Re: [RC] boarding agreements - Diane TrefethenHi Laney,It sounds like you might have a real winner. All you need to do is educate your new landlord. You might start by telling him that Murphy's Law was written just for horses :) Tell him he must never leave anything of value in the pasture because horses like to play with new toys... and they can be incredibly destructive (a chain saw hasn't got a chance!). I assume the reason he is leaving stuff in the pasture is that he is either working on the fences or he's building a shed for the horses. Tell him you are willing to help out with the "improvements". That way you can monitor things while teaching him a bit about how horses think. If he isn't working on improvements to the pasture, then he doesn't belong in there, with or without tools. Actually, you might have a far bigger problem than your horses getting hurt by his equipment, namely YOU getting sued if anyone goes into the pasture and gets hurt. If your landlord has kids, it is extremely important that you include in the agreement some wording to the effect that horses are unpredictable creatures and that they can be dangerous. For instance: I, [Landlord's name], acknowledge that there are risks and dangers, both known and unknown, involved in being around horses, and I know that unanticipated and unexpected dangers and hazards may occur at any time. "Risks and dangers" means any condition pertaining to an equine, including, but not limited to, any of the following: (a) The propensity of an equine to behave in ways that may result in injury, death, or loss to persons on or around the equine; (b) The unpredictability of an equine’s reaction to sounds, sudden movement, unfamiliar objects, persons, or other animals; (c) Hazards, including, but not limited to, surface or subsurface conditions; (d) A collision with another equine, another animal, a person, or an object; (e) The potential of a person to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to injury, death, or loss to the person or to other persons. I freely assume responsibility for all risks, hazards, dangers and losses which may occur to me or to anyone over whose actions I may reasonably be construed to have control, should any injury, loss or death occur to such person if that person is IN the pasture and my tenant, Laney Humphrey, is not present. The above may be more than you want to use but there does need to be something to protect YOU from a lawsuit in the event that your new landlord, his kids or his friends go into the pasture when you are not around. So besides a warning about the dangerousness of horses, you need a specific provision that forbids anyone from going into the pasture when you are not present. Another provision that you should include is that no one will feed your horses ANYTHING without your specific permission. When you rent a pasture it's not a whole lot different from renting an apartment. The landlord and/or his family can't just let themselves into your apartment without giving you reasonable notice - neither can your landlord (or his kids) wander into the horse pasture that you are paying rent on. Good luck. PS: Does anyone else have a covenant that more succinctly expresses the unpredictability of horses? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|