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Whether you are a mobile
trainer who visits clients’ barns a few times a week or you
operate a full-scale lesson barn with hundreds of horses on
site, you face substantial personal and business risks. What
happens if a client’s horse is seriously injured or if your
training efforts don’t meet your client’s expectations?
What happens when a rider falls off during a lesson? The tips
below offer some suggestions to help prepare for these
contingencies.
Put
Your Agreement In Writing
Unless you put your entire
training or lesson agreement in writing and have each of your
clients sign it, it will be very difficult to prove what your
agreement was if you have a dispute (and sooner or later, you
WILL have disputes!). Your training or lesson contract can
also help avoid misunderstandings and late payments by
clarifying, among other things, what services will be
performed during the training or lesson period and by whom,
what happens if the horse or rider is injured during the
training or lesson period, what the fees are, when payments
are considered late, what happens if clients don’t pay and
under what circumstances you will terminate a training or
lesson relationship. It should also include a liability
release and specify that although you are training the
horse, you can offer no guarantees regarding the horse’s
behavior. Even if you have just a few training or lesson
clients, having a contract in place is an excellent investment
for your peace of mind. ELS offers trainers and instructors
contract packages at fixed, affordable prices.
Get
Good Insurance Coverage
As most horse people know, it is impossible to run a training
or lesson facility that is entirely accident-free. Sooner or
later, despite your best efforts, something unfortunate WILL
happen, and for those occasions, you should have insurance for
your business. Read your policy and become familiar with its
terms and conditions, or contact
ELS to review your policy for you and explain its
limitations. Make sure that your policy is intended to cover
liability for injuries to people, livestock and property, for
both your business and your clients, and make sure that your
deductible is high enough to keep your rates relatively low,
but not so high that it would be a hardship for you to pay.
See our equine
insurance buying guide.
Get
Paid
As part of your training contract, you should ask for a
deposit and if you are teaching lessons, you should ask for
payment on the day of the lesson. If you will be keeping the
client’s horse on your property, the deposit amount should
be sufficient to cover your costs for feed, etc. If the client
refuses to pay a deposit, you may wish to reconsider whether
the business relationship will be profitable for you. After
all, if you were training horses for fun, you’d be training
your own horses, not someone else’s!
Train
Your Employees
As a general rule, business owners are liable for their
employees’ negligence, and therefore failure to train your
employees can result in big problems for you as a trainer or
instructor. For example, each one of your employees should be
instructed in proper horse care and should be able to tell if
a horse is ill or injured. They should also be required to
attend and pass basic first aid classes, with periodic
continuing education on these subjects. If your employees will
be performing some of the training tasks and/or teaching
lessons, you should ensure that they have received proper
instruction from you. ELS can help you develop a training
program for your employees.
Safety
First!
Your training and lesson program should include written safety
procedures for what to do when, e.g., someone is thrown from a
horse or a horse is found ill or injured. You should train
your employees and clients regarding those procedures and
check in periodically to make sure that the procedures are
being followed. When incidents occur, your procedures should
include creating a written record of what happened, including
what your employees and/or clients did to respond. Instead of
relying upon your clients and employees to use common sense
(we all know how “common” that is!), have a comprehensive
set of rules designed for the safety of your clients,
employees and horses and post those rules prominently. Each
client and employee should be required to sign a statement
that they have read and understood the rules and that they
agree to follow them. Your employees should also be trained
how to enforce those rules and you should not hesitate to
terminate employees or clients who routinely violate important
safety rules. ELS can help you develop a safety program
designed to protect your clients, the horses and your
employees.
Assets from Your Personal Assets
Far too many trainers and instructors make the mistake of not
separating their personal assets from their business assets.
It may be a minor hassle to create a separate entity for your
business, but when you are operating a relatively high-risk
business such as a training stable or lesson barn, your
potential liability is far too high NOT to take this step. For
example, if a client is thrown from a horse that you trained
and dies from a head injury, their family could sue you for
millions of dollars for wrongful death. ELS can help you
incorporate your business and take other important steps to
protect your personal assets from your business liability.
Additional Information:
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