Equine Law Blog
Generally speaking, the law imposes a duty on professionals, such as farriers, to use reasonable skill, diligence and attention as may ordinarily be expected of a careful and skillful person in the same profession. If you believe a farrier has fallen short of this standard, you might have grounds to bring legal action against him or her for professional negligence or malpractice.
Banks do it. Credit card issuers do it. Horses can be expensive, and buyers often want to spread out their payments over time. Should you, the horse seller, do it?
The business of extending credit is risky. The horse seller and the bank have much in common when they agree to extend financing. Both take a risk that the buyer will make payments faithfully. But that is where the similarities end. Banks protect themselves by credit checks, financial disclosures, and detailed contracts. Not so in the horse industry. Horse sellers often part with a horse merely on a handshake and with only a tiny fraction of the purchase price paid up front -- just minutes after meeting a total stranger who wants to buy the horse.
This article discusses some pitfalls of installment sales transactions and offers some practical suggestions for avoiding them.
"Releases are not worth the paper they're written on." Is this really true? Generally speaking, no. What is true, however, is that releases of liability (also called "waivers") are probably the most misunderstood contracts in the entire horse industry.
People in the horse industry sometimes enter into arrangements through which the horse is shared by agreement between two people, while only one of them owns the horse. People in the horse industry call these arrangements “half lease” or “share board” arrangements. They may seem simple but, in the eyes of the law, they can be complicated and call for a carefully written contract. Here are a few details to consider:
