a horse for about a year before I got Hobbes...another grad student 1/2 leased him as well, so we split our time with him.
I never had any issues. We had a contract stating we could get out of the lease at any time w/ 30 days notice - what we could/couldn't do with him (showing, jumping, etc). The owner was very picky (No brushing his tail, ha!), but that was fine with me.
It was totally worth it to have a horse but to not have to deal with major costs. We did split the shoeing bill and board, but that was all we paid. Medical and such was paid for by the owner.
Hobbes was also a lease. No problems at all.
I say go for it!
I'm seeing if I can work out an alternative where I'd pay less towards her board, but pay for farrier and chiro work.
Her feet needed major work when she first got to the barn about 6 months ago, and while her feet are ALMOST grown out, she's got another trim or two left to go. Unfortunately, she went about 8 weeks between trims this last time, so now she's been off for a week and a half. She's getting better (I was able to ride on Monday and she worked out of most of the ouchies) but I'd feel better if I had some control of her feet to see if that's going to happen every time she gets trimmed or was due to the long time between trims. I'm not used to using chiropractors, but she supposedly also has some hip issues and general body soreness from all the changes made to her feet. So I'd rather pay less and have some control of if she's sound or not.
That was one good thing about Pro, he was never, ever lame! Poor Phoebe looks like you're asking her to walk over hot coals when you take her down the rocky hill to the arena.
How long has she been barefoot?
I'm a big fan of barefooting it, but I think some horses are just built wrong and can't do it. There was one horse that had been barefoot for 4 yrs and being trimmed by a great trimmer and he still was growing no sole. Christie saw that, too!
Or maybe she would do well w/ a good pair of hoofboots.
She's been barefoot 6 months. The shoes she had on before were apparently like 2 sizes too small, so that's part of what caused her feet issues. Now we just don't know if she's one of those horses who NEEDS shoes, or if she'll be ok once she isn't getting her feet adjusted so much during trims. I think we're going to try hoof boots with Thinline pads inserted at some point to see how those do. And she's evidently going to see the chiro at the beginning of Oct, so that might help some too.
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