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Whether you are running a large-scale training
facility or just teaching a few lessons to help defray
your horse expenses, there a few business practices
that will help minimize both the hassles and the
risks.
Liability
Releases
You
should have a good
quality liability release and everyone should sign
it, including training and lessons clients and
visitors to your property.
Not only do liability releases discourage
people from suing you, they also help protect you in
the event that you are actually sued.
Contrary to popular opinion, a good quality
liability release is usually enforceable if properly
signed, even in states such as California.
ELS’ Professional
Equine Training Agreement Package and Riding
Instruction Agreement Package each include
liability releases.
Insurance
In
addition to your property
insurance, you will need commercial
liability insurance and care,
custody and control insurance.
The per-claim limit of your care, custody and
control insurance should be sufficient to cover the
most expensive client horse in your barn, and the
aggregate limit should be at least equivalent to the
total value of all client horses on your property.
ELS recommends that your commercial liability
insurance have a per-claim limit of no less than $1M,
and an aggregate limit of no less than $3M.
See our general
advice about shopping for equine insurance.
Training
and Lesson Contracts
A
good quality contract helps set appropriate
expectations with your clients, and it also serves to
limit your liability and provide you with recourse
when a client doesn’t pay or otherwise breaches your
agreement. ELS’
Professional
Equine Training Agreement Package and Riding
Instruction Agreement Package each include client
intake forms and comprehensive contracts.
Screening
Potential Clients
You
wouldn’t rent out an apartment to someone without
having them fill out an application and checking their
references and credit. Why should you run your
training business any differently?
Every trainer has a problem client now and
then, but ELS’ clients have found that taking these
steps helps greatly reduce the number of deadbeats and
other types of clients you don’t want to have.
ELS’ Professional
Equine Training Agreement Package includes a
complete application for potential training clients
and instructions for checking potential clients’
credit and references.
Terminating
Undesirable Clients
Maybe
you have a client who is not paying, or a client who
just can’t seem to get along with your other
clients. How
can you legally end your relationship with them and
get their horses off of your property?
Trainer/client relationships, unlike
landlord/tenant relationships, are governed solely by
the agreement between the parties and not by law.
This means that in your training contract, you
can set your own policy for termination. ELS
recommends that you have two termination clauses in
your training agreement – one that allows you and
the client to terminate for any reason with 30 days’
advance notice, and one that allows you to terminate
“for cause” with seven days’ advance notice.
ELS’ Professional
Equine Training Agreement Package includes a
comprehensive training agreement containing these
clauses.
Non-paying
Clients
Careful
screening will help you avoid non-paying clients, but
once in a while, you will have a client who does not
pay you. Most
states have laws that give trainers a lien on the
client’s horses at the trainer’s facility for past
due training and board.
However, those laws typically require you to
follow a specific process before you can sell the
horse to satisfy the debt, and the process is usually
time-consuming and expensive.
For example, state livestock lien laws often
require you to get a court order, which means that you
would have to sue the client and obtain a judgment
against them before you could sell the horse.
This problem is often compounded by the fact
that you cannot find the client and/or the horse does
not have much market value.
Meanwhile, you are continuing to feed and clean
up after this horse.
What can you do to protect yourself from this
type of situation?
The answer is fairly simple – your training
contract can provide you with more rights than you
would otherwise have under your state’s livestock
lien laws. For
example, ELS’ training agreement form specifies that
if you terminate the training agreement and the
client’s horses and/or property are still on your
property 90 days after termination, you will
automatically own the horses and property and can sell
them or give them away as you see fit.
Incorporating
Your Business
When
you are operating a training stable or lesson program,
even a small one, you can’t afford not to
incorporate. Creating
a corporation or limited liability company for your
business is typically less than $2,000, and it can
help protect your personal assets from the business’
liabilities. ELS
offers incorporation in Delaware and California for a
fixed price – just contact
us for details.
Additional Information:
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