Choosing An Equestrian Agreement.

We were approached by a land owning client who had spoken to a local horse owner who wanted to take some land from him for equestrian use. He had already agreed most of the terms with her including how much she was going to pay.

How We Approached And Achieved The Project

In the first instance we discussed the different types of common equestrian agreements:

• Grazing licence

• Farm Business Tenancy

• Common Law Tenancy

• Business Tenancy

We established that the horse owner wanted to take the land for a year and have exclusive possession, so a licence wasn’t appropriate. We understood the horse owner also wanted to use the land to put some jumps on for practising show jumping, so a Farm Business Tenancy wasn’t appropriate. The horse owner was only using it personally and for her own horses and didn’t plan on making any money or running a business. Therefore, a business tenancy wasn’t appropriate.

A common law tenancy was the correct agreement for our client. If land is let to an individual for non-business purposes it will usually be a tenancy under the common law. These tenancies expire at the end of the agreed term. We assisted the client by drafting and implementing an appropriate tenancy document. We included a clause to preclude any commercial activity to protect the landowner’s position. We also included all of their agreed terms such as fencing and insurance liabilities.