Please tell me your loaning stories

[chescar]

Good and bad.

I'm thinking of loaning Troy out but have no experience of it and don't know anyone who has.

How easy is it to find a loaner?
How do I find a loaner?

What was it like for you?

[Anni~Bell]

Well I am a loaner as I have never been able to afford my own.
I loved loaning, ok yes the horse wasn't mine but was amazing to be paying for my own horse and loving her :)

I've had two completely different sides of loans. When I had Megan it was a loan where her owner payed for everything except shoes which I payed for. But then I did everything and I got a good deal because I also looked after her daughters pony for her which I didn't mind as he was easy as pie and was a lovely pony. I got to ride both of them during the week and then her daughter came down and rode her pony at the weekend and holidays. Deal I loved and if I could get a deal like that again I would.

Then I had Hannah which was a complete full loan. I payed for everything apart from vet bills and insurance. I had my own insurance thought to cover myself. Was a great loan and I regret having to give it up due to money being tight :( Gutted as I got a new job a couple of months later which would have ment I could kept her til the loan terminated :(

I will agree that trying to find a loan isn't as easy as it was as there are sooo many horror stories and not enough good ones out there. It gets on my **** as there are people like me (don't want to sound big headed) that will pull all the stops out to love a horse and do whatever I can to make sure that said horse will be happy.

The best way to find a loaner is word of mouth. This is how I found Megan and Hannah and its definietly the best way to find the right person. You could offer a trail of a couple of months before just so you can keep an eye on things and decide if you are happy with the said person. I would love to loan again and if I can find a well paid job for next year it really is something I'm considering but will depend money wise.

[chescar]

Thanks for that. Troy will make a lovely loan horse for someone who wants to hack and do a bit of schooling.

[Gix]

only ever loaned once before about 20 ish years ago, turned out horse did not belong to person i loaned off (a minor detail they never thought to inform me of at the time), real owner found out and hit the roof, took horse back, cue a very upset and angry me!

I now of course have Gandalf and Alfie on loan, but was not meant to! Alfie was meant to be a 'half loan' with Gandalfs loaner, who, after 3 months ish decided it was too much work even tho I looked after their day to day needs and she rarely made an appearance, and promptly dumped them on me lol. Their owner would happily have them returned but with her circs the way they are, it would cause inconvenience, so I have kept them for the time being.

[Ambers Mum]

I used to have a business with my sister where we bought and sold ponies but we kept the odd one or five for ourselves and one of them was a beautiful roan SJ that we bought for £500 as a 3 year old for our little sister. After four years it became obvious he was too much talent for my sister and our helper at Paradise was too tall for him after two years of county and local SJ. We put him up for sale at £2000 (ready to accept less if the right home came) but my sister couldn't part with him so put him on loan instead.

The family were novices but they were on the yard that bred our boy so we thought they would be ok....how wrong we were. He went out valued by a dealer at £1600 and four months later we sold him to another dealet for £350. He had become wild and dangerous, he was so ad we had to break into their yard with police back up to get him back (not a normal proceedure but my uncle was involved and he was police connected in a big way) we then tried to rehab him and we asked a well known horse whisperer to help but no one could help him and because we were selling our yard and had no where to go with an extra horse we sought out a dealer who deals with problem ponies and sells them as PC ponies and he had him. After that we decided never to loan out again.

UNTIL we decided to loan out our gelding Tally, after spending £2000 on him going to liverpool for a descended testicle/rig gelding (he went to various vets before transfer to liverpool). He was nervous and my sister was heavily pregnant so my friend decided she would do him and if she wasn't successful he would have a choice of coming home. It was a long term loan as far as we were concerned but as she was a long time friend I wrote the loan agreement with an option for sale or return but we had to have first refusal. We havent seen or heard of our boy since and my friend and I fell out mainly because of this as well as other reasons.

I would never loan out again unless it was someone I felt comfortable with. Kosha nearly went to an EW/FTHM member but it wasn't because I didn't trust her it was beacuse Hannah cried so much I felt awful lol but I am more choosey these days x

[Sasca]

I have 3 out on loan at the moment and all Seem to be doing fantastically.

Trigger i am never seeing again and know that, his 'owner' just would never part with him and i dont want to take him back, im over the moon with his home. I get regular photos and talk all the time.

Merry i loaned out as i dont ever want to sell him but dont want to waste him either. Unfortunatly this loaner isn't doing what i want him to be doing, but he's fat n happy so not complaining yet.

Duncan was a real favourite of our, even though he's only 30 inches high if that! a 4 year old stallion, we didn't tell the lookers untill the actual viewing, and when they foundf out their faces dropped. I was worried id ruined it for him, but i took their 2yr daughter into the field of horses, called him over, put the headcallar on and handed the rope over. The tiny little girl then walked him back to the yard through the village all by herself and ive not seen him since either lol. Get pics and updates occassionally and he's out for a year.

Ive not had a problem with long term loaning where full responsibility was handed over to the loaner. Ive had real problems with part loans and shares. Cant find a sharer at all for riff, and the part loan of honey i came back to a welsh cob hat rack! not impressed.

Put EVERYTHING into a loan aggreement. I can send you one of mine if you'd like to look through it.

[kistra]

i part shared one horse before my own, it lasted about three weeks and it was horrific. It was due to the owners not telling me the entire story, promising everything then when i nearly commited they totally changed. The horse was dangerous in the stable, had arthiritis, was laminitic, totally over weight, although she was not described as this. Fussy pony, with her owners just standing there watching all the time, although they had "no time".
I am not saying by any way that all situations are the same and by reading some of the other comments some really nice experiences, i would just put out by word of mouth you are looking to loan and hopefully you will find the person you are looking for :) nothing better than a happy pony with two people who are agreed on the terms. hope i have helped in some way :)

[scewae]

My mare is on loan to a very good friend who i have known for years. In fact she has part loaned her to a very experianced lady while my friend is pregnant. Before that she went out to a girl who wanted to turn her into a show jumper. My horse is no show jumper lol, which i told them before they took her on loan. Sadly she needed lots of physio when she came off loan from the girl.

I prefer to loan out to 20 years plus age group. This is only due to my own personal experiance of loaning to a teenager.

[waffles]

I've loaned horses before and the majority of the time it was great, i had one owner take a pony back un announced which broke my heart but other than that they have all been great!
We've been looking for another but no luck so far