Loaning versus owning

[MyBeloved]

Hi all

So, I've been offered my share on full loan. It is an honour to be trusted by her owner to this extent and I feel very fortunate, particularly as full loans are currently very hard to come by.

However, I've been planning on buying one of my own...and now I'm in a quandary

What are the pros and cons please? It is a huge decision for me!

If you can get a loan in this market I’d jump on it myself.
The buying market is frankly insane at the moment, safe allrounders that hack out well are easily fetching £8k.

Cons generally are essentially especially with young horses you do a lot of work and don’t see the returns.
Generally most of the horror stories I hear are from owners who have their horses sold from under them or returned to them lame/obese etc.

What I meant is loan for a couple of year wait for the market to figure out what it’s doing now importing is a nightmare due to brexit

We did exactly this with my daughter’s first horse - she’d been sharing him two days a week for a few months and we were thinking of buying a horse when we were offered her share horse on full loan.

The advantages are that you know exactly what you’re getting but you need to be sure the horse can do what you want her to do. Is she the kind of horse you’d be looking to buy or are you considering it because it’s convenient? If you want to event and the horse is really only happy hacking or vice versa, you’re both going to get frustrated.

The disadvantages can be that you’re not in full control and the owner can end the loan before you’re ready. Make sure you have a contract in place which covers things like who’s responsible for insurance/vet fees/tack etc (there’s a good draft version on the BHS website).

I’d also want to know why the owner’s thinking of loaning her rather than selling her as in the current market horse prices are very high. Is there something about her which means she wouldn’t be easy to sell and if so, can you cope with whatever that might be?

Loaning can be brilliant at times, especially if you’re not sure what you’ll be doing in a couple of years time. We ended up with a ‘failed’ loan as we ended up buying him (and now we have two horses ...)

Main disadvantage is that everything has to be done the owners way and they can take the pony back. If the animal suits you though, it would be a good first step towards being fully responsible for a horse. You would always have the owner on the end of the phone if you had any newbie queries.
The way the market is at the moment I would go for it. Even if you start looking now it could be a while before you find the right one for you.
The main advantage of a loan is you can also cancel it quickly. So if the animal has long term health issues or your daughter wants to move on to bigger better things you simply return the pony.
Obviously you need to both be upfront what is expected on each side and have good insurance.

The pros and cons are really the flipside of each other, i.e. that a pro would be no capital investment in the horse and no long term commitment so if your circumstances change or the horse is no longer fit for purpose (goes lame or you want a different type), you can return them with minimal hassle, but the con would be the owner can take them back with little/no notice and you may lack control over where/how they're kept.

It sounds like a potentially great opportunity for you as both horse and owner should be a known quantity, but as others have said I'd want to understand why s/he's looking to full loan now and is it very much a time limited thing or is it intended as semi-permanent? Some owners can use 'permanent' loaning to find a home for horses they don't want to keep but also can't sell as too old/young/broken/'quirky', which is fine so long as they don't view it as a free re-schooling service and will abruptly sell on the horse as soon as it becomes marketable again, pulling rug out from under loaners feet. Others may not ever intend to have the horse back themselves for whatever reason, but want to retain control/responsibility for the horse longer term, whilst I sympathize with this attitude and might even do the same should I ever not be able to keep mine, I think as the loaner in that scenario I'd be a bit uncomfortable, the horse would effectively be yours but you wouldn't have full control over yard choice, management/care or health/veterinary care (what would happen if you and owner disagreed over something like an expensive operation or heaven forbid, a PTS decision?) and you might always feel as though owner was looking over your shoulder a bit. In that scenario I would probably ask owner if they'd consider selling to me instead, perhaps at an agreed price after a 'trial period' (sort of LWVTB) to prove horse is happy and settled, and giving original owner first refusal should you ever come to sell horse on again?

Thank you for your responses, everyone.

Owner has a few other horses and never wants to sell my share pony, which is fair enough. I'm her first sharer, and owner has stated she will never have another should I leave. Pony is exactly what I'd look for in a pony of my own, although perhaps a little older than I'd have been looking to buy. Absolurely no re-schooling necessary or anything like that.

I'd have to keep the pony at the current yard, but I intend to keep any future pony I own at the yard anyway...

Decisions, decisions!

I’d bite her hand off tbh after your update.

It sounds like an ideal first step into full responsibility although I suppose it also depends on how involved the owner will still be and whether that suits you . I’ve never loaned or put one out on loan as I’m an absolute control freak so I would be a nightmare in either position ( I don’t sell either ) .

I'd go for it. We've always loaned and our current loan pony came to us at 21 and Is now 27 and semi retired. He will stay with us until the end now.
The only thing that I'd be wary of,is your daughter putting a lot of work in and getting the pony going nicely,then it being sold from under her. That has happened to DD2 twice in a row,with out of work ponies that the owners loved too much to ever sell.Until they did sell them. Good luck.

Thanks again for the responses.

It is me who is loaning/sharing/buying. Sadly, DD has no interest in horses - crazy as that sounds 🙈

I am absolutely 100% certain share pony will never be sold. She is so loved and special to her owner that it would never happen.

Lots to think about. I know pony isn't going anywhere, whatever decision I make, which feels such a privileged position to be in.

In this case since you thinking of buying if they did suddenly decide to buy you could decide if it was worth buying yourself. Can’t see the downside tbh.

I really can't see a downside, unless there is something managementwise the owner will insist on that you're not keen on.

You don't have to commit to the loan forever, and if in six months you find you still really want to buy, then it's fine to tell the owner that.

But honestly, you know the pony and know its history and that is a huge advantage. You could spend £££ on a horse and find out it was not as described, or is unhappy at your yard, or it goes lame and you are left with a walking vet bill.

I would try the loan, and if you find in 3 or 6 months, you are still thinking "what if", then look to buy. And I'd be honest with the owner that this is how you are feeling.