A few months ago I leased a 25 year old thoroughbred from my trainer at one of the nicest hunter/jumper barns in my area (probably the nicest). Details of the lease are as follows:
- 4 month lease (Jan - April), no upfront lease fee
- $1000 board
- $900 lessons (3x week @ $75/lesson)
- $40 month in supplements
- $125 unlimited use of Bemer blanket (I did not agree to this when we negotiated the lease...the first I heard about this charge was when it showed up on my first month's invoice)
- $250 for unlimited treadmill/theraplate (ditto re: not being informed about this charge until I saw the invoice)
- Horse has no apparent performance limitations aside from the fact that he doesn't do flying lead changes
I agreed to pay vet/farrier as well. I've leased other horses in the past and this was standard so I didn't question it initially.
For reference, I am located in NE Georgia, USA (a little bit outside the metro Atlanta area).
Almost from the beginning I started getting asked to pay for a lot of things that weren't disclosed when I was originally negotiating the lease. Details are as follows:
- $800 hock injections (needed every 6 months)
- $500 Adequan injections (needed every 6 months)
- $225 Dental checkup (annual, I'm assuming)
- $20 in dewormer (needed every 6 months)
- $25 for a fly mask
I started getting suspicious pretty early on given the volume/amount of all of the above medical bills, but there were a couple of things that really got me thinking I was getting taken for a ride that happened a couple months in:
- My trainer charged me $275 to have my horse clipped. I looked at getting a prior horse I leased clipped last year and the cost for a professional to do it was close to half of that. I know for a fact that my trainer had one of the working boarders at the barn do the clipping. It wasn't professionally done.
- The big thing was the saddle I bought. My trainer suggested I purchase one (I am a male and the saddles available at the barn for my horse are smaller). I was hesitant because I planned on leasing horses for the foreseeable future vs. buying, but my trainer told me that I could get a custom saddle made that would be suitable for use on future lease horses..."you'll be able to use this saddle for the rest of your riding career" were the exact words my trainer used. Since this happened before all of medical expenditures listed above came to my attention, I wasn't yet suspicious and made the purchase based on my trainer's recommendation. I paid ~$9k for a custom saddle...I am a "buy once, cry once" kind of person and since I was told that I'd be able to use it going forward I went with the most expensive options available.
I've since learned (see my post I made a couple days ago in r/equestrian) that I was probably misled about the potential for the saddle to be used on multiple horses. My trainer is a rep for the saddle company (CWD), so they almost certainly received some sort of compensation for the sale. I understand that it's nobody's fault but my own that I didn't do my due diligence beforehand, but I trusted my trainer to tell me the truth when I was informed that I could use this saddle on other horses. I never would have bought it had I been told otherwise.
I'm getting ripped off, right? I suspect I know the answer but I want to make extra sure before I end my relationship with this trainer because despite all the BS with the lack of transparency on expected expenditures, I have progressed a lot as a rider in their program. I did not pay the Bemer/treadmill charges listed above in my board check this month that I paid today (because I never agreed to them) so anticipate this will kick off the conversation and I want to be prepared.
