Vetting a loan horse?

[horseycomingforty]

I’ve found a lovely full-loan horse in my area but had mixed thoughts in whether I should vet. What’s the normal/best practise for loans, would you vet? 2 stage or 5 stage?

Would you be responsible for all vetinary costs?

Normally you would only do a pre-purchase vetting for a purchase. I've never known anyone get a vetting for a loan.
If the horse became unrideable or not suitable for what you want them that would fall on the owner.

I would be extremely wary of getting yourself into any loan agreement that would require you to pay out large sums for veterinary investigations or treatment for a horse that doesn't belong to you.

Normal practice for loans is not to vet - when we loaned we would have been responsible for any minor injuries/first aid but anything more than that would have been the owner’s responsibility.

You just need to make an agreement on who pays what in terms of the vet. For example- loaner pays jabs, worming and minor field or riding accidents and owner pays everything else. No vetting.

Why would you vet?

ultimately one of the benefits of loaning is that if the horse turned out to have a health condition which rendered it un rideable then you could return it to the owner.

Do check carefully what the loan agreement says about vet treatment though. The owner might require you to pay for insurance which covers vet treatment, or to cover routine maintenance care (like vaccinations), or towards injuries which occur in your care (eg. If the horse got a cut in the field)

You need to be happy that what is stated is reasonable and you’re happy to sign up to that before loaning the horse

Thanks all, will look at getting together a loan contract that outlines the advice her

I think BHS do a loan agreement template on their website? Would be a good place to start.