DIY boarding agreement

About this DIY livery agreement

This is a comprehensive livery agreement for yard owners who provide a loose box and basic facilities to enable an owner-client to look after his or her horse.

The agreement provides legal protection for the yard owner while also giving you a broad framework covering every aspect of your prospective requirements for your contract with your owners. By using this agreement, we are sure you will spend far less time wrestling with client issues, great and small.

This DIY livery agreement is suitable for any yard. It is drawn very flexibly so as to give you the opportunity to edit it easily to suit the exact way you do business. Although it is drawn to protect your interest as strongly as possible, the draftsman has also considered what your clients will think when you send it to them. Your owners will not worry that they have to see a solicitor before they sign. However, as you read it, you may decide to soften some of the strictest suggestions we have made.

This Net Lawman DIY livery agreement is written as a business tool that you can use for every client. It confirms your terms and their instructions. It compels a client to tell you basic facts about the horse and to disclose any vice. In a word, it enables you to plan and manage more efficiently.

Disclaimers also include cover for situation when you are asked to ride a client’s horse on your land or anywhere else.

You can also use the livery agreement to explain how the yard works and set down your practical rules and expectations. Yard procedures are given at the end of the document, and you can edit these to your exact requirement.

The law in this livery agreement

A license is not required to operate a livery yard. The law in this agreement is common law, so you can make the deal that fits both parties best. Either you can edit the agreement to be your terms and conditions (and use the same version for all customers) or you could edit this contract for each horse or pony you take. Of course we take it for granted that you are aware of equine welfare issues, but they do not impact directly on your contract with your owners.

When to use this livery agreement

A good, readable livery agreement provides a marker to your efficiency just as much as a tidy yard and contented horses. We advise that you should edit the document to exactly what you want, then print copies out ready to give to potential clients.

• Drawn specifically for livery yards where the owners are responsible for day to day care of the horse or pony
• Can be presented to the horse owner as terms and conditions on a “take it or leave it” basis or can form the basis of individual arrangements

This agreement is suitable for a DIY livery. For full livery see: Livery agreement.

Contract features and contents

• Contact information
• Terms and conditions of yard use
• Use of facilities
• Use of services
• Care of the horse or pony
• Limit of the yard owner’s responsibility
• Veterinary call-out
• Payment
• Horse owner’s indemnity
• Termination of the contract
• Safety considerations
• Yard procedures notice