What Trainers and Instructors Need to Know
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. Click here for more information about incorporations and LLCs and to see if ELS can create one for you.
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. Click here for more information about incorporations and LLCs and to see if ELS can create one for you.